Bibliometric Analysis of Pharmacological Research on Salidroside Based on CiteSpace: Trends, Hotspots and Future Prospects

Summary

This study mapped global salidroside research from 2000 to 2025 using CiteSpace, identified publication trends, leading authors and institutions, major research hotspots, and emerging directions in its pharmacological applications.

Abstract

Salidroside exerts a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities and represents a promising drug candidate for multiple ailments, including myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, acute lung injury, and Alzheimer’s disease; nonetheless, quantitative and systematic overviews mapping its full research landscape remain inadequate. In this study, relevant publications from 2000 to 2025 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric and visual analyses were conducted using CiteSpace and Microsoft Excel. A total of 1400 eligible papers were included. Annual publication output increased gradually before 2010 and accelerated thereafter. Investigators across 62 countries have contributed to this field, with core research clusters centered at institutions such as China Pharmaceutical University. Keyword co‑occurrence analysis reveals that research hotspots center on salidroside’s anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-apoptotic properties, and research has increasingly focused on respiratory, neurological, and cardiovascular disorders through modulation of NF-κB, HIF-1α, and NLRP3 signaling cascades. Meanwhile, salidroside production has evolved from conventional herbal extraction toward industrial fermentation, and its pharmacological exploration has expanded beyond anti‑aging and anti‑hypoxia bioactivity to encompass anti‑tumor efficacy and multi‑organ protection.

Introduction

Salidroside is a phenylethanoid glycoside derived from a range of medicinal plants, including the traditional Chinese medicine herb Rhodiola crenulata (Dahuahongjingtian), Ligustrum lucidum (Nüzhenzi), Cistanche deserticola (Roucongrong), Eleutherococcus senticosus (Ciwujia), Sargentodoxa cuneata (Daxueteng), as well as Acer tegmentosum Maxim (Qingjieqi)^1,2,3,4. It exhibits prominent pharmacological effects encompassing antioxidant, anti‑inflammatory, anti‑hypoxic, anti‑fatigue, and neuroprotective activities, and has been incorporated into multiple traditional Chinese medicinal preparations such as Nodikang Capsules, Jinlian Capsules, and Zhenqi Fuzheng Capsules^5,6,7. Salidroside has shown tremendous potential in combating central nervous system disorders (such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and ischemic stroke), managing metabolic diseases, and delaying senescence, thus emerging as a research hotspot in the field of natural product research and new drug development. With the advancement of molecular biology techniques, the molecular mechanisms of salidroside in regulating key signaling pathways, including nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2), NOD‑like receptor pyrin domain‑containing protein 3 (NLRP3), and Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-κB), ameliorating mitochondrial function and modulating autophagy have been continuously elucidated, with a massive volume of relevant literature accumulated to date^{8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17}.

Bibliometrics, initially categorized as statistical bibliography, is a discipline applying mathematical and statistical methods to bibliographic documents. It quantitatively analyzes a massive body of literature to reveal development trajectories, research hotspots, frontiers, and academic collaboration networks. Early on, librarians used it to identify core journals, optimize collections, and support acquisition decisions¹⁸. CiteSpace visualizes the evolution of specific knowledge domains through text mining. Compared with another bibliometric visualization tool based on VOSviewer, it offers unique features such as Timezone View and Timeline View, which clearly display the rise and fall, division, and integration of research topics over the years. Using co-occurrence, co-citation, and cluster analysis, it generates knowledge maps to pinpoint key literature, authors, institutions, and emerging fronts, earning it the title of “scientific knowledge mapping radar”¹⁹.

Research on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) boasts a long history, backed by abundant archival literature. However, existing studies span a wide range of research themes, from the natural plant extraction and bioengineering synthesis of salidroside to investigations of its pharmacological mechanisms against diverse diseases, as well as extensive research on its combined medication regimens.

To date, research concerning salidroside has yielded substantial progress. Although numerous reviews have summarized salidroside's pharmacological activities, quantitative assessments of publication trends, collaboration patterns, research hotspots, and emerging topics remain limited. Accordingly, this study uses CiteSpace 6.4.R1 to conduct a visual analysis of publication output, focusing on the authors, affiliated institutions, and keywords of salidroside-related papers published between 2000 and 2025. It characterizes the evolution of research trends and hot topics over the past 25 years and identifies emerging research directions and potential future hotspots (Figure 1).

