Bibliometric analysis of the Vogt‒Koyanagi‒Harada disease literature

Abstract Background: As an autoimmune disease, Vogt‒Koyanagi‒Harada disease (VKHD) is one of the main types of uveitis in many countries and regions significantly impacting patent’s vision. At present, information regarding VKHD is still limited, and further research is needed. We conducted a bibliometric analysis to characterize the overall status, current trends, and current focus of VKHD research. Methods: Literature published from 1975 to 2022 was obtained from the Web of Science core collection and analyzed by the R-language packages Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace software. Results: A total of 1050 papers on VKHD were retrieved from 261 journals and 16,084 references were obtained from the papers in the original search. The average annual number of published articles is approximately 21.9, and the number of publications rapidly increased after 2004. Ocular Immunology and Inflammation is the journal that published the most papers on VKHD, while the American Journal of Ophthalmology has the highest cited frequency. The leading countries were Japan, China (PRC), and the United States of America (USA). Yang PZ. from Chongqing Medical University is the most prolific and cited author. The most frequently cited literature is the literature on the revision of VKHD diagnostic criteria. An analysis of high-frequency keywords showed that the research focused on the treatment, diagnosis, and pathogenesis of VKHD and its relationship with other related diseases. At present, the urgent research direction is the relationship and specific mechanism between COVID-19 or COVID-19 vaccines and VKHD. Conclusion: Bibliometrics can clearly show the research history, development trends, and research hotspots of VKHD through dynamic and visualization tools. It is an efficient way to study the literature and is helpful for future researchers.