To study the status and trend of research on the relationship between diabetes and intestinal flora from 2004 to 2021 using bibliometric analysis method.

Research articles related to diabetic intestinal flora from 2004 to 2021 were searched through the Science Web database. The bibliometrics software package used is R-4.0.0. The number of articles published, the country of publication, the research institution, the citation status of the journal, and the keywords were analyzed.

A total of 343 papers were published from 2004 to 2021, with an overall increase in the number of papers published. All references were cited 15 794 times in total, with an average of 46.05 citations per article. The literature were published in 32 countries or regions, of which China had the largest number of publications and the United States had the largest number of citations. All the works of literature involved 707 research institutes, of which Copenhagen University published the most. Six of the 10 scientific research institutes with the largest number of published articles were Chinese. All works of literature involved 1 160 keywords, which could be clustered into six categories: intestinal flora, inflammation, microbial flora, diseases, metabolism and weight loss. All the documents were mainly published in 226 journals. Among the 10 documents with the highest citation frequency, there were nine journals in the first layer of the Chinese Academy of Sciences journal classification and four documents with citation frequency greater than 500.

The research on intestinal flora of diabetes is in its infancy, but it has developed well. The research mainly focuses on how intestinal flora affects the pathogenesis of diabetes.

Diabetes; Gastrointestinal microbiome; Bibliometrics