Bibliometric analysis of the 3-year trends (2018-2021) in literature on artificial intelligence in ophthalmology and vision sciences

Objectives The objective of this analysis is to present a current view of the field of ophthalmology and vision research and artificial intelligence (AI) from topical and geographical perspectives. This will clarify the direction of the field in the future and aid clinicians in adapting to new technological developments. Methods A comprehensive search of four different databases was conducted. Statistical and bibliometric analysis were done to characterise the literature. Softwares used included the R Studio bibliometrix package, and VOSviewer. Results A total of 3939 articles were included in the final bibliometric analysis. Diabetic retinopathy (391, 6% of the top 100 keywords) was the most frequently occurring indexed keyword by a large margin. The highest impact literature was produced by the least populated countries and in those countries who collaborate internationally. This was confirmed via a hypothesis test where no correlation was found between gross number of published articles and average number of citations (p value=0.866, r=0.038), while graphing ratio of international collaboration against average citations produced a positive correlation (r=0.283). Majority of publications were found to be concentrated in journals specialising in vision and computer science, with this category of journals having the highest number of publications per journal (18.00 publications/journal), though they represented a small proportion of the total journals (<1%). Conclusion This study provides a unique characterisation of the literature at the intersection of AI and ophthalmology and presents correlations between article impact and geography, in addition to summarising popular research topics.