Commentary: Research hotspots and global trends in respiratory syncytial virus over past five years

Sujing Weng¹Qimin Tang^2*Hua Zhao^1*

• ¹Hubei University of Chinese Medicine Affiliated Gong'an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jingzhou City, China
• ²Jingzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jingzhou City, China

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the main cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections in 21 children under 2 years old. In recent years, the exponential growth in biomedical literature has 22 prompted considerable attention to be directed toward bibliometrics as a method capable of 23 quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing research trends and hotspots within a given discipline. We 24 read with great interest the publication by Xiaoli We express our profound support and appreciation for the researchers' contributions to this field and 36 extend our sincere gratitude for their efforts. Nevertheless, several issues were identified that required 37 clarification and correction. 38Firstly, the abstract states the following: A comprehensive search encompassing 7,238 articles and 39 comments was conducted. However, the text also states, "A total of 7,290 articles were ultimately 40 analyzed from 2020 to 2024." A total of 7,238 articles and reviews from the past five years were 41 retrieved from the SCI-Extended version of WoSCC. It is recommended that authors clearly specify 42 the total number of included literatures and make changes. 43Secondly, the search formula is identified in the main text. The search formula in Table 1 is 44 inconsistent with the following terms: "Respiratory syncytial virus," "Syncytial virus," "syncytial-45 virus," "syncytial virus," "RSV," "RSV virus," or "orthopneumovirus." It is recommended that the 46 author provide clarification regarding the final search formula and implement the necessary 47 corrections. 48 Thirdly, the section "Annual trend in the quantity of paper publication" in the text states: The number 49 of yearly papers increased from 1,319 in 2020 to 1,684 in 2024. However, it is important to note that 50 the cumulative number of documents in 2020 was 1,310, as shown in Figure 1. This suggests that 51 there may be a discrepancy between the two figures. 52A fourth point of contention is found in the section entitled "Contributions of countries/regions to 53 global publications," wherein the data concerning the number of publications by several countries is 54 contradictory. For example: As previously documented, the United States published the most articles 55(2,278/33.1%), followed by China (1,524/22.14%) and England (527/7.65%). However, subsequent 56 documentation revealed that the USA had a higher document (2,236), England (total link strength 57 1,105, documents 514). A particularly salient example of this phenomenon is evident in Figure 3B, 58 wherein the number of articles published by China is clearly no more than 1,000, a figure that is 59 substantially less than the previously cited 1,524. 60 Fifth, the paragraph entitled "Analysis of authors" states: it is interesting that although Bont, Louis J., 61 who ranks second, has a higher number of articles, he is relatively low in terms of NC ( 883), H-index 62 (17), and average citation per item (20.71). However, as illustrated in Table 4, the second row 63indicates " Bont, Louis J," and the fifth row indicates " Bont, L. J," their countries and institutions are 64 identical. These correspondences suggest a potential identity between the authors. We posit that a 65 combined analysis of the two would be a judicious approach, as it has the potential to more 66 effectively accentuate their academic status within this research domain. 67In conclusion, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for the valuable contributions of Xiaoli of RSV among researchers and inform decision-making processes. However, to maintain the rigor 72 and scientificity of the article, it would be advisable for the author to employ more rigorous 73 expression. 74