Dry Eye Analysis: A Citation Network Study

Abstract

Introduction. Dry eye is one of the most frequent eye problems with prevalence and incidence from 5% to 50%. Citation network analysis allows us to simplify information in a visual way and provides a better understanding of the research done in a specific field. The objective of this paper is to quantify and analyse the relationships among the scientific literature in this field using citation network analysis. Materials and Methods. The program used to analyse the citations was CitNetExplorer®. Previously, papers published in the research field during a predefined period were found using the keywords defined in Web of ScienceTM (WOS). Results. Using the keyword “dry eye,” during the period 2007 to 2018, the most cited paper is by Lemp, MA (2007), with a citation index score of 913 in our citation network containing 6,500 most relevant papers. Analysing clustering, we found 5 relevant groups that match the main areas of research in this field: definition and classification, treatment, retina, refractive surgery, and quality of vision. Core Publication is composed of 64% of the papers in the network, which is a high percentage. It indicates a clear focus on the research carried out in this field. Conclusions. This citation network analysis shows definition and classification of dry eye to be the most researched area in this field, followed by treatment.