Discovering thematic change and evolution of utilizing social media for healthcare research

BACKGROUND: Social media plays a more and more important role in the research of health and healthcare due to the fast development of internet communication and information exchange. This paper conducts a bibliometric analysis to discover the thematic change and evolution of utilizing social media for healthcare research field. METHODS: With the basis of 4361 publications from both Web of Science and PubMed during the year 2008–2017, the analysis utilizes methods including topic modelling and science mapping analysis. RESULTS: Utilizing social media for healthcare research has attracted increasing attention from scientific communities. Journal of Medical Internet Research is the most prolific journal with the USA dominating in the research. Overly, major research themes such as YouTube analysis and Sex event are revealed. Themes in each time period and how they evolve across time span are also detected. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic mapping of the research themes and research areas helps identify research interests and how they evolve across time, as well as providing insight into future research direction. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12911-019-0757-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.