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Introduction:
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is an increasingly prevalent health problem. This disease has been the focus of the work of many researchers in the last 50 years, these investigations has led to a transformation in the understanding and treatment of this disease. However little is known about the characteristics and trends of the scientific publications in this field. The aim of this study is to present a bibliometric analysis of the scientific publications on gastroesophageal reflux disease.
Methods:
A query was submitted to the Web of Science database to find all the publications in the topic of gastroesophageal reflux in the time period between January 1954 to December 2011. A total of 18136 references were retrieved, these records were then analyzed using bibliometric parameters.
Results:
Number of publications has increased from only two papers per year in 1954 to nearly three papers per day in 2011, with more than 700 publications per year in 21st century. Majority of these publications are in English (94%). United States, England and Italy are the most productive countries with 40%, 7% and 6% of the literature respectively. Eighty percent of the literature in the field is the result of the work of authors from 10 countries [North America (2), Europe (6), Japan and Australia], this pattern did not change when the publications from 2000-2011 were analyzed separately.
Mayo clinic is the institution with the highest number of publications (268), followed by the University of Southern California (243) and Northwestern University (211). Tom DeMeester, Joel Richter and Donald Castell are the most prolific authors in this field with 194, 178 and 169 publications respectively. Gastroenterology and American Journal of Gastroenterology are the two journals with the highest number of publications about the GERD.
Conclusion:
Parallel to the rise in the prevalence of the gastroesophageal reflux disease, there is an increase in the research performed about reflux evidenced by the constant increase in the number of scholarly work published in this field (Figure). Two thirds of the literature about the GERD has been published in the 21st century. Only a small fraction of GERD publications (6.3%) is supported by a funding agency. Majority of the literature (80%) is the result of the work of the authors from only 10 countries.