A scientometric analysis of reproductive medicine

Here, we carried out a scientometric analysis of the scientific literature published in the field of reproductive medicine (RM), an important and rapidly evolving branch of Medicine. To this aim, we analysed the research papers published in the period 1996–2011 in RM and we assessed the bibliometric parameters (number of citable documents, cites per document and H-index) and the extent of international collaboration among different geographical Regions and Countries. Further, we studied the link of RM with other disciplines in a Journals co-citation study, then the keyword citation bursts were assessed. Ultimately, the social behaviour of Authors involved in RM was analysed in a social network study. As a result, we found that still it exists marked differences in term of quantity and quality of production in RM among the different Regions and Countries, likely due to the different economic effort to sustain research. The most productive ones, Western Europe and Northern America and USA and UK, respectively, display a slow decrease in production, while Asia (and China) are amazingly growing. Unfortunately, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa are still very backward. In addition, RM is directly connected with basics disciplines but not with other medical specialities and the most cited keywords suggest the shift from basic to more applied research. Finally, the Authors involved in RM originate a small world community, in which it is possible to identify the brokers of information flow. In conclusion, this analysis could contribute to the knowledge of scientific production related to RM field.