Mapping the knowledge of international Chinese medicines treatment on type 2 diabetes: A biblimetrical study

Objective: To uncover and identify the hot topic and frontier of Chinese medicines treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: Web of Science TM was searched for published articles for Chinese medicines treatment of T2DM ranging from January 1st, 2002 to July 6th, 2016. Knowledge maps of the international Chinese medicines treatment of T2DM are visualized by using document co-occurrence analysis and word frequency analysis (Institution and Journal), co-citation clustering analysis (Co-reference), keyword co-occurrence clustering analysis with CiteSpac III, a tool of scientometrics. Results: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico is the institution with the highest number of published papers that had been cited in this field, while China has four institutions among the top 10. The journal of the highest frequency of co-cited journal was Diabetes Care, a core one in the field. Keywords co-occurrence network was composed of 185 nodes, 541 lines, and divided into 10 clusters. Co-citation network of co-reference was composed of 407 nodes, 1199 lines, and divided into 20 clusters. Using Chinese medicine to improve insulin resistance and Chinese medicine research on blood glucose control are the hot topics. The frontier contains two aspects: new drugs development and application of intestinal insulin treatment and development and use of traditional Chinese medicine antidiabetic plants. Conclusion: Institutions from China still plays a major role in TCM-focused T2DM studies. The effect of TCM herbs on insulin resistance is the hot topic of the domain. Developing new TCM herbal medicine that regulates incretin effect is the domain frontier. Research on the Chinese medicines treatment of T2DM needs more high-quality evidence to support, and its mechanism requires further exploration.