Analysis of thesis on burn sepsis
We searched for articles matching the search formula through WOS website. From 1981 to March 27, 2022, 2,669 English-language articles were searched, including 2,175 (81.5%) research articles and 311 (11.7%) review articles. As depicted in Figure 1, the number of publications grew fastest in the last decade compared to 40 years, accounting for nearly half (46.4%) of the total literature searched. The number of citations in the last decade is also the fastest growing. A total of 74,665 citations were received for 2,468 eligible articles, excluding self-citations, for an average of 33.21 citations per article and an overall h-index of 120.
Analysis of authors
Table 1 lists the top 10 fruitful authors. They published 535 papers, accounting for 21.52% of all papers. Herndon DN from the US is ranked first in the field of burn sepsis research, followed by Jeschke MG from Canada and Gamelli RL from the US. As shown in Table 1, Herndon DN had a significantly higher Nc and h-index. In addition, most of the top 10 authors are from the US (7) or China (2). We can also find from the density visualization map in Figure 2 that Herndon DN and Jeschke MG contributed the most in this field.
Table 1. Top 10 active authors.
Authors
|
Countries
|
Np
|
Nc
|
h-index
|
Herndon DN
|
USA
|
137
|
6752
|
47
|
Jeschke MG
|
Canada
|
87
|
3521
|
34
|
Gamelli RL
|
USA
|
61
|
1994
|
32
|
Horton JW
|
USA
|
45
|
1997
|
24
|
Wolf SE
|
USA
|
37
|
2083
|
23
|
Sheng ZY
|
China
|
35
|
702
|
16
|
Traber DL
|
USA
|
35
|
1164
|
18
|
Finnerty CC
|
USA
|
34
|
2200
|
24
|
Tompkins RG
|
USA
|
33
|
1968
|
23
|
Yao YM
|
China
|
31
|
746
|
16
|
Analysis of the top 10 most influential countries/institutions/journals
We ranked the ten high-output countries/institutions/journals among all authors according to Np (Table 2). The US published the most articles (1,193/H:98), followed by China (243/H:31) and Germany (168/H:41). US papers were cited 42,154 times, accounting for 56.45% of the total. This was followed by Germany (5364) and Canada (4857). In addition, the US had the highest h-index (98), which was more than twice as high as Germany (41). The relatively low Np but significantly higher h-index and Nc in the UK and Canada compared to China may be explained by the fact that Chinese researchers did not start publishing on burn sepsis until 2005.
Nonetheless, the proportion of Chinese publications and citations in this field has increased rapidly (Figure 3). Meanwhile, we know from the overlay visualization map (Figure 4) that the US (Total link strength: 224) is the most closely linked to other countries in burn sepsis research, reflecting the country’s leadership role in this field. Furthermore, China (Np: 240, APY: 2013. 77) is the most recent major producer of literature in this field, which may represent him as a country with greater potential for the future.
Table 2 lists the top 10 organizations with the highest number of publications related to burn sepsis. The University of Texas System had the highest Np (286), followed by The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston (188), and Shriners Hospitals for Children (138). The University of Texas System was ranked first in Nc (10787) and h-index (60), followed by The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston (Nc:7368, H:48); the University of Texas is far ahead of the other organizations in all areas. Most of these institutions are located in the US.
As shown in Table 2, “Burns” (Np: 376, h-index: 46) published the most papers on burn sepsis, as well as “Journal of Burn Care and Research” (Np: 139, h-index: 23) and “Shock ”(Np: 126, h-index: 35), ranked second and third, respectively. About 41% of the theses were published in the top 10 academic journals (1014/40.8%). “Critical Care Medicine”, which ranked fifth, and “Annals of Surgery”, ranked seventh among the top 10 journals with had higher citation rates and h-indexes.
Table 2. Top ten countries/institutions/journals.
