From Dissection to Simulation: An Exploratory Scientometric and Methodological Analysis of Anatomy Education Literature

Background and Aim: Anatomy education has expanded beyond cadaver-centered teaching toward simulation-based, digital, and hybrid approaches. However, it remains unclear how the literature is distributed across these modalities and whether they differ in methodological profile and bibliometric visibility. This study aimed to map Scopus-indexed anatomy education literature across dissection-based, simulation-based, and hybrid approaches. Materials and Methods: We conducted an exploratory scientometric and methodological analysis of Scopus-indexed articles and reviews retrieved on 14 April 2026. The search combined anatomy-related, medical education-related, and modality-related terms referring to dissection or simulation. Records published from 2000 up to the search date were included. Teaching modality, study design, and outcome type were identified through semi-automated lexical coding of title, abstract, author keywords, and index keywords. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations between teaching modality and methodological characteristics, while citation visibility was examined using a multivariable linear regression model of log-transformed citations per year. Results: The final corpus comprised 2116 articles and reviews. After excluding records classified as unclear with respect to teaching modality, 2094 records were included in modality-based analyses. Dissection-based studies were the numerically dominant category, followed by hybrid and simulation-based studies. Simulation-based studies showed higher odds of being experimental than dissection-based studies, whereas both simulation-based and hybrid studies showed higher odds of reporting objective and clinical/procedural outcomes. In the bibliometric model, hybrid studies, reviews, international collaboration, and larger author teams were associated with greater citation visibility. Conclusions: The transition from dissection-centered anatomy teaching to digital and mixed approaches appears not only thematic, but also methodological and bibliometric. Simulation-oriented studies were more frequently framed through experimental and outcome-based designs, whereas hybrid studies showed the strongest independent citation visibility. These findings should be interpreted as exploratory mapping signals rather than evidence of comparative pedagogical superiority.