TITLE:
Research Progress on Acupuncture Therapy in Infertility: A Bibliometric Analysis from 2000 to 2021
AUTHORS:
Nuan Wen, Bin Qiu, Ping Wang, Ran Li
KEYWORDS:
Acupuncture, Infertility, Bibliometric Analysis, CiteSpace, VOSviewer
JOURNAL NAME:
Chinese Medicine,
Vol.14 No.3,
September
6,
2023
ABSTRACT: Objective: To investigate the research progress and new trend of acupuncture in the
treatment of infertility from 2000 to 2021. Methods: The literature
review was conducted on acupuncture and moxibustion treatment of infertility
from 2000 to 2021 from the Web of Science core collection and PubMed. CiteSpace and VOSviewer were
used to analyze the annual number of articles, countries, institutions, authors,
journals, references and keywords. Statistical Analysis Toolkit for Informetrics 3.2 (SATI) and IBM SPSS Modeler 18.0
were employed to draw the maps of core acupoints and acupuncture approaches. Results: A total
of 316 articles were included. From 2000 to 2021 the number of publications has been ever increased with certain
fluctuations. The United States was the most productive country. Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine was
the most active institution. Stener-Victorin E was the highest cited author. Fertility
and Sterility was the most prolific journal. Paulus We, 2002 was the highest
co-citation literature. SP6 (Sanyinjiao) was the most commonly used acupoint. Manual acupuncture was the most commonly used method. Conclusions: The study of
acupuncture in the treatment of infertility is characterized by multinational,
multi-institutional participation and close regional cooperation. Acupuncture
is a potentially effective therapy for infertility. Due to a lack of research quality and difficulties in
performing double-blind, high-quality clinical evidence is urgently required. A
complete acupuncture therapy system for infertility should be gradually
constructed.