A scientometric analysis of the top 100 cited publications on pterygium research has found that the United States led the way the field.1
A scientometric study is a statistical analysis that assesses published studies and information according to visualised network analysis including bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence data of keywords.
According to the study authors, this form of analysis offers a more objective and accessible approach to validating and assessing extant literature than meta-analysis and systematic review methodologies.
The analysis named Australia’s Professor Minas Coroneo as holding a leading position based on global collaboration and authorship
A total of 2,633 studies on pterygium from 1945 to 2024 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. The top 100 cited publications ranged from 536 to 69 citations, with the publication period spanning between 1960 and 2020. For co-occurrence analysis, the top three keywords with the highest frequency were “recurrent pterygium”, “surgery” and “excision”. The future frontiers and hotspots of pterygium research were “fibrin glue”, “mitomycin-c” and “amniotic membrane transplantation”.
While the United States led the way in pterygium research (supporting 27% of impactful studies in the field), findings suggested Australian and Singaporean institutions were also “prolific and excel in pterygium research”, supporting 22% and 10% of impactful studies respectively.
The analysis named Australia’s Professor Minas Coroneo as holding a leading position based on global collaboration and authorship. It found that of the 335 authors, only 42 possessed a minimum of two items, with Prof Cornoea being the author with the greatest total link strength – a bibliometric metric of collaboration intensity.
The authors identified Singapore National Eye Centre as the institution with the greatest total link strength but wrote that collaboration among institutions on the research topic was lacking and “scientific research with a high level of evidence and enhanced global collaboration” is “still required”.
Regardless, they wrote that the study “may present valuable insights into pterygium research and provide help for researchers who want to obtain vital information on influential publications”.
Reference
- Gu Z, Lv L, Zhou L, et al. From past to future: a comprehensive scientometric perspective of influential studies on pterygium. Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2025 Aug 20;87(10):6580-6590. doi: 10.1097/MS9.0000000000003745.
