A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Examining How Space Radiation Affects Human and Rodent Cognition, 1990–2023

The pursuit of exploring the outer space environment for biological research has been a topic of interest for nearly 60 years. The success of the next phase of space exploration depends on the ability to increase crew safety by identifying ways to mitigate these threats. Using a universal scientific citation indexing tool, we extracted data on literature production in terms of the most prolific key terms, authors, countries, institutions, and journals for two distinct topic sets related to space radiation research published from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2023. The focus of space radiation research in relation to its effects on human health has fluctuated over time, as reflected in the term maps that were generated for each decade. Our bibliometric analysis provides insight into the trends in the top producers in the space radiation research field over the years, as well as into how the focus of such studies has evolved throughout the decades.