Knowledge Atlas of the Co-Occurrence of Epilepsy and Autism: A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization Using VOSviewer and CiteSpace

Yangyang Wang,* Xianhao Huo,* Wenchao Li, Lifei Xiao, Mei Li, Chaofan Wang, Yangyang Sun, Tao Sun Ningxia Key Laboratory of Cerebrocranial Disease, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Tao Sun, Ningxia Key Laboratory of Cerebrocranial Disease, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China, Email suntao_nxmu@163.comObjective: This study aimed to analyze research on epilepsy in autism and autism in epilepsy using VOSviewer and CiteSpace to identify research hotspots and future directions.Methods: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) for relevant studies about epilepsy in autism and autism in epilepsy published from inception to 31 May 2022. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to analyze the authors, institutions, countries, publishing journals, reference co-citation patterns, keyword co-occurrence, keyword clustering, keywords with citation bursts, and other aspects to construct a knowledge atlas.Results: A total of 473 publications related to epilepsy/autism were retrieved. The number of publications about epilepsy/ASD has generally increased over time, with some fluctuations. The USA (202 papers) and University of California-Los Angeles (15 papers) were the leading country and institution, respectively, in this field. Frye, Richard E. was the most published author (9 papers). Notably, collaboration between institutions, countries, and authors does not appear to be active. Hot topics and research frontiers include intellectual disability and exploring the mechanism of epilepsy/ASD from a genetics perspective.Conclusion: This analysis identified the most influential publications, authors, journals, institutions, and countries in the field of epilepsy/ASD research. Using co-occurrence and evolution analyses, the status of the field was identified and future trends were predicted.Keywords: epilepsy, autism, bibliometrics, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, visualization analysis