Mapping two decades of value-based health care education research: a bibliometric analysis with a targeted Chinese-language search

Supporting materials for the manuscript "Mapping two decades of value-based health care education research: a bibliometric analysis with a targeted Chinese-language search". This record contains the three additional files accompanying the manuscript: (1) the complete search log, including full search strings for each database, per-database retrieval counts and search dates, the screening log, the reconstruction of AI pre-screen agreement, the PubMed coverage benchmark, and the full list of included corpus documents; (2) the co-citation unit list with cluster assignments, weighted degrees and co-citation frequencies, together with all robustness outputs; and (3) the analysis scripts. Together, these materials are sufficient to reproduce every analysis reported in the article. Abstract Background: Value-based health care (VBHC) has become a global organizing principle for health system reform, and medical educators are increasingly expected to prepare trainees for value-conscious practice. However, the size, geographic distribution, and intellectual structure of VBHC education research have not been systematically mapped, and the state of Chinese-language scholarship—relevant to the world's largest payment reform experiment—remains unmeasured. Methods: We searched Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and CNKI (2006–2026), complemented by a dedicated Chinese-language search of Wanfang, CNKI (expanded concept blocks), and VIP. After deduplication and multi-round relevance screening (rule-based triage, manual adjudication, and abstract-level verification), 188 documents formed the mapping corpus. We profiled annual output, countries, journals (Bradford zones), and citation impact (h-index, Lotka/Price), mapped the co-citation network with modularity-based clustering (with resolution, algorithm, and bootstrap robustness checks), and detected keyword bursts after term normalization, supplemented by a strict-VBHC-subset sensitivity analysis. PubMed (n=509) served as a coverage benchmark. Results: Annual output was negligible before 2014, peaked at 28 documents in 2020, and fluctuated between 10 and 19 thereafter. The United States accounted for 129 of 188 documents (73.7% of the 175 records with assignable country; 68.6% of all records); international co-authorship was rare (8 documents, 4.6%). Six core journals (Bradford Zone 1) carried 34.6% of output; the corpus-level h-index was 25. Co-citation analysis of the 80 most co-cited references yielded three clusters—a VBHC/health-systems transformation cluster, a cost-conscious care education cluster, and a high-value care education cluster—whose three-cluster solution showed only moderate robustness (modularity Q=0.17; resolution-dependent k=1–9; bootstrap cluster-count mode k=3). A strict-VBHC subset (n=70, 37.2%) confirmed that adjacent high-value care and health systems science lineages constitute the majority of the corpus. Keyword bursts robust across all detection settings centered on teaching high-value care (2017–2018), program evaluation, and unnecessary procedures (2016–2017); the search-string core terms themselves formed no robust bursts, a partly mechanical consequence of their near-uniform coverage. The extended Chinese-language search (150 records retrieved, 138 unique) yielded only 5 substantive documents: one in 2012, none from 2013–2023, and four since 2024—a possible early signal consistent with the nationwide DRG/DIP rollout. Conclusions: VBHC education research has grown but remains geographically monocentric, methodologically diverse, and built on adjacent conceptual lineages rather than a converged VBHC identity. Chinese-language scholarship is structurally thin but shows early signs of emergence under payment reform. The map suggests exploratory curriculum dimensions rather than a validated competency framework.