Myopia Control: A Citation Network Study

Background: According to the World Health Organization, myopia is already one of the major causes of vision impairment and blindness. It is predicted to affect almost a half of the world's population within the next years. A lot of researches around the world have been performed on myopia, there is no clear overview of these researchers. In this manuscript, we analyzed the main connections between the most cited researchers, to build a citation network to evaluate the impact of different authors, journals, and subjects in the field of myopia control. Methods: A search using the keywords “myopia control” was made through Web of Science. Extracted data was analyzed using CitNetExplorer® software obtaining a visual evaluation of the most cited publications. A subnet analysis was made by adding the keywords “myopia control" AND ("orthokeratology" OR "corneal refractive therapy”), “myopia control" AND ("soft contact lens*" OR "multifocal contact lens*”), and “myopia control" AND "atropine”. The most important publications of the network and subnetworks were analyzed using the "core" function. Results: This study showed 228 references that generated 1087 citations across the network. 2013 was the most important year for myopia control, with most publications and citations. Optometry and Vision Science journal has published the most cited papers. Regarding the authors, Walline ranked the first of the most cited articles on myopia control. Conclusion: This study analyzed the associations between the authors, journals and subjects in myopia control, highlighting the great importance of this area in the recent years. More than 50% of the papers in the network were published after 2013.