Gut microbiota and ulcerative colitis: a bibliometric analysis of knowledge structure, research hotspots, and future directions

Background Ulcerative colitis (UC), a globally prevalent immune-mediated colonic disorder, is fundamentally linked to intestinal dysbiosis. Despite the exponential growth in related papers, systematic, data-driven bibliometric analyses including global productivity trends, international collaboration networks, citation impact distributions, and the temporal evolution of research topics remain lacking. Methods We conducted a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 5,879 articles and reviews sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) and Dimensions (2004–2025). Publication outputs, international collaboration networks, institutional productivity, and keyword evolution were visualized using R-bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace. Lotka's law and Bradford's law were applied to assess author and journal productivity distributions, respectively. Burst detection algorithms identified emerging research frontiers. Results Annual publications demonstrated exponential growth, escalating from 36 in 2004 to a projected 819 in 2024. Geographically, China dominated absolute output ( n = 2,559), followed by the USA ( n = 1,181), with these two nations collectively accounting for 63.6% of global publications, justifying their prominence as the two major hubs in this research field. Harvard Medical School exhibited the highest citation efficiency (296.6 citations per publication), contrasting with volume leaders like Zhejiang University (92 publications). Co-occurrence clustering revealed 18 distinct knowledge domains, converging on five accelerating frontiers: “fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT),” “short-chain fatty acids,” “traditional Chinese medicine,” “intestinal barrier mechanisms,” and “nanoparticle-based microbiota modulation.” Burst analysis confirmed these themes-initiated citation surges post-2017, with “nanoparticles” and “intestinal barrier” exhibiting the strongest recent momentum (2023–2025), indicating a paradigm shift from descriptive microbiome profiling to mechanistic, precision-targeted interventions. Conclusion The UC-microbiome research agenda has transitioned from correlative association studies to multi-layered therapeutic modulation. Future efforts should prioritize standardizing FMT protocols through randomized controlled trials, establishing multi-ethnic longitudinal cohorts to address population-specific microbiome signatures, elucidating dose–response relationships of microbial metabolites, and converging nanodelivery systems with microbiome engineering to optimize therapeutic precision and sustain remission.