Protocol

Data sources and retrieval strategy

All raw data used in this study were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database^20,21. The study period spans from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2025, and the literature search was conducted on May 27, 2026. The specific search formula was set as:

TS=(Salidroside OR Rhodioloside OR Rhodosin OR "2-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)ethyl β-D-glucopyranoside" OR "p-Hydroxyphenethyl glucopyranoside" OR Tyrosol β-D-glucopyranoside OR Sallidroside) AND FPY=2000-2025.

Literature inclusion and exclusion criteria

In this study, only articles and reviews from the Web of Science Core Collection were included in the analysis, with English as the language restriction. Other document types, including Meeting Abstract, Retracted Publication, Correction, Retraction, Proceeding Paper, Editorial Material, Early Access, Letter, and Publication with Expression of Concern, were excluded from further analysis.

Data processing and visualization

All retrieved literature was exported in RefWorks format as a download.txt file, which was subsequently imported into CiteSpace 6.4.R1 for data conversion and analysis²². Prior to analysis, two researchers conducted manual screening to eliminate duplicate records. We compared basic metadata to spot duplicates and thoroughly checked entries with discrepant information for accurate identification.

To ensure accurate identification by the software, keyword unification was applied to the retrieved entries. For instance, variants including “nf kappa b” and “nuclear factor-kappab” were standardized to “NF-κB”, while “interleukin‑6” and “il 6” were consolidated as “IL-6”; further standardized items are listed in the supplementary table. After manual screening, all institutions are presented with their current official names, with no outdated names or secondary affiliated units involved. No authors have alternative names. Sovereign states are taken as the criterion for counting national publications. All records originally marked as “Taiwan” were reclassified under “China”²³.

Detailed parameter configurations are as follows: the research time span was set from 2000 to 2025 with a 2-year slicing interval, and no publications were identified for the year 2000. Node types were selected as author, institution, and keyword, alongside a fixed g-index value of 25. The g-index threshold of 25 was adopted in line with common practices in bibliometric studies. This threshold effectively excludes scattered low-impact nodes while retaining core research entities and major cooperative relationships. The Link Retaining Factor was set to 2.5, and Maximum Links Per Node was limited to 10. For burst detection of visualized keywords, γ was assigned as 0.7^24,25. This coefficient ranges from 0 to 1; higher γ values impose stricter screening criteria, retaining only keywords with extremely strong burst strength. Meanwhile, Minimum Duration was set to 2, meaning a keyword is marked as a valid burst term only if its research hot spot persists for at least 2 consecutive years. All literature screening was performed manually by two reviewers independently, and discrepancies were resolved through discussion to reach consensus.

Results

Analysis of publication trends

A total of 1468 publications were retrieved spanning 2000 to 2025. After document screening, only 1293 original Articles and 107 Review Articles were retained. Publications remained scarce from 2000 to 2010, indicating preliminary and sporadic exploration of salidroside research. No relevant papers were published in 2000, 2004, 2005, and 2009, and no stable research communities had formed during this period, with only a small number of researchers conducting occasional investigations. Starting in 2011, annual publication output climbed steadily year after year except for consecutive declines in 2020 and 2021, before hitting a 25‑year peak of 166 articles in 2025. After a rebound in 2022, publication numbers resumed regular steady growth from 2023 to 2025. Based on this trend, we predict no downward drop in publication volume in 2026 (Figure 2).

Author collaboration network

CiteSpace was used to statistically analyze the authors of the included publications. The top 10 prolific authors ranked by publication counts were summarized, and the corresponding author collaboration network was constructed, as presented in Table 1 and Figure 3, respectively. A total of 504 unique authors contributed to the retrieved English literature. Yan Tianhua ranked first with 18 published articles. Following Price’s law,

authors with no fewer than 3 publications were defined as core authors, yielding 141 core authors in total²⁶ (Figure 3 and Table 1).

An analysis of author collaborations revealed that Yan Tianhua, Chang Xiayun, Luo Fen, He He, and Zhou Rui, among the top 10 most prolific authors, belong to the same research team. From 2006 to 2017, this group mainly focused on the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular protective effects of salidroside. In recent years, their research has shifted toward the molecular mechanisms underlying ferroptosis in tumors^{27,28,29,30,31}.

Institutional and national collaboration networks

A total of 355 institutions have engaged in salidroside-related basic and translational research over the 25-year period. The network density was calculated as 0.012, a metric proposed by Chaomei Chen based on the total number of nodes and actual connecting edges³². This low density indicates that only a small number of medical universities have formed cooperative clusters, while cross-institutional collaboration remains limited for most participating organizations. Leading early-start institutions include China Pharmaceutical University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Figure 4).

