Bibliometric Analysis of Circular RNA Research on Stem Cells: A Swiftly Expanding and Shifting Focus

Abstract Background: The important roles of circular RNA in various aspects of the stem cell field have been gradually reported. This is the first time in recent decades that quantitative and qualitative evidence from bibliometrics has been used to conduct an in-depth analysis of circRNA in stem cell research to reveal relative research progress, trends and hotspots.Methods: Publications from 1999 to August 7, 2021 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). All statistical analyses were performed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace and GraphPad Prism 7.Results: The study shows that the number of papers on circRNA in stem cells has increased significantly since 2016. Among all types of papers, articles are the most published paper types, followed by reviews. Worldwide, published papers come mostly from China, followed by the USA, Germany, and Italy. However, Israel and Iran ranked first per million people and per trillion gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. The keyword analysis results were stratified into four clusters by VOSviewer software: Cluster 1, “cancer treatment”; Cluster 2, “function and effect”; Cluster 3, “characteristics” and Cluster 4, “osteogenic differentiation”.Conclusions: Our results suggest that attention should be drawn to the latest hotspots, such as extracellular vesicles, ceRNAs and osteogenesis. In addition, suggestions on research directions and investment trends are provided to researchers and institutions.