A bibliometric analysis of 4,490 e-cigarette publications between 2003 and 2018 showed significant growth in publication frequency, with the U.S. producing 51.6% of the total volume.
The frequency of e-cigarette publications has increased significantly over the past decade, closely tracking NIH funding for tobacco research.
Electronic cigarettes are at the center of a public health policy debate which leverages scientific publications. This study characterizes e-cigarette publication trends over the past 15 years via a bibliometric analysis. Scopus was searched for "electronic cigarette", "e-cig", "e-cigarette", "vape", "vaping", "juul", or "electronic nicotine delivery system" between 2003⁻2018. Data included Hirsch index, document type and frequency, and publications by institution, journal, and country. VOSviewer was used to visualize authorship network maps. A total of 4490 e-cigarette publications were identified, most (62.8%) being articles. After 2009, the annual growth rate for e-cigarette publications was the largest in 2014. The annual growth rate was nearly flat in 2017 but increased in 2018. The U.S. produced 51.6% of publications. Annual National Institutes of Health NIH funding for tobacco research mapped closely with the annual volume of e-cigarette publications. Author network analyses illustrated investigator collaborative patterns. The frequency of e-cigarette publications increased significantly in the past decade. A strong relationship of NIH funding for tobacco research and e-cigarette publications demonstrates the importance of e-cigarettes in tobacco research.
Briganti et al. (Thu,) conducted a other in Electronic cigarette publications (n=4,490). Electronic cigarette research was evaluated on Publication trends, document type, frequency, and authorship networks. A bibliometric analysis of 4,490 e-cigarette publications between 2003 and 2018 showed significant growth in publication frequency, with the U.S. producing 51.6% of the total volume.