The top 100 most-cited studies on monkeypox: a brief bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: A plethora of monkeypox papers have been published; however, pinpointing key and pivotal studies can be challenging amongst the ever-expanding literature. Bibliometric analyses are helpful in identifying the most influential articles and their impact pertinent to this field, which has helped mould the recognition and management of monkeypox. METHODS: The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was searched on 27 October 2022. The top 100 most-cited articles on monkeypox were identified and evaluated by author, country, institution, type of articles, theme, journal of publication, keywords, and citations. RESULTS: The top 100 most-cited studies were published between 1997 and 2022, and the 5-year period with the largest number of articles was 2007–2011. The median number of citations among the top 100 most-cited articles was 78.23. Of the top 100 most-cited studies, 91 were original articles, and nine were reviews, the median of annual citations was significantly higher in the review group than the original group, 7.86 (4.20–13.80) versus 4.50 (3.07–7.59; P=0.023). The 100 articles were classified into different research theme, with the top three being Immunology (31%), Infectious Diseases (30%), and Virology (26%), respectively. The keywords with the highest co-occurrence frequency were “monkeypox”, “smallpox,” and “smallpox virus.” The largest number of articles in the top 100 were published in Emerging Infectious Diseases (n=13), followed by Journal of Virology (n=11), Journal of Infectious Diseases (n=5), and PLoS One (n=5). The authors identified 711 different authors from 195 institutions and 28 countries in the top 100 most-cited articles, with the majority based in the USA. CONCLUSION: The top 100 most-cited studies provide an important insight into the historical developments of monkeypox. The authors should strengthen the recognition and management of monkeypox worldwide and strengthen research cooperation among scholars in order to better respond to the ongoing or future outbreak.