10.5826/dpc.1304a266
Introduction: Dysplastic nevi are pigmented lesions that share clinical and histological features of both common nevi and melanoma. In recent years, there has been an increase in publications on dysplastic nevi. Bibliometric analysis is a method of evaluating trends in large number of publications and identifying popular topics.
Objectives: The objective of this study is to provide an overview of the landscape of publications related to dysplastic nevi, visualize trends and popular topics in the literature.
Methods: Scopus database was searched for the following terms in title, abstract or keywords: “dysplastic nevus” OR “dysplastic nevi”. Time span was set to 2002-2022. Document type was set to Article and Review. Data was obtained in RIS format from Scopus. Titles, authors, abstracts, institutions, countries, journals, references, and the citation information were recorded.
Results: A network of 53422 references cited by 1559 publications was established. 1303 were articles and 256 were reviews. The number of publications increased 1.5 times from 2002 to 2022. Most studies were published from the USA 641 (41.2%) with Italy 171 (10,9%) and Australia 119 (7,6%) following. Keyword burst analysis was performed and melanoma related keywords seem to be more dominant in the recent decade. Author and reference co-citation analysis of were also performed.
Conclusions: The amount of publications and citations generated about dysplastic nevi are increasing rapidly. This study demonstrates that there has been a shift in dysplastic nevi research in the last decade by focusing more on diagnostic methods and dysplastic nevi-melanoma relationship.
text/xml
2160-9381
3270
en
Hazal İzol Özmen
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dermatology Practical & Conceptual
CiteSpace
Publication trends and hot topics in dysplastic nevus research: A 30-year bibliometric analysis
Text.Serial.Journal
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc
Review
2023-10-31
2023-02-19
2023-10-31
2024-01-16
e2023266
Dermatol Pract Concept
Introduction: Dysplastic nevi are pigmented lesions that share clinical and histological features of both common nevi and melanoma. In recent years, there has been an increase in publications on dysplastic nevi. Bibliometric analysis is a method of evaluating trends in large number of publications and identifying popular topics.
Objectives: The objective of this study is to provide an overview of the landscape of publications related to dysplastic nevi, visualize trends and popular topics in the literature.
Methods: Scopus database was searched for the following terms in title, abstract or keywords: “dysplastic nevus” OR “dysplastic nevi”. Time span was set to 2002-2022. Document type was set to Article and Review. Data was obtained in RIS format from Scopus. Titles, authors, abstracts, institutions, countries, journals, references, and the citation information were recorded.
Results: A network of 53422 references cited by 1559 publications was established. 1303 were articles and 256 were reviews. The number of publications increased 1.5 times from 2002 to 2022. Most studies were published from the USA 641 (41.2%) with Italy 171 (10,9%) and Australia 119 (7,6%) following. Keyword burst analysis was performed and melanoma related keywords seem to be more dominant in the recent decade. Author and reference co-citation analysis of were also performed.
Conclusions: The amount of publications and citations generated about dysplastic nevi are increasing rapidly. This study demonstrates that there has been a shift in dysplastic nevi research in the last decade by focusing more on diagnostic methods and dysplastic nevi-melanoma relationship.
Hazal İzol Özmen
2023/10/31
10.5826/dpc.1304a266
e2023266
Department of Pathology, Basaksehir Cam and Sakura City Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
2160-9381
CiteSpace
en
e2023266
Chen C. CiteSpace: a practical guide for mapping scientific literature. Hauppauge, NY, USA: Nova Science Publishers, 2016:41-44.
Publication trends and hot topics in dysplastic nevus research: A 30-year bibliometric analysis
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc/article/download/3270/2380
     Publication Trends and Hot Topics in Dysplastic
     Nevus Research: A 30-Year Bibliometric Analysis
                                                        Hazal Izol Özmen1


1 Department of Pathology, Basaksehir Cam and Sakura City Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey



Key words: dysplastic nevus, melanoma, bibliometric analysis, co-citation analysis, CiteSpace
Citation: İzol Özmen H. Publication Trends and Hot Topics in Dysplastic Nevus Research: a 30-Year Bibliometric Analysis.
Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1304a266
Accepted: June 11, 2023; Published: October 2023
Copyright: ©2023 İzol Özmen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted
noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
Funding: None.
Competing Interests: None.
Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication.
Corresponding Author: Hazal İzol Özmen, Basaksehir Cam and Sakura City Hospital, Pathology Department, 34480, İstanbul/Turkey.
Phone: 00905436922677 E-mail: hazalizol91@gmail.com




