Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Aug 28, 2021; 9(4): 389-404
Published online Aug 28, 2021. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v9.i4.389
Trends in iron deficiency anemia research 2001-2020: A bibliometric analysis
John L Frater
John L Frater, Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States
Author contributions: The manuscript was conceived, designed, and written by Frater JL.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflict-of-interest related to this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The author has read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: John L Frater, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University, 660 South Euclid Avenue, Box 8118 St Louis, 3rd Floor, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States. jfrater@wustl.edu
Received: January 31, 2021
Peer-review started: January 31, 2021
First decision: May 6, 2021
Revised: May 17, 2021
Accepted: July 12, 2021
Article in press: July 12, 2021
Published online: August 28, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Iron deficiency is a common micronutrient deficiency with a worldwide impact. This bibliometric analysis was performed to analyze the literature on iron deficiency published between 2001-2020. Three international collaborative networks based in North America/India, Europe, and Asia were identified. There are 5 areas of greatest focus: Epidemiologic aspects of iron deficiency anemia, biochemical aspects of iron deficiency anemia, clinical evaluation of iron deficiency anemia, causes of iron deficiency anemia, and bioavailability of dietary iron. Evaluation of the papers published during this period identified epidemiology as the most cited area, and bioavailability of iron as the least cited.