Bibliometric mapping of the 100 most-cited publications on optic nerve and optic pathway glioma: A cross-sectional bibliometric analysis.
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BACKGROUND: Optic pathway gliomas (OPGs), including optic nerve gliomas, are uncommon tumors of the anterior visual pathway that arise mainly in young children, often with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The literature is now substantial, but its structure is undescribed. We mapped the most-cited OPG publications to characterize citation patterns, contributors, collaboration, and thematic development. METHODS: Scopus was searched on April 30, 2025 using a title-abstract-keyword strategy combining 4 OPG-specific phrases, with no year or document-type restriction. Records were ranked by total citations, and the 100 most-cited were retained. Two reviewers screened independently with a 3rd adjudicating; each was then classified by how directly it addressed OPG. Metadata were analyzed in Bibliometrix and VOSviewer. Distributions were assessed with the Shapiro-Wilk test and summarized as medians with interquartile ranges (IQRs); associations used Spearman correlation. Reporting follows the preliminary guideline for reporting bibliometric reviews of the biomedical literature. RESULTS: The 100 records, published between 2000 and 2021, were cited 9305 times, with a median of 75 citations per article (IQR 59-108; range 41-289) and a median annual rate of 5.7 (IQR 4.2-7.8). Output peaked in 2010 (n = 9) and again in 2012, 2015, and 2016 (n = 8 each). First authors spanned 17 countries, 53 from the United States. Washington University School of Medicine appeared most often, and David H. Gutmann and Robert A. Avery were the most central authors. Neuro-Oncology (n = 9), Cancer Research (n = 5), and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (n = 5) led; about four-fifths appeared in 1st-quartile journals. Keyword co-occurrence formed 3 clusters: clinical/chemotherapy, NF1 molecular biology, and imaging/diagnostics. Recent articles were cited faster than older ones (rho = 0.475, publication year vs. annual rate; P < .001). Excluding the 9 peripherally related records left every statistic essentially unchanged (median 76; IQR 59-109). CONCLUSION: Among the most-cited OPG publications, emphasis has shifted over 2 decades from descriptive clinical series toward NF1 tumor biology, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase-directed therapy, and quantitative imaging, with output concentrated in a few North American centers. These findings describe how attention has been distributed, not clinical importance or study quality, and are subject to the known limits of citation analysis.