A Scientometric Study on Publications on Hyperthermia and Cancer Research Jen-Hung Huang1, Wen-Ta Chiu2, Ming-Chih Yu3 and Yuh-Shan Ho4 1Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 2Department of Neurosurgery, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 3Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 4Bibliometric Centre, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan Introduction Fever is one of the most powerful mechanisms in our immune system. Hyperthermia artificially induces fever in patients who are unable to mount a natural fever response to infection, inflammation or other health challenges. It is an effective self-help treatment for the common cold and ful. This study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis of all hyperthermia and cancer-related publications in the Science Citation Index (SCI) during the time span of 1991 to 2004. Methods Documents used in this study were based on the databases of the SCI which was accessed from the ISI Web of Science, Philadelphia, PA, USA. A keyword search, using the following terms, was performed to identify hyperthermia and cancer-related studies published between 1991 and 2004: hyperthermia, hyperthermic, cancer, cancers, cancerous, cancerology, tumor, tumors, tumoral, tumorkilling, tumorigenic, tumoricidial, tumoricidal, tumorigenesis, carcinoma, and carcinomatosis. Results Nine document types were found in the total of 3,750 documents. Thirteen percent of all articles were published in International Journal of Hyperthermia. Forty-nine percent of all articles were published in journals listed in the category of oncology; 30% in radiology, nuclear medicine & medical imaging; and 13% in surgery. Table 1. Major characteristics of the production of hyperthermia and cancer research Figure 1. Ten most used author keywords in hyperthermia research P, No. of articles; IP, single country publications; CP, international collaboration publications Table 2. Publication activity of top ten countries AU: No. of authors; PG: Page count; NR: Cited reference count; J: No. of journals Conclusions The yearly production has not increased with an average of 238 articles in the studied period. An increasing number of author numbers since 1991 indicates a continuous growth of the scientific community. The United States producing 37% the articles followed by Japan with a 19% contribution. The most frequently used author keywords in hyperthermia research articles were ‘Apoptosis’ and followed by ‘Chemotherapy’, ‘Radiotherapy’, and ‘Cisplatin’. The G7 industrial countries (U.S.A., Japan, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, and Canada) represent a share of corresponding authors of 77% of world articles. The 3 most productive corresponding institutes were the Duke University at US, the Kyoto University at Japan, and the Harvard University at US. The ranking of corresponding country was USA, Japan, and Germany. The US was the most frequent partner accounting for comprising 30% of the international collaborative publications followed by the Germany with 13%, and Japan with 6.1%.