“Today, we will delve into a significant bibliometric analysis titled ‘Research trends among new investigators at ISOQOL: a bibliometric analysis from 2019 to 2023,’ authored by Kwon et al. (2025). This study, published in the Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes, offers crucial insights into the evolving landscape of Quality of Life (QoL) research.
Background and Purpose: The field of QoL research is dynamic, continually shaped by advancements and new perspectives. New investigators (NI), including graduate students, recent doctoral graduates, and early-career faculty, are recognized as pivotal in advancing this field through innovative methodologies and diverse viewpoints. The International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) serves as a global platform for QoL research, and its New Investigators Special Interest Group (NI-SIG) fosters collaboration within this community. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively assess the scholarly output of NI-SIG members, examining their publication trends, collaboration patterns, and thematic developments from 2019 to 2023.
Methodology: The researchers utilized a bibliometric analysis approach, extracting data on publications authored by 56 eligible NI-SIG members from Web of Science and Scopus for the period 2019–2023. A two-step screening process, guided by the Wilson and Cleary model of QoL, identified 561 unique documents for analysis. The analysis included:
- Descriptive metrics for publication trends, citations, journal impact factors, and geographic distribution.
- Co-authorship network analysis to explore collaborative relationships.
- Thematic mapping using clustering algorithms to identify established and emerging research areas based on keywords and document titles.
Key Findings: The study revealed several important trends and patterns among NI-SIG members’ contributions:
- Publication Output: Publication output steadily increased from 2019 to 2022, peaking at 163 publications, before declining to 135 in 2023. The average citations per document also saw a downward trend from 4.8 to 1.3 in 2023, which may be partly attributed to the inherent lag in accumulating citations for newer publications and broader global factors like the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Journal Distribution: The majority of publications appeared in core QoL journals such as Quality of Life Research (n = 128), Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes (n = 17), and BMJ Open (n = 15). Notably, Journal of Clinical Oncology had the highest five-year impact factor (37.4), and Health and Quality of Life Outcomes had the highest citations per document (28.5) among the top journals.
- Geographic Distribution: Most contributors were from high-income countries, with the United States, Canada, and Australia accounting for over 50% of the total publications.
- Collaboration Patterns: A robust, interconnected cluster of authors was identified, suggesting strong collaborative efforts, often attributed to publishing with mentors. However, opportunities were noted to enhance global partnerships, particularly with low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) to integrate diverse perspectives.
- Thematic Developments: Thematic analysis identified well-established areas like psychometric validation and cancer (e.g., “patient-reported outcome,” “clinical study,” “lung cancer”), alongside emerging topics such as mixed methods in QoL research, qualitative studies, and scoping reviews.
Conclusion and Implications: The study concludes that new investigators are making significant contributions to QoL research and fostering collaborations. However, it also highlights considerable opportunities to enhance their impact through increased international collaborations, especially with underrepresented regions, and by engaging with emerging research areas and innovative methodologies like natural language processing and machine learning. Strengthening global partnerships and promoting inclusivity are key to driving the future direction of QoL research.
APA Reference: Kwon, J.-Y., Kaur, M. N., Elsman, E. B. M., Mehdipour, A., Lo, L. S. H., Osman, A. M. Y., Herbelet, S., Ng, C.-A., & van der Weijst, L. (2025). Research trends among new investigators at ISOQOL: a bibliometric analysis from 2019 to 2023. Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes, 9(54). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41687-025-00878-1″
