Tracing scientific outputs in the osteoarthritis research field in China based on publications in the Web of Science

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and identify osteoarthritis (OA) study trends in China based on bibliometrics. METHODS: In the core database of Web of Science™, we used a common search method and “osteoarthritis” as the keyword to search for articles, and we analyzed the relevant literature published from 2014 to 2018. The included items were indexed according to the countries of publication, document types, organizations, publication years and conference titles. The characteristics of the OA studies conducted in China and the United States (U.S.) were compared according to the following aspects: h-index, average number of citations per item, total number of times cited and number of cited articles. We used Excel 2007 for data analysis. RESULTS: A total of 3603 publications on OA in China, with the number of publications increasing annually, were retrieved from the database. While Chinese institutes were ranked second in the world in terms of the number of OA studies published, the average number of citations per article and h-indexes of the Chinese studies were far below those of the articles from the U.S., as they were 7.51 versus 9.15, respectively, and 45 versus 82, respectively. OA research in China mostly originates from universities. OA researchers in China prefer to publish their studies in specialized journals and conferences. CONCLUSION: Although large advances in OA research have been developed in China over the past 5 years, a large amount of effort is still required to improve the research quality, influence and novelty in the field of OA.