Among the top 10 most productive research institutes (Table 2), China Pharmaceutical University ranks first with 43 published articles. Its research scope covers pharmacological mechanisms, biosynthesis, metabolic pathways, pharmaceutical formulation development, and clinical potential of salidroside.

Country-level publication analysis (Figure 4, Table 3) identified research contributions from 62 nations across 2000–2025. China dominates total output, followed by the USA, South Korea, and India.

China’s high publication output can be attributed to three key factors. First, abundant wild Rhodiola resources distributed across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and northwest Yunnan create unique geographical resource advantages. Second, as an essential ingredient in traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicines documented in the 8th-century Tibetan medical work Yuewang Yaojing (Moon King’s Medicine Classic), Rhodiola has a long-standing clinical history, laying a foundational framework for early pharmacological investigations into salidroside’s anti-fatigue and anti-hypoxia activities³³. Third, China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and national revitalization policies for traditional Chinese medicine have boosted funding for healthcare research, industrial development, and talent cultivation, substantially facilitating the publication of salidroside-related findings.

Literature citation analysis

Citation frequency serves as a core metric for evaluating an author’s research output quality and academic influence. Analyses of highly cited publications help delineate research backgrounds, developmental trends, and frontier hotspots, laying a foundational reference for follow-up investigations³⁴. Co-citation frequencies of salidroside-related publications are summarized in Table 4; two articles are defined as co-cited once they are jointly referenced by later published papers.

Highly cited literature was predominantly published between 2010 and 2021, with 2020 accounting for the largest share of publications and representing a pivotal year for citation accumulation in this field. Most of these top-cited articles appeared in BIOMEDICINE and PHARMACOTHERAPY, alongside other authoritative journals specializing in pharmacology and natural product research, such as CHEMICO-BIOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS and MEDICINAL RESEARCH REVIEWS.

Scholars from China contributed most of these highly cited works, complemented by a small volume of overseas research outputs. The highly cited papers primarily focus on the pharmacological mechanisms and pharmacodynamic assessment of salidroside, establishing an essential foundation for subsequent mechanistic exploration and disease model development within the field.

Keyword co-occurrence analysis

Keyword co-occurrence analysis identifies thematic correlations, research hotspots, and developmental trends within published literature; higher co-occurrence frequency indicates tighter relevance between corresponding research topics. In the present study, a total of 465 keywords were extracted from included publications, yielding a network density of 0.0221³⁵. Abundant connecting edges among nodes demonstrate strong interconnections across research themes and extensive interdisciplinary integration in this field, as visualized in Figure 5.

Keyword co-occurrence frequency is closely correlated with centrality. Keywords with higher centrality enjoy closer co-occurrence links and exert greater influence within the network. Nodes with centrality ≥ 0.1 are considered pivotal. As listed in Table 5, the pivotal keywords include apoptosis (0.13) and glycoside (0.12).

Existing research predominantly centers on the biological sources and pharmacological activities of salidroside. One branch focuses on the material basis of medicinal extracts, phenylethanoid glycoside (0.05) and phenolic compound (0.04); the other explores pharmacological mechanisms involving oxidative stress (0.05), apoptosis (0.13), and NF‑κB (0.05) signaling pathways. Research models primarily consist of in vitro (0.04) assays and in vivo (0.05) rodent experiments using rats (0.02) and mice (0.02), while targeted diseases include neurodegenerative disorders, organ injury, cancers, and diverse inflammatory illnesses.

Referring to the timeline color legend, most core keyword nodes are colored red or orange, indicating that mechanistic research on salidroside, oxidative stress, and inflammation has remained the dominant research focus in recent years. By contrast, emerging keywords, including gut microbiota (0.02), autophagy (0.02), HIF-1α (0.02), and NLRP3 (0.03), display newer color tones, representing newly emerging frontiers in salidroside research.

Keyword clustering analysis

Ten distinct clusters were generated from the keyword clustering map. The clustering parameters were calculated as Q = 0.4295 (>0.3) and S = 0.7372 (>0.7), demonstrating a robust clustering architecture, favorable intra-cluster keyword aggregation, and statistically reliable grouping outcomes³⁶ (Figure 6 and Table 6).

