Fifty Years Research Output in Oral Submucous Fibrosis: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications from 1967 to 2016.

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a precancerous state which affects the oral cavity. The etiology of OSMF is due to various factors like chilies consumption, deficiency of nutrition, areca nut chewing habits, genetic susceptibility, altered salivary constituents, and autoimmunity and collagen disorders. The present study is undertaken to find out the publication trends on OSMF during 1967-2016. The study mainly focus on distribution of research output, national and international collaborations, top journals for publications, most prolific authors, authorship pattern, citations pattern and highly cited papers on OSMF. The results indicate that highest growth rate of publications occurred between the years 1997-2006. India's research share, citation score and h index was highest among all countries. Central South University, China topped the scene among all institutes. The maximum publications were two authored publications. CP Chiang of National Taiwan University and JJ Pindborg of University of Copenhagen were found to be the most prolific authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]