Dry Eye Analysis: A Citation Network Study

INTRODUCTION: Dry eye is one of the most frequent eye problems with prevalence and incidence from 5% to 50%. Citation network analysis allows us to simplify information in a visual way and provides a better understanding of the research done in a specific field. The objective of this paper is to quantify and analyse the relationships among the scientific literature in this field using citation network analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The program used to analyse the citations was CitNetExplorer®. Previously, papers published in the research field during a predefined period were found using the keywords defined in Web of ScienceTM (WOS). RESULTS: Using the keyword “dry eye,” during the period 2007 to 2018, the most cited paper is by Lemp, MA (2007), with a citation index score of 913 in our citation network containing 6,500 most relevant papers. Analysing clustering, we found 5 relevant groups that match the main areas of research in this field: definition and classification, treatment, retina, refractive surgery, and quality of vision. Core Publication is composed of 64% of the papers in the network, which is a high percentage. It indicates a clear focus on the research carried out in this field. CONCLUSIONS: This citation network analysis shows definition and classification of dry eye to be the most researched area in this field, followed by treatment.