Caesarean Section--A Density-Equalizing Mapping Study to Depict Its Global Research Architecture.
Dörthe Brüggmann, Lena-Katharina Löhlein, Frank Louwen, David Quarcoo, Jenny Jaque, Doris Klingelhöfer, David A Groneberg
Author Information
Dörthe Brüggmann: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 2020 Zonal Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. doerthe.brueggmann@med.usc.edu.
Lena-Katharina Löhlein: Department of Female Health and Preventive Medicine, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Frankfurt 60590, Germany. arbmed-klinik@uni-frankfurt.de.
Frank Louwen: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Frankfurt 60590, Germany. frank.louwen@kgu.de.
David Quarcoo: Department of Female Health and Preventive Medicine, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Frankfurt 60590, Germany. quarcoo@med.uni-frankfurt.de.
Jenny Jaque: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 2020 Zonal Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. jenny.jaque@med.usc.edu.
Doris Klingelhöfer: Department of Female Health and Preventive Medicine, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Frankfurt 60590, Germany. klingelhoefer@med.uni-frankfurt.de.
David A Groneberg: Department of Female Health and Preventive Medicine, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Frankfurt 60590, Germany. occup-med@uni-frankfurt.de.
Caesarean section (CS) is a common surgical procedure. Although it has been performed in a modern context for about 100 years, there is no concise analysis of the international architecture of Caesarean section research output available so far. Therefore, the present study characterizes the global pattern of the related publications by using the NewQIS (New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science) platform, which combines scientometric methods with density equalizing mapping algorithms. The Web of Science was used as a database. 12,608 publications were identified that originated from 131 countries. The leading nations concerning research activity, overall citations and country-specific h-Index were the USA and the United Kingdom. Relation of the research activity to epidemiologic data indicated that Scandinavian countries including Sweden and Finland were leading the field, whereas, in relation to economic data, countries such as Israel and Ireland led. Semi-qualitative indices such as country-specific citation rates ranked Sweden, Norway and Finland in the top positions. International Caesarean section research output continues to grow annually in an era where Caesarean section rates increased dramatically over the past decades. With regard to increasing employment of scientometric indicators in performance assessment, these findings should provide useful information for those tasked with the improvement of scientific achievements.
