Update on Rhinoplasty Research Trends: A Bibliometric Analysis

Overview

The study used bibliometric analysis to evaluate rhinoplasty research and identify its trends and focus areas. Publications were extracted from the Web of Science core collection database and analysed with VOSviewer software for co-authorship, co-occurrence, citations by country, institution and author, keyword hotspots, and the journals involved.

Sections of note

• Bibliometric analysis; 11,130 records collected on April 8, 2022, covering 1945 to 2021; level of evidence V.
• Most retrieved studies were original research articles, 8,309 or 74.65 percent; 1,950 or 17.52 percent were open access.
• Annual publication output increased year on year.
• Research groups in the United States were the main contributors.
• The University of California System contributed most, with 464 publications or 4.17 percent.
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery published the most in the field, 1,248 papers or 11.21 percent, and was the most frequently co-cited journal with 33,894 citations.
• R. J. Rohrich was the most prolific author with 140 publications and the most co-cited with 2,562 citations.
• Identified focus areas were cleft rhinoplasty, nasal reconstruction, the nasal tip, revision rhinoplasty, septorhinoplasty, nasal prosthesis, hyaluronic acid and preservation rhinoplasty.

What it means for a patient

• Rhinoplasty research output has grown steadily and is concentrated in the United States.
• Preservation rhinoplasty and filler rhinoplasty appear as recent and growing areas of study.
• The analysis counts publications and citations; it says nothing about the quality of any study or technique.
• Only one database was searched, so work published elsewhere is not represented.

Why this paper matters

Where research effort is concentrated shapes which questions get answered and which techniques accumulate evidence. This analysis maps that landscape across 76 years. It does not assess whether the most studied topics are the most clinically important.

Terms

• Bibliometric analysis: statistical study of publications, authors and citations in a field.
• Co-citation: two papers being cited together by a third, indicating a link between them.
• Open access: a publication freely readable without subscription.
• Research hotspot: a topic attracting concentrated current research attention.
• Web of Science: a large database indexing academic publications.