The ten clusters correspond to ten core research themes: oxidative stress, tyrosol, NF‑κB, Rhodiola, Cistanche, mitochondria, network pharmacology, metabolic syndrome, quality control, and directed evolution. Each cluster presents well-defined boundaries, whereas abundant cross-links across clusters reveal intensive mutual infiltration and close correlations among disparate research topics.

The overall research system falls into four domains: the material basis of bioactive constituents, molecular mechanisms of pharmacological action, pharmacodynamic investigation of associated disorders, and emerging research methodologies. Collectively, these subfields integrate to construct the complete research framework of salidroside.

Clusters #1 (tyrosol), #3 (metabolic syndrome), and #8 (quality control) collectively constitute the upstream research focused on raw medicinal materials and bioactive substances. Relevant investigations include the extraction and synthesis of Rhodiola crude drugs, tyrosol, and phenolic glycosides, the establishment of herbal quality specifications, and whole-herb intervention against metabolic syndrome, which lays a solid material foundation for downstream pharmacodynamic studies of purified monomers.

Built on such foundational research, clusters #0 (oxidative stress), #2 (NF‑κB), #4 (Rhodiola), and #6 (mitochondria) center on pharmacological mechanisms and disease applications. Using cellular and animal models, researchers conduct pharmacodynamic tests for neurodegeneration, ischemic injury, cancers, and metabolic disorders via key targets including oxidative stress, NF‑κB-mediated inflammatory cascades, and mitochondrial apoptosis. Cluster #5 Cistanche reflects an interdisciplinary exploration of the combined use of Rhodiola and Cistanche for the treatment of hepatic diseases, expanding the research scope of traditional Chinese medicinal formulas.

Clusters #7 network pharmacology and #9 directed evolution represent two distinct methodological categories. Network pharmacology, combined with molecular docking and other bioinformatic tools, helps predict molecular targets and bridge active ingredient profiling with mechanistic research; directed evolution-based biotechnology is applied in niche studies on alcoholic injury. The adoption of innovative techniques facilitates conventional research on phytochemistry and pharmacology. Dense inter-cluster connections visually confirm that these research modules develop interactively rather than in isolation. Continuous interdisciplinary integration across constituent discovery, mechanistic elucidation, disease verification, and technological innovation eventually forms a closed-loop research chain: starting from herbal resources and monomer isolation, moving toward fundamental mechanisms and disease-oriented pharmacological validation, and incorporating conventional assays alongside cutting-edge technical approaches.

Keyword burst analysis

Temporal shifts in burst keywords distinctly reveal the evolutionary trajectory of research hotspots in salidroside research. From 2001 to 2014, bursting terms including glycoside (7.15), Rhodiola crenulata (5.12), phenylpropanoid glycoside (3.73), stress (5.95), and extract (5.72) defined the pioneering-stage research framework dominated by crude herb resource investigation, screening of glycosidic bioactive compounds, and preliminary in vitro antioxidant assays. Concurrent burst items such as PC12 cell (5.76), double-blind trial (4.82), nitric oxide (4.07), and kinase (3.72) further enriched early research focusing on in vitro cell models and pharmacodynamic biomarkers, with the overall emphasis placed on identifying material bases and preliminary pharmacological validation (Table 7).

Between 2015 and 2018, acute lung injury (9.78) achieved the strongest burst intensity across the entire observation period, accompanied by surging bursts of in vivo (3.84) experiment and endothelial cell-related keywords. This shift marked a transition from basic phytochemical characterization to in vivo pharmacodynamic verification targeting specific organ injuries, as experimental designs evolved from isolated cell cultures to intact animal models and disease-targeted research took precedence.

Research priorities were reshaped again after 2018. The NLRP3 (3.28) inflammasome pioneered a new round of target exploration, followed by successive bursts of gut microbiota, ischemic stroke (3.34), and cardiac-related keywords. These trends expanded salidroside’s pharmacological applications toward gut-host interactions, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disorders, and novel inflammatory targets. Toward the end of the study period, network pharmacology (11.67) and molecular docking (6.85) exhibited sustained high burst strengths through 2025, indicating that bioinformatic prediction has become a prevailing research paradigm and enabled seamless integration between conventional pharmacological assays and contemporary computational pharmaceutical techniques.

Collectively, hotspot evolution follows a progressive path: starting with herbal constituents and core signaling pathways, progressing to single-organ diseases, and eventually advancing to multi-target, multi-system disorders aided by emerging analytical tools. Such progression outlines a stepwise developmental route from fundamental empirical experiments toward multidisciplinary integration.

