Electronic cigarettes have been widely used all over the world. It is not clear what the advantages and disadvantages of a novelty in daily life are that is attracting increasing attention. Up to now, no bibliometric studies on e-cigarettes have been published in databases. Therefore, we are willing to explore directions and research hotspots in this emerging field by using bibliometrics to analyze research areas, publishing countries and institutions, high-output authors, and future trends of e-cigarettes in recent years. Compared with the traditional review, the bibliometric study can provide some information on core journals, articles, researchers, institutions, and countries concentrating on this topic to guide experimentation strategies and funding decisions.
A bibliometric analysis was performed by CiteSpace and VOSviewer up to April 2022 in the core collection of Web of Science. HistCite, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the R-based Bibliometrix 4.1.0 packages were used to analyze literature information, including year, journal, country, institute, author, keywords, and co-cited references.
Research related to e-cigarettes has proliferated since its inception around 2010. A total of 2,302 studies were published in 689 journals by our search method. Nicotine and tobacco research was the most published journal. The most prolific country was the United States, while the most influential institution was Virginia Commonwealth University. Eight of the top ten authors were from the United States. Oxidative stress, high school students, smoking cessation, delivery, behavioral economics, and exposure were the top topics.
As an emerging social phenomenon, research on e-cigarettes has increased significantly over the past decade, particularly from 2015 to 2020. The top three core journals are Nicotine and Tobacco Research, the International Journal of Environmental Research, and Public Health. Eisenberg-Thomas had published numerous articles on e-cigarettes that had been co-cited in many papers. Oxidative stress, high school students, and smoking cessation are the top three areas of e-cigarette-related research, which were also important areas for further investigation.