  ABSTRACT             Introduction: Dysplastic nevi are pigmented lesions that exhibit clinical and histological features
                       of both common nevi and melanoma. In recent years, there has been an increase in publications on
                       dysplastic nevi. Bibliometric analysis is a method of evaluating trends in large number of publications
                       and identifying popular topics.
                       Objectives: The objective of this study is to provide an overview of the landscape of publications
                       related to dysplastic nevi, visualize trends and identify popular topics in the literature.
                       Methods: Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science database was searched with the following query in title,
                       abstract or keywords: TS = (“dysplastic nevus” OR “clark nevus” OR “atypical nevus” OR “dysplastic
                       nevi” OR “clark nevi” OR “atypical nevi”). Time span was set to 1992-2022. Document type was set
                       to Article. Titles, authors, abstracts, institutions, countries, journals, references, and the citation infor-
                       mation were recorded.
                       Results: Although the number of publications has declined over time, the USA remains the leading
                       contributor to published articles. Key clusters of frequently used keywords were identified. The Jour-
                       nal of the American Academy of Dermatology had the highest number of published titles. Country
                       and journal analysis were supplemented by co-citation and co-cited reference cluster analysis. Burst
                       analyses revealed authors like Kittler, Argenziano, and Gandini as significant contributors, with their
                       works receiving strong citation bursts extending until the end of the study period.
                       Conclusions: This bibliometric analysis revealed trends and interest pockets in the literature pertain-
                       ing to dysplastic nevi and melanoma. This study aids in understanding the current research landscape
                       and highlights potential future directions in this field.




Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266                                                                                    1
Introduction                                                        Keyword, authorship and citation burst analysis was per-
                                                                    formed. Network of keywords and organizations were an-
Dysplastic nevi are characterized by their large size (6 mm         alyzed and visualized with VOSviewer. Co-citation analysis
or more in diameter) and irregular, asymmetric, pigmented           and clustering was performed with CiteSpace. Clusters were
macules with varying colors. Clinically, these features may         analyzed with silhouette, centrality and sigma values, and
be similar to those of melanoma and a biopsy might be war-          labeled using different labeling methods (Latent Semantic
ranted to confirm the diagnosis [1,2].                              Indexing (LSI), Log-Likelihood Ratio (LLR), Mutual Infor-
    Dysplastic nevus syndrome is characterized by a pro-            mation (MI)). A p value of less than 0.05 was considered
pensity for the affected person to have a large number of           significant.
nevi, which appear abnormal clinically and have histolog-
ically dysplastic features. It was originally considered to be
a hereditary condition; however, currently most cases are
                                                                    Results
thought to occur sporadically or as a single isolated lesion [3].   Figure 1 shows the number of publications and citations per
The diagnosis of dysplastic nevus syndrome is significant           year from 1992 to 2022. Interestingly, the number of publi-
because it suggests an increased risk for developing mela-          cations appears to have decreased in recent years, with the
noma, especially in those with the familial form of the syn-        lowest count of 22 in 2022 The linear regression analysis
drome [4].                                                          of the number of publications versus year yielded a nega-
    In the recent two decades, there has been increasing in-        tive slope of -0.4117, suggesting a decrease in the number of
terest on the relationship and correlation between dysplastic       publications over time (P < 0.01). Author keyword visualiza-
nevi and melanoma. With a growing literature, while major           tion was created using VOSviewer (Figure 2). Nine clusters
trends are usually discernible, the smaller trends and pockets      of frequently used together keywords were identified.
of interest or “hot topics” can be overlooked. Bibliometric
analysis is a method of evaluating trends in large number of        Country Analysis
publications and making sense of the underlying data. This
                                                                    Table 1 displays the top 10 countries with the most pub-
might be in the form of identifying popular topics or key-
                                                                    lished articles from the year 1992 to 2022. The USA stands
words and visualizing the network of citations, journals and
                                                                    out as the leading country in this regard, with a total of 676
other pertinent data.
                                                                    published articles. This number is significantly larger than
                                                                    the number of articles published by any other country on the
Objectives                                                          list, with Italy, the second-highest country, publishing 161
                                                                    articles, or approximately a quarter of the number published
This paper aims to provide a robust overview of the field,          by the USA.
identifying pivotal papers, influential authors, countries,            Figure 3 shows the top 10 countries with the strongest
journals and significant research themes.                           citation burst. The country with the highest strength of cita-
                                                                    tion burst was Canada, with a strength of 8.64 from 2007
                                                                    to 2015. The most recent citation bursts were observed for
Methods
                                                                    Spain, Romania, France, and Poland, all persisting until the
Informed consent was not obtained for this study as only            concluding date of this study.
publicly available information was used. The search was
conducted in Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science (WoS) data-            Journal Analysis
base using the following criteria: TS = (“dysplastic nev*” OR       The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology leads
“clark nev*” OR “atypical nev*”) in title, abstract or key-         with the highest number of published titles at 120. The Jour-
words. The document type was set to “Articles,” and the in-         nal of Cutaneous Pathology follows with 68 titles, and the
dexes were set to “SCI-EXPANDED.” The search was limited            Archives of Dermatology with 63 titles.
to articles published in English between 1992 and 2022. Du-            Table 2 presents the top 10 most co-cited journals in
plicate results were removed. A total of 1,404 unique articles      terms of frequency. The Journal of the American Academy
were found. Titles, authors, abstracts, institutions, countries,    of Dermatology leads the list with 894, followed by Archives
journals, references, and citation information were recorded.       of Dermatology (JAMA Dermatology) with 825 and the
    The obtained data was imported to CiteSpace 6.1.R6,             Journal of Investigative Dermatology with 754. Notably, the
64-Bit (Drexel University) [5] and VOSviewer 1.6.15 [6].            British Journal of Cancer, despite having the lowest citation




