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Bibliometrics and visualization analysis of literature on male hypogonadism from 2000 to 2023: research focus and frontiers

Abstract

Male hypogonadism can seriously affect male health and fertility, yet comprehensive bibliometric and visualization analyses of research in this area have been lacking. This study aimed to examine the distribution of literature, identify research hotspots, and discern development trends in male hypogonadism by analyzing 4026 English documents published between 2000 and 2023 using bibliometric and visual analyses. The results indicated a significant increase in publications and citations related to male hypogonadism over the past two decades, with the United States, the University of Florence, Maggi M, and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism recognized as the most productive and highly cited country, institution, author, and journal, respectively. The article titled “The GPR54 gene as a regulator of puberty” received the highest number of citations. The keywords were categorized into four distinct clusters, including the etiology and pathogenesis of male hypogonadism, symptoms of late-onset hypogonadism, testosterone replacement therapy and its contraindications, the correlation between male hypogonadism and metabolic syndrome (MetS), obesity, and the epidemiology of male hypogonadism. The most frequently co-occurring keywords were “hypogonadism”, “testosterone”, and “men”, while “oxidative stress” was the most prominent burst keyword. The analysis also identified “male infertility” and “oxidative stress” as the primary burst keywords in the last five years, indicating their emerging high-interest topics. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive overview of male hypogonadism research, offering valuable insights for researchers interested in this area, including potential collaborators, current research hotspots, and future research directions.

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Fig. 1: Flow diagram of the literature search and selection process.
Fig. 2: The annual trends of global publications and citations.
Fig. 3: The bibliometric analysis of the co-authorship of countries and country distribution of publications in the field of male hypogonadism.
Fig. 4: VOSviewer visualization map of co-authorship of organizations devoted to male hypogonadism research.
Fig. 5: VOSviewer visualization map of co-authorship of authors and co-cited authors devoted to male hypogonadism research.
Fig. 6: VOSviewer density visualization map of co-cited journals related to male hypogonadism research.
Fig. 7: VOSviewer density visualization map of co-cited references related to male hypogonadism research.
Fig. 8: The bibliometric analysis of all keywords in the field of male hypogonadism.

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Data availability

The data analyzed in this study can be obtained from the Web of Science database using the search keywords and procedures described in the “Methods” section. The raw search results and bibliometric data are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award Number: 82274325, Recipient: Xujun Yu) and Special Project of Sichuan Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Scientific Research of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Award Number: 2021MS474, Recipient: Guangsen Li).

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JZ, YS, GL, and XY drafted the manuscript; FZ, AY, JL, SP, BZ, and QH were involved in revisions and final approval of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xujun Yu.

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Zhang, J., Shen, Y., Li, G. et al. Bibliometrics and visualization analysis of literature on male hypogonadism from 2000 to 2023: research focus and frontiers. Int J Impot Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-023-00803-4

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