Data Availability:

The raw bibliometric data retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, together with files processed and merged in this study, are submitted as Supplementary Coding File 1.

Figure 1: Flowchart of literature retrieval and analysis. This flowchart illustrates the procedures for literature retrieval, data screening, and bibliometric analysis. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 2: Annual publication trends in salidroside research (2000–2025). The bar chart and line graph show the number of salidroside-related publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection for each year. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 3: Co-occurrence atlas of authors in literature. The map shows the collaboration relationships among researchers in the field, with node size representing publication volume and connecting lines indicating cooperative links between authors. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 4: Co-occurrence atlas of publishing (A) institutions and (B) countries in literature. Node size corresponds to publication count. Lines in panel (A) represent collaborative publications between institutions, while lines in panel (B) show joint publications on salidroside among different countries. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 5: Keyword co-occurrence atlas of literature. Node size reflects the frequency of each keyword, and connecting lines represent co-occurrence relationships between terms. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 6: Keyword clustering analysis of literature. Keywords are grouped into distinct thematic clusters. Cluster distribution reveals core research topics and evolving trends in this field. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Table 1: Top authors by publication output in literature. The table displays the top ten contributors with the highest publication volumes across the included literature. Please click here to download this file.

Table 2: Top 10 institutions with the highest publication count in literature. The list presents the leading institutions with the most publications in the field of salidroside. Please click here to download this file.

Table 3: Top 10 countries by publication output in literature. The table ranks the ten countries with the highest publication output in salidroside research. Please click here to download this file.

Table 4: Top 10 papers by co-citation frequency in the included literature. The table lists the ten most frequently co-cited papers from the collected literature. Please click here to download this file.

Table 5: Top keywords in literature. The table ranks the predominant keywords associated with salidroside research. Please click here to download this file.

Table 6: Keyword clustering analysis of literature. The table groups frequently appear keywords into thematic clusters to reveal core research topics. Please click here to download this file.

Table 7: Keyword burst of salidroside research in literature (2000–2025). The red segment indicates the period during which the keyword exhibited a significant citation burst, representing a research hotspot during that time.  Please click here to download this file.

Supplementary Coding File 1: Raw bibliometric data retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. The file includes all bibliographic records analyzed in this study, exported from Web of Science in three plain-text batches due to database download limits. Please click here to download this file.

Discussion

This study adopted bibliometric approaches based on publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection spanning 2000 to 2025. Through systematic quantitative visualization, we mapped global research output, institutional collaboration landscapes, and shifting research hotspots surrounding salidroside, delineating stage-specific developmental trajectories across the 25-year analytical window. The field has advanced in distinct progressive phases. Prior to 2011, overall publication volume remained low, research groups were geographically fragmented, and a cohesive research framework had yet to consolidate³⁷. Investigations predominantly focused on Rhodiola resource screening and the preliminary characterization of bioactive constituents, yielding scattered findings with limited mechanistic depth. Publication output rose steadily after 2011 as research priorities shifted from phytochemical profiling toward disease-oriented in vivo pharmacodynamic validation^38,39,40. The sharp surge in publications on organ injury and endothelial regulation between 2015 and 2018 marked a pivotal methodological transition from isolated in vitro cell assays to integrated whole-animal pathological models. From 2018 onward, salidroside research entered a multidisciplinary, high-quality developmental era. Emerging topics, including the NLRP3 inflammasome^41,42,43, gut microbiota, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular pathologies, continuously expand the field’s investigative scope⁴⁴. Coupled with widespread adoption of bioinformatic tools such as network pharmacology and molecular docking, a comprehensive research chain covering medicinal resource exploitation, constituent identification, mechanistic elucidation, disease validation, and technological innovation has gradually taken shape.

Keyword clustering and burst detection subdivide contemporary salidroside research into three interconnected tiers: upstream foundational phytochemical research, middle-stream pharmacological mechanistic exploration, and downstream translational technology development. Upstream efforts center on isolation, purification, and synthetic optimization of tyrosol and phenylethanoid glycosides derived from raw Rhodiola materials, alongside herbal quality control and whole-herb trials evaluating anti-metabolic syndrome efficacy, establishing solid chemical and empirical foundations for subsequent monomolecular pharmacology. Mid-tier investigations focus on core pathological cascades, including oxidative stress, NF-κB-mediated inflammatory signaling, and mitochondrial homeostasis, to decipher salidroside’s therapeutic mechanisms against neurodegeneration, cardiovascular damage, malignant tumors, and metabolic disorders⁴⁵. Downstream progress leverages cutting-edge methodologies ranging from network pharmacology prediction to directed evolutionary synthetic biology, enabling precise target fishing, systematic mechanistic verification, and scalable high-yield production of bioactive compounds; these advances drive robust interdisciplinary integration among classic pharmacology, computational pharmacy, synthetic biology, and bioinformatics^46,47,48.