2                                                                                  Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266
   Figure 1. Number of publications and citations by year.




Figure 2. Network map of author keywords.




Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266         3
frequency among the top 10 journals, has the highest cen-              Co-Citation and Co-Cited Reference Cluster
trality score (0.02), which indicates a relatively higher influ-       Analysis
ence or connectivity within the network.                               Co-citation analysis was performed using a scale factor (k)
                                                                       of 25. The validity of the references was checked to ensure
                                                                       accurate results. A total of 23,801 references (99.1337%)
      Table 1. Top 10 most publishing countries                        were deemed valid, while only 208 references (0.8663%)
                 between 1992-2022.                                    were invalid. The resulting merged network included 1,353
 Ranks         Country           No. of articles     Centrality        nodes and 5,402 links.
 1                USA                  676              0.43               The reference co-citation analysis revealed the central pa-
 2               ITALY                 161              0.24           pers in the field of melanoma research (Table 3). The paper
 3           GERMANY                    86              0.28           of Gandini et al was the most cited and held the highest cen-

 4             CANADA                   55              0.01           trality, indicating its pivotal role in this research field. Paper
                                                                       of Landi et al and of Goldstein et al on high-risk melanoma
 5           AUSTRALIA                  54              0.07
                                                                       susceptibility genes both had a centrality of 0.20, also em-
 6          NETHERLANDS                 36              0.01
                                                                       phasizing their influential positions [7-9].
 7               SPAIN                  34              0.17
                                                                           Clustering of the co-cited references revealed 21 clusters.
 8             FRANCE                   24              0.08
                                                                       The largest cluster (Cluster 0) centered on ‘melanocytic nevi’
 9             SWEDEN                   20              0.00
                                                                       included 130 articles from around 1990. Table 4 summa-
 10            AUSTRIA                  18              0.01           rizes the characteristics of the clusters along with different




               Figure 3. Top 10 countries with the strongest citation bursts.




              Table 2. Top 10 most co-cited journals ranked according to co-citation counts.
            Co-citation
    Ranks     count                                 Journal                               Impact Factor (IF) 2021          Centrality
 1              894        Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology                          12.077                    <0.01
 2              825        Archives of Dermatology (JAMA Dermatology)                               3.033                    <0.01
 3              754        Journal of Investigative Dermatology                                     7.590                    <0.01
 4              578        British Journal of Dermatology                                          11.113                    <0.01
 5              563        Cancer Research                                                         13.312                     0.01
 6              516        Cancer                                                                   6.921                    <0.01
 7              506        Melanoma Research                                                        3.199                    <0.01
 8              481        International Journal of Cancer                                          7.316                     0.01
 9              455        New England Journal of Medicine                                         176.079                    0.01
 10             381        British Journal of Cancer                                                9.082                     0.02



