Ph.D. Candidate: Murat Koçak
Program: Medical Informatics
Date: 11.09.2023 / 10:30
Place: -

Abstract: This study aims to provide a bibliometric map of the field of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), a growing research area worldwide, in terms of interdisciplinary and institutional collaboration. Interdisciplinary and collaborative studies are increasingly encouraged by universities as they have high academic impact. In this study, it is aimed to determine the interdisciplinary and university & country collaborations that can increase the number of articles, number of citations, CNCI and IREW percentage in fNIRS from 1980 to 2020 from a bibliometric perspective. The raw data (n=1673 articles) is retrieved from the ISI Web of Science database during 1980-2020. We extracted bibliometric data from the Web of Science database and analyzed it using the Bibliometrix R Package, Gephi, CiteSpace, and Vosviewer. This visualization software was used to analyze data of institutions, authors, and journals

The analyzes used 1673 fNIRS articles between 1980 and 2020. There is an increasing publication trend in this area; the most productive year was 2020, with 261 articles. Institutions were involved in fNIRS research with more contributions from the USA, Japan, China, and Germany. As the number of country collaborations grows, so does the number of citations and category normalized citation impact (CNCI). The number of citations and CNCI increased as university collaborations increased. Articles on fNIRS About 69% of the fNIRS articles were in the Q1 and Q2 JIF quartile. Only 35 out of 1673 articles that were published with the address of Türkiye were either multi-disciplinary or collaborative studies. Keyword analysis showed that the most used keywords in this field included 6 categories. (1) In Imaging Method/Analysis Methodology/Physical Phenomenon (light, optics etc. category has fMRI (n=514), EEG (n=253), stimulation (n=158), diffuse optical tomography (n=151), MRI (n=148; (2) author’s keywords. The physiological Phenomena category has  oxygenation (n=319), hemodynamic response (n=263), cerebral oxygenation (n=183), functional connectivity (n=183), stroke (n=174); (3)  Cognitive Processes/Abnormalities  has working memory (n=324, attention (n=170), Alzheimer's disease (n=140), traumatic brain injury (n=132), schizophrenia (n=131), verbal fluency task (n=126) authors keywords; (4) Application Area category has BCI (n=223), gait (n=103), surgery (n=93), cardiopulmonary bypass (n=90), aging (n=89), cardiac surgery (n=88); (5) Brain Regions category has the top 5 keywords are prefrontal cortex (n=652), the human brain (n=264), the motor cortex (n=105), visual cortex (n=100), frontal cortex (n=77); (5) Population is the last category top five keywords are infant (n=227), children (n=211), humans (n=112), older adults (n=101), preterm infants (n=92). K analysis revealed that the most cited articles in this field focus on applying fNIRS in various research areas such as cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, and developmental psychology. The most commonly co-cited journals included J Appl Physiol, Biochim Biophys Acta, J Neurosurg, Am J Physiol, Biophys J, Nature, Adv Exp Med Biol, Lancet, Arch Dis Child-Fetal and Pediatr Res.

This study specifically addresses interdisciplinary and institutional collaborations in the field of fNIRS at a macro level using a bibliometric perspective. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies are often found to be published in Q1 and Q2 journals. Collaborative efforts across disciplines and institutions have enhanced the visibility of fNIRS articles. Undertaking interdisciplinary and collaborative research in the field of fNIRS and other areas in the coming periods is expected to significantly increase academic impact.