To evaluate and to identify osteoarthritis (OA) study trends in China based on bibliometrics.

To search OA studies in OA research, the Web of Science Core Collection™ database was used to search for publication data, which encompassed any published articles published from 2013 to 2017. The keyword "osteoarthritis" was used to identify articles for the purposes of the present study. In order to include all published items, the database was searched using the Basic Search method. The included items were indexed according to countries, document types, organization, publication years and conference titles. The characteristics of OA literatures conducted in China and US were compared in following aspects: h-index, average citation per item, sum of times cited and number of citing articles. Excel software was used for data analysis.

A total of 2 894 publications on OA in China, published from number of 345 in 2013 to number of 817 in 2017 (with the number of publications increasing annually), were retrieved from the database. While the number of OA studies published by Chinese institutes was ranked second in the world, just after U.S., the average citation per article and h-index of Chinese studies were far below those of U.S., scoring at 4.08 versus 6.26 and 32 versus 64 respectively. Universities and its affiliated institutions are the main body of OA research in China. OA researchers in China preferred to publish their studies in specialized journals and conferences.

Although great advances in OA study are developed in China past 5 years, most efforts are still required to improve our quality, influence and novelty in the field of OA.

Osteoarthritis; Bibliometrics; Database; Publications; Indexes