4                                                                                  Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266
                           Table 3. Reference co-citation analysis ranked by centrality.
           Co-citation
 Ranks       count         Centrality       Year                                     Lead author, title
 1              26              0.24        2005       Gandini S, “Meta-analysis of risk factors for cutaneous melanoma”
 2              10              0.20        2002       Landi MT, “DNA repair, dysplastic nevi, and sunlight sensitivity in the
                                                       development of cutaneous malignant melanoma”
 3                6             0.20        2006       Goldstein AM, “High-risk melanoma susceptibility genes and pancreatic
                                                       cancer, neural system tumors, and uveal melanoma across GenoMEL”
 4                4             0.20        2009       Chang YM, “A pooled analysis of melanocytic nevus phenotype and the
                                                       risk of cutaneous melanoma at different latitudes”
 5                8             0.19        1998       Bataille V, “The association between naevi and melanoma in populations
                                                       with different levels of sun exposure: a joint case-control study of
                                                       melanoma in the UK and Australia”
 6              20              0.17        1996       Zuo L, “Germline mutations in the p16INK4a binding domain of CDK4 in
                                                       familial melanoma”
 7              14              0.17        2002       Bishop DT, “Geographical variation in the penetrance of CDKN2A
                                                       mutations for melanoma”
 8                6             0.16        2009       Bishop DT, “Genome-wide association study identifies three loci associated
                                                       with melanoma risk”
 9              13              0.15        2013       Goldstein AM, “Dysplastic nevi and melanoma”
 10               8             0.15        1999       Aitken J, “CDKN2A variants in a population-based sample of Queensland
                                                       families with melanoma”



           Table 4. Top 10 Cluster groups with relevant characteristics according to keywords.
                                                                                                                         Average
 Cluster    Size      Silhouette          Label (LSI)           Label (LLR, p-value)            Label (MI score)          Year
 0           130        0.876          melanocytic nevi           melanocytic nevi          different body site (0.88)      1990
                                                                 (213.09, p<0.001)
 1           122         0.85          melanocytic lesion        melanocytic lesion            skin tumor (1.66)            2002
                                                                 (235.12, p<0.001)
 2           108        0.915          familial melanoma         familial melanoma          familial melanoma mlm           1992
                                                                 (423.98, p<0.001)                   (0.79)
 3           108        0.875          familial melanoma          cdkn2a mutation            cutaneous malignant            2000
                                                                  (163.4, p<0.001)           melanoma risk (0.54)
 4           104        0.922           dysplastic nevi           dysplastic nevus             clinical use (0.45)          2009
                                                                 (156.51, p<0.001)
 5           97         0.928           dysplastic nevi        severe atypia (155.34,       melanoma antigen (0.45)         2015
                                                                      p<0.001)
 6           73          0.9           melanoma-prone         melanoma risk (142.34,      cdkn2a-mutated melanoma           2005
                                           families                 p<0.001)                    families (0.3)
 7           72          0.92              high risk             high risk (204.41,         patient-initiated mobile        2011
                                                                     p<0.001)               teledermoscopy (0.34)
 8           59         0.908             cutaneous            hereditary melanoma        chronic sun exposure (0.38)       1995
                                          melanoma              (187.53, p<0.001)
 9           53         0.965           diagnosing skin       diagnosing skin (84.42,     telemedicine support (0.04)       2018
                                                                    p<0.001)




labeling methods. Figure 4 is a visual representation of the               The top three publications with the highest sigma scores
clusters with lighter colors indicating a more recent average          in the dataset were established. Topping the list is the study
year of references within the cluster. Table 5 presents the            by Gandini et al. in 2005, titled “Meta-analysis of risk fac-
most cited member of each cluster.                                     tors for cutaneous melanoma,” with a sigma score of 20.45



Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266                                                                                5
Figure 4. Clustered network map of co-cited references with log-likelihood ratio labels.



located in Cluster 6 [7]. Following closely is the publi-               recent bursts are also by Argenziano, Kittler, and Gandini,
cation by Zuo in 1996, titled “Germline mutations in the                continuing into the end date of the study.
p16INK4a binding domain of CDK4 in familial melanoma,”
with a sigma score of 5.09 located in Cluster 2 [10]. Another
significant publication, with a sigma score of 4.89 located in
                                                                        Discussion
Cluster 1, is the study by Tucker in 1997, titled “Clinically
recognized dysplastic nevi: a central risk factor for cutaneous         Dysplastic nevus, also called atypical or Clark nevus, can
melanoma [11].”                                                         be precursor to melanoma, as the observation that 36%
                                                                        of melanomas have dysplastic nevi near the invasive tumor
Cited Author Burst Analysis                                             supports [12]. Signs that a dysplastic nevus may have tran-
Figure 5 shows top 10 cited authors with the strongest cita-            sitioned into a melanoma include asymmetry in contour, a
tion bursts. The author with the highest strength of burst is           noticeable increase in pigment variations, or a grayish tint
Gandini, with a strength of 28.08 from 2008 to 2022. The                indicating regression. These malignancies typically arise at a
longest burst was by Argenziano and Kittler, lasting from               younger age (mid-thirties), are sometimes multiple, and are
2006 to 2022, and 2004 to 2022, respectively. The most                  often found on the trunk [1].



