Bibliometric analysis of publications on organ donation: 1980 to 2024

Aim: The insufficiency of organ donation (OD) drives researchers to conduct studies and develop solutions in this area. This study aimed to bibliometrically examine studies on organ donation indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database. Material and Methods: The bibliometric mapping technique, one of the bibliometric analysis methods, was employed in the study. The open-source "Bibliometrix" software based on R was used for bibliometric analysis. Results: The analysis reviewed 2,578 articles published in 627 different journals between 1980 and 2023. The annual growth rate of publications was 12.46%, with an average of 16.69 citations per article and 8,713 total authors in the field. The most influential researchers were Susan E. Morgan and Laura A. Siminoff from the United States and Rafael Matesanz from Spain. The most influential researchers of Turkish origin were Nevzat Bilgin and Mehmet Haberal from Başkent University, and Ali Ozer from İnönü University. The journals “American Journal of Transplantation,” “Transplantation Proceedings,” and “Transplantation” were identified as the top three in terms of publications and citations. The most cited study was “The impact of presumed consent legislation on cadaveric organ donation: a cross-country study” by Alberto Abadie and Sebastien Gay, published in J Health Econ in 2006. The key themes identified were transplantation, tissue and organ procurement, qualitative research, attitude, knowledge, awareness, brain death, ethics, donation after cardiac death, consent, informed consent, and autonomy. These are expected to be the focus of future research. Conclusion: This study provided a bibliometric analysis of articles on organ donation in the WoS database, offering valuable insights for researchers in the field.