A bibliometric analysis of global research on spinal cord injury: 1999–2019

Bibliometric review. The spatial structure of the global spinal cord injury (SCI) research field has not been summarized or analyzed. The objective of this study was to understand the current status and global trends of SCI research, and provide scholars knowledge to integrate into their plans for future research. Not applicable. The Web of Science database was searched for articles related to SCI published between 1999 and 2019. Metrics based on publication data, including publication counts, H indices, countries, institutions, authors, and journals were extracted. Co-citation analysis, collaboration analysis, and co-occurrence analysis of keywords were conducted using CiteSpace. The search identified a total of 41,012 articles related to SCI. Overall, the number of publications increased annually. The United States was the top ranked country by publication count, H index, and citation count. Harvard University and the University of Toronto made the most contributions. M.G. Fehlings was the top ranked author. Spinal Cord published the largest number of articles, and was the most frequently cited journal. The top 5 ranked keywords that appeared most frequently were spinal cord injury, functional recovery, adult rat rehabilitation, and paraplegia. Twelve major clusters of keywords and 15 clusters of co-cited references were generated. This study comprehensively analyzed and summarized the trends in SCI research during the past 20 years. Findings should provide scholars information on the countries, institutions, authors, and journals that are active in the field of SCI research, and a knowledge base for future projects.