6                                                                                   Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266
                                     Table 5. Top co-cited member of each cluster.
 Cluster      Cluster Label                                             Lead Author, Year,Title
 0          melanocytic nevi      Halpern AC, 1991, “Dysplastic nevi as risk markers of sporadic (nonfamilial) melanoma: a
                                  case-control study”
 1          melanocytic lesion    Tucker MA, 1997, “Clinically recognized dysplastic nevi: a central risk factor for
                                  cutaneous melanoma”
 2          familial melanoma Bal SJ, 1989, “Mapping the Gene for Hereditary Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma–
                              Dysplastic Nevus to Chromosome Lp”
 3          cdkn2a mutation       Soufir N, 1998, “Prevalence of p16 and CDK4 Germline Mutations in 48 Melanoma-
                                  Prone Families in France”
 4          dysplastic nevus      Balch CM, 2009, “Final version of 2009 AJCC melanoma staging and classification”
 5          severe atypia         Elmore JG, 2017, “Pathologists’ diagnosis of invasive melanoma and melanocytic
                                  proliferations: observer accuracy and reproducibility study”
 6          melanoma risk         Gandini S, 2005, “Meta-analysis of risk factors for cutaneous melanoma”
 7          high risk             Vestergaard ME, 2008, “Dermoscopy compared with naked eye examination for the
                                  diagnosis of primary melanoma: a meta-analysis of studies performed in a clinical setting”
 8          hereditary            Kelly JW, 1997, “A high incidence of melanoma found in patients with multiple dysplastic
            melanoma              naevi by photographic surveillance”
 9          diagnosing skin       Esteva A, 2017, “Dermatologist-level classification of skin cancer with deep neural
                                  networks”




               Figure 5. Top 10 authors with the strongest citation bursts.




     Molecularly, dysplastic nevi have a profile intermediate          mutations is still lower than that associated with mutations
between benign nevi and malignant melanoma. There are                  in CDKN2A and CDK4 [13-14]. It is also shown that MC1R
certain described gene mutations that are present in dysplas-          variants are strongly associated with BRAF mutations in
tic nevi and two genes – MC1R and BRAF - are present in                non- chronic sun-induced damage melanomas [14,15].
the cluster analysis of our dataset. The melanocortin 1 re-            The cluster timeline analysis shows that the co-cited refer-
ceptor (MC1R) gene encodes the receptor of melanocortin-               ences of both genes were popular in the same timeframe and
stimulating hormone, which is found on the surface of mela-            relatively less popular since then.
nocytes. MC1R phenotypic traits make an individual more                       There has also been specific genetic findings on patients
susceptible to ultraviolet (UV) damage, leading to melanoma            with dysplastic nevus syndrome, which dysplastic nevus
even without excessive UV exposure. People with MC1R                   syndrome is inherited as an autosomal dominant with in-
gene variants tend to develop melanoma more frequently and             complete penetrance. About 40% of families with the dys-
at an earlier age than the general population. However, it is          plastic nevus syndrome have mutations in the CDKN2A gene
important to note that the risk of melanoma due to MC1R                [1,16,17]. A new gene linked to the development of atypical



Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266                                                                                 7
nevi has also been found on the 7q21.3 chromosome, called           a significant influence in the field. Furthermore, it also tops
CDK6 [18]. It has been shown that there is loss of heterozy-        the list of the most co-cited journals. Interestingly, the cen-
gosity in the p16INK4a and p53 genes in sporadic dysplastic         trality scores, reflective of influence and connectivity within
nevi [19]. The patients with dysplastic nevus syndrome have         the scientific network, present an intriguing contrast. De-
increased risk of developing other malignancies such as pan-        spite high citation frequencies, the Journal of the American
creatic cancer [13,20].                                             Academy of Dermatology, the Archives of Dermatology, and
    While there is a recognized connection between dysplas-         the Journal of Investigative Dermatology all show centrality
tic nevi and melanoma, it’s crucial to note that only about         scores of less than 0.01. In contrast, the British Journal of
20% to 30% of melanomas evolve from preexisting nevi.               Cancer stands out with the highest centrality score (0.02)
The rate of a single nevus transforming into a malignant            among the top 10 journals, despite having the lowest cita-
form is estimated to be less than 3 in 1000 annually. Given         tion frequency.
that the majority of dysplastic and typical nevi do not de-            One method used in bibliometric analysis is called
velop into melanoma, preventive removal of melanocytic              “co-citation analysis”. Co-citation means citing of two
nevi is not typically advised [21].                                 sources by the same article. Since related literature is usually
    Presently, the understanding is that nevi with mild to          cited together, the network of co-cited sources can present a
moderate histological dysplasia are not direct precursors to        new angle in analyzing the underlying research trends. This
melanoma and, hence, do not require re-excision if diagnosed        makes it an excellent tool for unveiling the hidden structure
through intended full (not partial) biopsies that remove the        and thematic patterns in a vast corpus of literature. Further-
whole visible lesion. Nevertheless, nevi that exhibit severe        more, by analyzing centrality measures, it becomes possible
dysplasia ought to be completely removed due to their shared        to reveal the most influential works or ‘landmark’ papers in
histopathological characteristics with melanomas, which can         that field. In addition, co-citation analysis can help detect
potentially lead to diagnostic errors. There is ongoing debate      emerging trends and shifts in a scientific field by tracking
regarding whether severe dysplastic nevi with just narrowly         changes in co-citation patterns over time, thus providing
clear biopsy margins can be safely observed [21].                   guidance in future research directions [24].
    This paper aims to provide a robust overview of the field,         The co-citation and co-cited reference cluster analysis in
identifying pivotal papers, influential authors, countries,         this study provides critical insights into the key works and
journals and significant research themes using bibliometric         authors within melanoma research. In this context, centrality
techniques. Bibliometric analysis allows researchers to make        and sigma values provide unique perspectives, particularly
sense of the large amount of data using scientific methods.         when compared to traditional literature review methodol-
It also provides points of view that traditional review of lit-     ogies. Centrality is a metric used in network analysis that
erature cannot reveal. This study aimed to identify hotspots        quantifies the importance of a node within the network. A
and popular topics in this area using bibliographic analysis.       work with a high centrality score is considered influential,
WoS by Thomson-Rheuters, Scopus by Elsevier and Google              not necessarily because of the frequency of citations, but
Scholar are the three mainly used databases literature and          due to its pivotal role in connecting various other works
bibliometric research. However, the accuracy of the data            or researchers [25]. Sigma, on the other hand, is a metric
presented by Google Scholar has been questioned [22]. WoS           in co-citation analysis that combines both the frequency of
and Scopus are the main databases currently used for biblio-        co-citation and the centrality of a work within the co-citation
metric analysis and citation data [23], with WoS including          network. A high sigma value implies that a publication is
articles before 2000 as well.                                       both highly co-cited and centrally located in the co-citation
    With 676 published articles, the USA has been the most          network [26]. By examining Tables 3 and 4, a researcher can
prolific contributor to the scientific literature during this pe-   gain a clear understanding of the most influential papers and
riod. Its centrality score of 0.43, the highest among the coun-     authors in the field, the key ideas that these papers intro-
tries examined, underscores the central role the USA plays in       duced, and how these ideas have shaped the development
the global scientific collaboration network. The most recent        and trajectory of the field. This can be invaluable for identi-
citation bursts in Spain, Romania, France, and Poland reflect       fying research gaps, determining future research directions,
emerging trends in influential research from these countries.       and understanding the context and significance of one own
Observing these shifts in citation bursts could offer insights      research within the broader field.
into evolving research strengths and future research trends,           Burst analyses of countries and cited authors were per-
highlighting these countries as potential rising players in the     formed in this study. In the traditional method of literature
international research landscape.                                   review, one of the metrics to understand the influence of a
    Leading with the highest number of published titles, the        work is the total citation count, as more influential works
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology exhibits             are cited more often than others. However, since older



