Historical evolution, research hotspots and emerging trends of pediatric hand, foot, and mouth disease: a bibliometric worldview since the 21st century

Figures

• 

  FIGURE 1. Flowchart of the literature screening process for pediatric hand, foot, and mouth disease included in this study.

• 

  FIGURE 2. (A) The annual publication quantity and citation frequency of pediatric HFMD research from 2000 to 2025. (B) The annual publication quantity, cumulative publication quantity, and polynomial fitting curves for pediatric HFMD research from 2000 to 2025.

• 

  FIGURE 3. (A) The contributions of different countries to research on pediatric HFMD are presented visually, with each country represented by a colored dot. The connecting lines between the dots indicate academic exchanges, and the thickness of the lines is directly related to the frequency of academic interactions between the countries. (B) Geographic distribution of major literature-producing countries in the field of pediatric HFMD research. This study highlights the academic collaboration between these countries and provides a clear view of global academic relationships. The brown lines in the figure indicate academic collaborations, and the thickness of the lines indicates the frequency of exchanges between the countries involved. (C) The proportion of single-country publications to multiple-country publications among the top twenty countries in terms of publication output indirectly reflects the academic collaboration tendencies of these countries.

• 

  FIGURE 4. (A) Institutional cluster analysis. Node colors indicate different clusters, node diameters indicate the number of articles published by the institutions, and line thicknesses indicate the degree of institutional collaboration. (B) Graph showing the recent contributions of institutions in the field of pediatric HFMD research compared with their overall output. The color scale reflects the level of institutional activity over the past decade, with red indicating increased impact and blue indicating decreased activity in the area, highlighting institutions that have had a significant impact or decreased involvement in the research area.

• 

  FIGURE 5. (A) This figure shows coauthors in the field of pediatric HFMD research, with node colors representing different clusters of authors. The node size indicates the frequency of cooccurrences, and the links indicate the relationships between cooccurring authors. (B) The graph indicates the strength of academic relationships, with a bluish node color indicating authors with fewer links and a reddish color indicating a higher density of links. (C) This graph shows the authors who are co-cited in studies related to pediatric HFMD, with node size indicating citation frequency. The visualization was produced via VosViewer and succinctly captures and analyzes the interconnections between cited authors in this research area.

• 

  FIGURE 6. (A) Visualization and analysis of journal collaboration networks in VOSviewer. Journals in different clusters are distinguished by nodes of different colors, with node size representing their frequency of occurrence. (B) The time dimension is taken into account by adding to (A), where red color indicates an increase in the impact of the field and blue color indicates a decrease in the activity of the field. Journals that have recently had a significant impact or have experienced a decrease in research participation are highlighted. (C) The figure depicts the co-citation relationships between research journals, with node size indicating the frequency of co-occurrences and connections indicating co-citation relationships. The node size reflects the importance and influence of the journal in the network. (D) Dual map visualizing journals related to pediatric HFMD research, with clusters of citing journals on the left and cited journals on the right. The colored tracks between them represent citation relationships.

• 

  FIGURE 7. (A) Keyword map showing the links between keywords that have been studied in the field of pediatric HFMD research. The color-coded nodes represent different clusters of keywords. The node size indicates the frequency of co-occurrence, and the connections between nodes indicate the relationships between keywords. (B) This figure illustrates the relationship between each keyword’s recent contribution to research in the field and its overall output. Red indicates an increase in influence, and blue indicates a decrease in interest in the field. The color scale reflects the proportion of keywords over the past few years, highlighting terms that have had a significant impact or decreased engagement in this research.

• 

  FIGURE 8. (A) The figure shows the correlation of keyword popularity, clustering keywords with similar peak periods of popularity together. (B) Heatmap showing the prevalence of keywords in the study of pediatric HFMD, divided into groups on the basis of the prevalence of the keywords in similar time periods and differentiated by color.

• 

  FIGURE 9. The diagram illustrates the 25 primary keywords characterized by pronounced bursts of citations, denoted by red spikes on the timeline. These bursts signify sudden surges in citation counts, signaling pivotal moments of emerging crucial questions or solutions within the field.

• 

  FIGURE 10. (A) The connectivity among the primary 25 citation bursts is demonstrated, depicting the citation interconnections among these articles with arrows. (B) Utilizing CiteSpace, a literature relation network diagram is generated. Various node colors represent different years, ranging from purple to red for later years. The size of each node corresponds to the frequency of the reference. (C) References are grouped on the basis of their likeness, where smaller numbers denote larger clusters, with #0 denoting the most substantial cluster. The node size reflects the frequency of co-citations, whereas the connections between nodes depict co-citation associations.