Despite robust preclinical findings, multiple barriers hinder the advancement of salidroside research and its clinical translation. Current studies overemphasize cell and small-animal experiments but lack large, multicenter clinical trials, with undefined dosing regimens, safety data, and therapeutic indications that block clinical translation. Most mechanistic investigations only focus on individual signaling pathways, such as NF-κB, NLRP3, and ROS, identified in the keyword map. Crosstalk within signaling networks has not been fully explored, leaving the cell-specific regulatory mechanisms unclear. Emerging research directions highlighted in the keyword map, including herbal compatibility, microbiota regulation, and novel drug carriers, are still in the initial stage. The low publication density of research institutions reflects the current research pattern dominated by independent single laboratories, which hinders cross-field cooperation and technological breakthroughs. In addition, raw material scarcity limits traditional extraction; scalable, low-cost biosynthesis is still immature, while poor oral bioavailability and blood-brain barrier permeability further limit clinical formulation development.

Guided by existing limitations and evolving research trends, future salidroside work is likely to prioritize refined mechanism exploration, translational research, technical innovation, and standardized research systems. Basic research may shift from single-target assays to dissect complex networks involving NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis, mitophagy, and gut-host metabolism to supplement pharmacological theories. Applied research targeting neuroprotection, cardiovascular repair, anticancer, and metabolic diseases will advance structural modifications and targeted nanoparticle preparations to improve bioavailability, alongside combination therapy research for expanded clinical use. Technologies such as network pharmacology and synthetic biology may form a closed-loop research system spanning target screening to pharmacodynamic verification, thereby promoting interdisciplinary integration. Standardized clinical trials can confirm dosage and safety parameters, facilitating new drug development. Furthermore, extensive global cooperation is likely to improve resource sharing and accelerate the modernization of TCM-derived active ingredients.

Bibliometric reliability and reproducibility depend on the full analytical pipeline of retrieval, screening, preprocessing, parameter setup, and result analysis. Small changes to databases, search terms, or study periods, such as publication numbers, can lead to inconsistent datasets, while non-standardized dual-review screening can cause inconsistent datasets. Unstandardized normalization of author/institution names and keywords skews publication, co-occurrence, and clustering results. Variable CiteSpace settings and subjective post-processing of network graphs create sequential biases and weaken the reproducibility of results.

This bibliometric study has several inherent methodological limitations. First, inconsistent database indexing and varied aliases of salidroside may cause incomplete or irrelevant literature retrieval, while heterogeneous reference formats hinder fully automatic deduplication, necessitating manual data cleaning. Second, CiteSpace parameters, including the g-index, TopN value, and network pruning settings, may artificially affect network structure, clustering patterns, and burst detection results, which were optimized iteratively to ensure credible visualization⁴⁹. Third, restricted database coverage excludes grey literature, unpublished data, and ethnic medicinal records, whereas English-dominated database inclusion leads to linguistic bias and incomplete representation of regional TCM studies.

In addition, replicating bibliometric analyses is hampered by several common hurdles during data preprocessing. Inconsistent author name abbreviations, variant spellings, and name homonymy, compounded by the lack of unique researcher identifiers, skew publication count tallies and collaborative network structures. Institutions are listed under numerous alternate names; failing to standardize these labels renders collaboration clustering invalid.

These data cleaning workflows are rarely disclosed in published work. If replication researchers rely directly on raw metadata without reconstructing author disambiguation rules, institutional normalization protocols, keyword consolidation schemes, and original retrieval constraints, they will observe deviations in statistical results, visual maps, and final conclusions alike. Properly addressing these challenges is critical to ensuring the reproducibility of bibliometric research.

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
CiteSpace 6.4.R1	Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA	https://citespace.podia.com	Bibliometric visualization software
Microsoft Excel 2021	Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA	https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/excel	Software for manual screening and merging of keywords, institutions and other items
Web of Science Core Collection database	Clarivate, Philadelphia, PA, USA	https://www.webofscience.com	Online citation database