8                                                                              Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266
publications tend to have more citations over the years, a            References
literature search based on citation counts for influential
articles will be biased towards older references. The term             1. Calonje JE, Brenn T, Lazar AJ, Billings S. McKee’s Pathology
                                                                          of the Skin, 2 Volume Set E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences;
“citation burst” refers to a situation where an author work
                                                                          2018:1234-1289.
receives a high number of citations over a specific period.
                                                                       2. Gardner JM. Survival guide to Dermatopathology. Innovative
This might indicate that the author work has made a signifi-              Pathology Press; 2020:106-109.
cant contribution to the field, or sparked controversy, during         3. Barnhill RL. Current status of the dysplastic melanocytic ne-
that period and has thus attracted a lot of attention from                vus. J Cutan Pathol. 1991;18(3):147–159. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600
other researchers. In this study, Bale and Cannonbright had               -0560.1991.tb00147.x. PMID: 1918502.
                                                                       4. Tucker MA, Halpern A, Holly EA, et al. Clinically recognized
the strongest citation bursts early on from 1992 to 2000.
                                                                          dysplastic nevi: a central risk factor for cutaneous melanoma.
On the other hand, authors such as Kittler, Argenziano and
                                                                          Jama. 1997;277(18):1439–1444. PMID: 9145715.
Gandini continuing up until the end of the selected study              5. Chen C. CiteSpace II: Detecting and visualizing emerging trends
date. This provides a temporal overview of the popularity of              and transient patterns in scientific literature. J Am Soc Inf Sci
authors for researchers at a quick glance and suggests whose              Technol. 2006;57:359–77. DOI: 10.1002/asi.20317.
work is more relevant recently.                                        6. Van Eck N, Waltman L. Software survey: VOSviewer, a com-
                                                                          puter program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics.
    Despite the effectiveness of bibliometric analysis, it is es-
                                                                          2010;84(2):523–538. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3.
sential to be mindful of its limitations. First, the data derived
                                                                          PMID: 20585380. PMCID: PMC2883932.
from scientific databases such as Scopus and Web of Science            7. Gandini S, Sera F, Cattaruzza et al. Meta-analysis of risk factors
can contain errors. These inaccuracies can influence any sub-             for cutaneous melanoma: I. Common and atypical naevi. Eur
sequent analysis. Furthermore, the very methodology of bib-               J Cancer. 2005;41(1):28–44. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2004.10.015
liometrics poses inherent constraints. Specifically, drawing              PMID: 15617989
                                                                       8. Landi MT, Baccarelli A, Tarone et al. DNA repair, dysplastic nevi,
qualitative interpretations from bibliometric analysis can be
                                                                          and sunlight sensitivity in the development of cutaneous malig-
misleading, given its fundamentally quantitative nature. As
                                                                          nant melanoma. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2002;94(2):94–101. DOI:
such, caution should be exercised when drawing qualitative                10.1093/jnci/94.2.94. PMID: 11792747
inferences from bibliometric findings [25].                            9. Goldstein AM, Chan M, Harland et al; Melanoma Genetics Con-
                                                                          sortium (GenoMEL). High-risk melanoma susceptibility genes
                                                                          and pancreatic cancer, neural system tumors, and uveal mela-
Conclusions                                                               noma across GenoMEL. Cancer Res. 2006;66(20):9818–9828.
                                                                          DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-0494 PMID: 17047042
The present bibliometric study provides a comprehensive
                                                                      10. Zuo L, Weger J, Yang Q et al. Germline mutations in the p16INK4a
overview of dysplastic nevi and melanoma research field                   binding domain of CDK4 in familial melanoma. Nat Genet.
over the past three decades. Despite a noticeable decrease                1996;12(1):97–99. DOI: 10.1038/ng0196-97. PMID: 8528263.
in the number of publications over the years, the focus on            11. Tucker MA, Halpern A, Holly EA, et al. Clinically recog-
this topic remains significant due to the established correla-            nized dysplastic nevi: a central risk factor for cutaneous mela-
                                                                          noma. JAMA. 1997;277(18):1439-1444. DOI: 10.1001/jama
tion between dysplastic nevi and melanoma. The US holds
                                                                          .1997.03540420035026.
a central role in this field, contributing the highest number
                                                                      12. Rhodes AR, Harrist TJ, Day CL, Mihm Jr MC, Fitzpatrick TB,
of publications, yet recent citation bursts in Spain, Roma-               Sober AJ. Dysplastic melanocytic nevi in histologic association
nia, France, and Poland indicate growing contributions from               with 234 primary cutaneous melanomas. J Am Acad Dermatol.
these countries.                                                          1983;9(4):563–754. DOI: 10.1016/s0190-9622(83)70171-4.
    Co-citation analysis revealed influential works and au-               PMID: 6630618.
                                                                      13. Kluijt I, Cats A, Fockens P, Nio Y, Gouma DJ, Bruno MJ. Atypical
thors in the field, with Gandini et al 2005 [7] paper holding
                                                                          familial presentation of FAMMM syndrome with a high incidence
the highest centrality, reflecting its pivotal role in the research
                                                                          of pancreatic cancer: case finding of asymptomatic individuals
landscape. Journals including the Journal of the American                 by EUS surveillance. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2009;43(9):853–857.
Academy of Dermatology, Archives of Dermatology, and                      DOI: 10.1097/MCG.0b013e3181981123. PMID: 19417680.
Journal of Investigative Dermatology dominate the publish-            14. Fraga-Braghiroli N, Grant-Kels JM, Oliviero M, Rabinovitz H,
ing sphere in this area. Burst analyses showcased authors like            Ferenczi K, Scope A. The role of reflectance confocal micros-
                                                                          copy in differentiating melanoma in situ from dysplastic nevi
Kittler, Argenziano, and Gandini as significant contributors,
                                                                          with severe atypia: A cross-sectional study. J Am Acad Derma-
with their works receiving strong citation bursts extending
                                                                          tol. 2020;83(4):1035–1043. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaad.2020.05.071.
until the end of the study period.                                        PMID: 32442695.
    Overall, this bibliometric review offers critical insights        15. Pellacani G, Farnetani F, Gonzalez S, et al. In vivo confocal
into the evolving landscape of dysplastic nevi and melanoma               microscopy for detection and grading of dysplastic nevi: a pi-
research, shedding light on influential contributors, key                 lot study. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2012;66(3):e109–e121. DOI:
                                                                          10.1016/j.jaad.2011.05.017. PMID: 21742408.
themes, and potential future directions.



Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266                                                                                      9
16. Liu L, Dilworth D, Gao L, et al. Mutation of the CDKN2A 5’UTR      21. Spaccarelli N, Drozdowski R, Peters MS, Grant-Kels JM. Dys-
    creates an aberrant initiation codon and predisposes to mela-          plastic nevus part II: Dysplastic nevi: Molecular/genetic profiles
    noma. Nat Genet. 1999;21(1):128–132. DOI: 10.1038/5082                 and management. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2022;88(1):13–20.
    . 9916806. PMID: 9916806.                                              DOI: 10.1016/j.jaad.2022.05.071. PMID: 36252690.
17. Harland M, Meloni R, Gruis N, et al. Germline mutations of         22. Falagas ME, Pitsouni EI, Malietzis GA, Pappas G. Comparison of
    the CDKN2 gene in UK melanoma families. Hum Mol Genet.                 PubMed, Scopus, web of science, and Google scholar: strengths
    1997;6(12):2061–2067. DOI: 10.1093/hmg/6.12.2061. PMID:                and weaknesses. FASEB J. 2008;22(2):338–342. DOI: 10.1096
    9328469.                                                               /fj.07-9492LSF. PMID: 17884971.
18. De Snoo FA, Hottenga J-J, Gillanders EM, et al. Genome-wide        23. Mongeon P, Paul-Hus A. The journal coverage of Web of Sci-
    linkage scan for atypical nevi in p16-Leiden melanoma fami-            ence and Scopus: a comparative analysis. Scientometric.s
    lies. Eur J Hum Genet. 2008;16(9):1135–1141. DOI: 10.1038              2016;106:213–228. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-015-1765-5.
    /ejhg.2008.72. PMID: 18398432.                                     24. Chen C. Predictive effects of structural variation on citation
19. Park W-S, Vortmeyer AO, Pack S, et al. Allelic deletion at chro-       counts. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol. 2012;63:431–449. DOI:
    mosome 9p21 (p16) and 17p13 (p53) in microdissected spo-               10.1002/asi.21694.
    radic dysplastic nevus. Hum Pathol. 1998;29(2):127–130. DOI:       25. Donthu N, Kumar S, Mukherjee D, Pandey N, Lim WM. How to
    10.1016/s0046-8177(98)90221-0. PMID: 9490270.                          conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. J Bus
20. Lynch HT, Fusaro RM, Lynch JF, Brand R. Pancreatic cancer and          Res. 2021;133:285–296. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070.
    the FAMMM syndrome. Fam Cancer. 2008;7(1):103–112. DOI:            26. Chen C. CiteSpace: a practical guide for mapping scientific litera-
    10.1007/s10689-007-9166-4. PMID: 17992582.                             ture. Hauppauge, NY, USA: Nova Science Publishers, 2016:41-44.




10                                                                                  Review | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023266