Subject
|
Np
|
Nc
|
h-index
|
Countries
|
|
USA
|
1193
|
42154
|
98
|
|
China
|
243
|
3228
|
31
|
|
Germany
|
168
|
5364
|
41
|
|
Canada
|
123
|
4857
|
36
|
|
England
|
112
|
4822
|
35
|
|
Japan
|
106
|
2803
|
27
|
|
Australia
|
79
|
2530
|
31
|
|
Turkey
|
64
|
892
|
20
|
|
Italy
|
62
|
2458
|
27
|
|
France
|
61
|
4712
|
29
|
Organizations
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM (USA)
|
286
|
10787
|
60
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH GALVESTON (USA)
|
188
|
7368
|
48
|
|
SHRINERS HOSP CHILDREN (USA)
|
138
|
5197
|
41
|
|
HARVARD UNIVERSITY (USA)
|
125
|
6226
|
44
|
|
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO (USA)
|
110
|
2899
|
31
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI(USA)
|
88
|
3294
|
33
|
Journals
|
|
BURNS
|
376
|
8019
|
46
|
|
JOURNAL OF BURN CARE RESEARCH
|
139
|
1929
|
23
|
|
SHOCK
|
126
|
4048
|
35
|
|
JOURNAL OF TRAUMA INJURY INFECTION AND CRITICAL CARE
|
83
|
3098
|
32
|
|
CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE
|
75
|
4757
|
38
|
|
JOURNAL OF SURGICAL RESEARCH
|
49
|
988
|
20
|
|
ANNALS OF SURGERY
|
48
|
4345
|
34
|
|
PLOS ONE
|
43
|
1203
|
20
|
|
ARCHIVES OF SURGERY
|
39
|
1710
|
26
|
|
JOURNAL OF BURN CARE REHABILITATION
|
36
|
1255
|
20
|
Bibliometric analysis of co-citation
The co-citation graph of the cited references is shown in Figure 5A (the references cited 50 times and more were chosen). We can see that American Burn Association consensus conference to define sepsis and infection in burns (Greenhalgh dg, 2007) is the most cited literature (192 times). The next most cited paper is Burn wound infections (Church d, 2006), with 137 citations.
We know from the density visualization map (Figure 5B) that American Burn Association consensus conference to define sepsis and infection in burns (Greenhalgh dg, 2007) is the most frequently cited literature, probably because it is the diagnostic standard for burn sepsis (ABA criteria).17
Bibliometric analysis of keywords
Excluding the search terms, synonyms, and duplicate terms (sepsis, burn, burns, septic shock, thermal injury, thermal-injury, severe sepsis, burn injury, and trauma), the keywords extracted from the titles and abstracts of 2486 papers were analyzed using VOSviewer, and the 133 keywords that appeared more than 25 times were divided into three clusters (sepsis, burn, burns, septic shock, thermal injury, thermal-injury, severe sepsis, burn injury, and trauma) (Figure 6).
Cluster 1 refers to “studies related to inflammation.” The most frequent keywords were: inflammation (178 times), expression (162 times), tumor-necrosis-factor (138 times), cytokines (107 times), and mice (104 times).
Cluster 2 refers to “clinical research.” The most frequent keywords were: mortality (349 times), infection (255 times), children (105 times), management (113 times), and critically ill patient (100 times).
Cluster 3 refers to “injury-related studies.” The keywords that appeared more frequently were: injury (273 times), bacterial translocation (116 times), shock (90 times), hemorrhagic shock (64 times), and multiple organ failure (64 times).
As illustrated in Figure 7, VOSviewer colors all keywords based on the average time of word occurrence. The blue color indicates that the words appear relatively early in the time course, while the yellow color indicates recent occurrences. The trend indicates that “clinical research” is the most recent research direction. Among these, “biomarkers” (cluster 2, APY was 2018.16) may be the most recent direction for research in burn sepsis. The most recent keywords in the first cluster (“inflammation-related research”) are “inflammation” (cluster 1, APY was 2012.67), “pseudomonas aeruginosa” (cluster 1, APY was 2012.89), and “dendritic cell” (cluster 1, APY was 2012.42), appearing 178, 37, and 26 times, respectively. As for the third cluster (“injury related research “): “oxidative stress” (cluster 3, APY was 2013.48) appeared 50 times. In the second cluster (“clinical research”), “acute kidney injury” (cluster 2, APY was 2016.71) appeared 49 times, and it was the most recent keyword besides “biomarkers.”
Furthermore, as shown in the visual map of keyword density in Figure 8, the three most famous words were mortality (349 times), injury (273 times), and infection (255 times).