Lifting the Veil on Neuroinflammation in Parkinson’s Disease: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder characterized by gradual progression. A significant pathophysiology of its development and evolution is neuroinflammation. A previous review assessed the neuroinflammation research in PD, but limitations in its search period and analytical methods restricted its ability to reflect the full landscape of the field and recent research trends. To solve this problem, we performed a bibliometric and visual review in order to describe the current state of research and outline the recent progress in PD-related neuroinflammation. The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and Scopus were searched to retrieve a total of 5,926 publications published between January 1, 2015 and September 23, 2025. CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and the bibliometrix R package were used to perform a comprehensive bibliometric and visualization analysis. The results showed that China produced the largest number of publications in this field, accounting for 30.75% of the total. At the institutional level, the University of California System and Shanghai Jiao Tong University were among the leading contributors. The International Journal of Molecular Sciences was the most productive journal in this field. Among individual authors, Wang, Q.S. Zhang, F. and Cuzzocrea, S. were the most prolific contributors, whereas McGeer, P.L. was the most frequently co-cited author. Keyword analysis further identified three major research themes: fundamental pathological mechanisms, clinical diagnosis, and intervention strategies. Overall, this study provides a systematic overview of the current research landscape, principal themes, and emerging directions in neuroinflammation research on PD by means of bibliometric analysis. Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, neuroinflammation, bibliometrics, CiteSpace, VOSviewer