Trend in H(2)S Biology and Medicine Research—A Bibliometric Analysis

The biological and medical importance of hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) has been recognized for decades. The aim of this bibliometric study is to analyze the quantity and quality of publications in H(2)S biology and medicine (H(2)SBM) based on the databases of Web of Science and Google Scholar. A total of 5881 publications published between 1990 and 2016 were analyzed. The number of H(2)SBM papers published before 2004 was below 100 annually, but thereafter this number rapidly increased and peaked in 2015 with more than 7-fold increase. All publications related to H(2)SBM research achieved a total h-index of 136 and were cited 123,074 times. The most published disciplines in H(2)S biomedicine research were the cardiovascular system (8.5%), neuroscience (6.5%), and gastroenterology hepatology (4.7%). The country with the greatest number of publications in the H(2)SBM research field was the USA with 1765 (30.0%) publications, followed by China with 995 (16.9%) publications and Japan with 555 (9.4%) publications. The top 3 most published institutes were National University of Singapore, Peking University in China, and University of Groningen in Netherlands. Nitric Oxide Biology and Chemistry was the most exploited journal for H(2)SBM publications with 461 articles, followed by FASEB Journal with 200 publications and Antioxidants Redox Signaling with 116 publications. The most highly cited publications and researchers in H(2)SBM research were also unmasked from this bibliometric analysis. Collectively, H(2)SBM publications exhibit a continuous trend of increase, reflecting the increased H(2)SBM research intensity and diversity globally.