112 Years of Medical English: A Scientometric Analysis

Hekmati, Nargess; Behdani, Ali

doi:10.22077/ali.2023.7268.1029

112 Years of Medical English: A Scientometric Analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Nargess Hekmati ¹

Ali Behdani ²

¹ Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics, Department of General Courses, School of Medicine, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran

² M.A. in Applied Linguistics, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

10.22077/ali.2023.7268.1029

Abstract

This study addresses the science mapping and visualization of the 112 years of academic literature on medical English. The data for the present study was retrieved from the Web of Science database, which contains all English-only articles from 1912 to 2024. The scientometric techniques and analysis were done using VOSviewer. These methods of analysis include publication and citation patterns, co-authorship and co-occurrence networks, and bibliometric coupling of items. The findings indicated that the total number of articles published in Medical English from 1912 to 2024 was 10396. The publications surged from 1988 to 1992 and had a steady rise until its peak in 2023. Citations, however, differ from publication trends and have fluctuated during this time frame. Furthermore, authors, institutions, and the country's collaborative networks were examined to have a snapshot of the relationships across disciplines. The findings revealed a strong correlation between co-authorship and bibliometric coupling of countries, which shows that the USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada collaborate the most within the literature. Universities of San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington are considered among the leading research institutions in terms of output, while universities such as San Francisco, Harvard University, and Toronto rank among the top in terms of citations. Moving to author-level metrics, the output and citation patterns indicate that De Lusignan and Schillinger are the most prolific authors. At the same time, Shimada, Yoshida, and Grumbach have the most citations. Moreover, keyword co-occurrences showed that keywords such as "care," "impact," "healthcare," "health," and "quality" tended to appear most frequently in the literature.

Keywords

Medical English

Scientometric analysis

English for specific purposes (ESP)

Bibliometric review

Science mapping

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