China's growing contribution to sepsis research from 1984 to 2014: A bibliometric study

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze the global trends of sepsis research and investigate China's contribution by comparing the quantity and quality of sepsis-related publications. Methods: Sepsis-related publications were main retrieved from the Web of Science online database by using the keywords "sepsis" or "septic shock." Bibliometric indicators, including the number of publications, total citation frequency, citation frequency per paper, h-index, research type, orientation, organization, author, journal, and funding support were analyzed. Results: From 1984 to 2014, a total of 70,564 papers regarding sepsis research were published worldwide. 3.60% of which were contributed by authors from Chinese institutions. Although this contribution was less than the Unites States, Germany, England, France or Japan, a notable trend of increase in a number of scientific publications (r2=0.57, P