Integrating Bibliometrics and Bioinformatics to Map Knowledge Structure and Trend Synthesis in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Bone Erosion (2015–2024)

Jie Li,1 Yuting Bian,2 Yuxin Han,2 Meiqi Lan,2 Wenjun Sun,1 Jianming Wang3,4 1Encephalopathy Department, Third Affiliated Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Graduate School, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of TCM Rheumatology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4Beijing Key Laboratory for Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wenjun Sun, Email [email protected] Jianming Wang, Email [email protected]: To comprehensively analyze the international trends and dynamics in rheumatoid arthritis and bone erosion research over the past 10 years, identifying research hotspots and challenges to provide references for future research directions and therapeutic strategies.Methods: A bibliometric analysis was conducted by retrieving relevant literature published between 2015 and 2024 from the Web of Science (WoS) database. A further bibliometric analysis and visualization of the relevant literature was conducted using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Scimago Graphica, and Excel. Further, disease-related targets were retrieved from Genecards using “rheumatoid arthritis” and “bone erosion” as keywords, followed by PPI network analysis to identify core targets and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis to elucidate key signaling pathways.Results: A total of 1,502 publications were included through a search of the WoS database. The number of publications initially showed a gradual increase but declined sharply after 2021. China and the United States ranked as the top two contributors, with China’s proportion of publications increasing while the US proportion decreased. Cluster analysis of institutional collaboration networks revealed significant regional clustering. Arthritis Research & Therapy published the most articles in this field, while Schett, Georg ranked first in both the number of publications (34) and citations (1,436). Keyword cluster analysis indicated that research primarily focused on imaging and mechanistic exploration. PPI and KEGG analyses revealed that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and bone erosion are closely associated with inflammatory factors and inflammation-related signaling pathways.Conclusion: This study highlights the evolving trends in rheumatoid arthritis and bone erosion research from 2015 to 2024, demonstrating China’s growing research contributions while international collaboration remains regionally concentrated. Future efforts should emphasize interdisciplinary integration and global cooperation to advance the understanding of bone erosion mechanisms and precision medicine approaches.Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, bone erosion, bibliometric analysis, CiteSpace, VOSviewer