Data Mining of Systematic Reviews 1934-2023: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Introduction Systematic reviews consolidate evidence and drive clinical practice guidelines, cost-effective analyses, and policy decisions; therefore, their annual publication rate has increased significantly. We used bibliometric analysis to identify research trends, the most searched topics, authors and organizations productivity and collaboration, the research network, and research gaps by examining keywords frequency and systematic reviews distribution. Methods We searched the PubMed database for systematic reviews using the systematic review filter described by Salvador-Oliván and coauthors, which has higher recall than the PubMed SR filter. The search period was from 1934 until February 3, 2023. Microsoft Excel and the VOSviewer application were used for analyzing yearly trends, institutions, authors, and keywords, as well as to create tables and network figures. Results A total of 378,685 articles were published. The number of articles published has been rising steadily during the past five years. The University of Toronto and McMaster University in Canada (n = 1415 and n = 1386) were the leading contributory universities. “Genetic predisposition to disease”, “postoperative complications”, “neoplasm”, “stroke”, and “covid-19” were the top 5 occurring keywords that are particular to a specialty in systematic reviews. Conclusion This bibliometric research examined systematic reviews, publication trends, the majority of publishing disciplines, authors and organizations productivity, and collaborative efforts. The results of this study could prove to be an invaluable resource for researchers, policymakers, and healthcare professionals.