Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is a prevalent and debilitating condition and has been a focus of many recent studies. The aim of this study was to perform a scientometric evaluation of published articles on FSD.

We searched the Web of Science and Scopus for the scores published from January 1991 to March 2022. Two independent reviewers evaluated the included scores for eligibility and they removed the irrelevant scores and duplicates. We extracted complete scores as well as their references and bibliographic information. We performed the analysis using Biblioshiny (a Shiny app for Bibliometrix)[1].

The search resulted in 2075 documents published in 84 resources (journals, books, etc.). The average citation per document was 25.01. Of the included scores, 1401 were original articles, 356 were review articles and 314 were meeting abstracts. The average number of authors per document was 3.21.
In the co-occurrence network, "sexual", "female", "dysfunction" and "women" were the most common one-word title keywords. "sexual function", "female sexual" and "sexual dysfunction" were the most common two-word keywords.
A manuscript addressing the definition and classification of FSD by Basson et al [2] was the highest cited document in this field with 860 total citations. The USA with 18132 citations and Italy with 5049 citations were the most cited countries. Goldstein I. with 64 manuscripts and Maggi M. as well as Rosen RC. were the most productive authors. Rosen R., Laumann EO., and Basson R. had the strongest co-citation networks (fig.1).
The journal of sexual medicine was the leading journal to publish manuscripts on FSDwith 1102 documents. International journal of impotence research with 143 documents and Journal of Urology with 119 documents were the second and third on the list.
The University of Florence, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Amsterdam were the main cores of the collaboration networks(fig.2). the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom had the strongest collaboration networks.

The scientometric evaluation aims to demonstrate the structure and the dynamics of scientific research. The conceptual structures, for instance, the co-occurrence networks demonstrate the current trends in scientific research. A limited number of journals published the majority of the FSD studies. This indicates that only a few articles tend to publish studies that address FSD. As seen in the figure.2, some institutions have stronger collaboration networks and each color represents a cluster of collaboration. This graph represents how the institutions interact with each other in performing studies on FSD. An application of the scientometric evaluation is finding the thematic evolution during time. This can aid in understanding the gaps in research and ultimately finding the best way to have a major impact on science.

This study showed the most active researchers, institutions, and countries. Scientometric evaluations have the potential to show the most active research trends and the major gaps we are facing in the field of FSD.

Aria M, Cuccurullo C. bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of informetrics. 2017 Nov 1;11(4):959-75.
Basson R, Berman J, Burnett A, Derogatis L, Ferguson D, Fourcroy J, Goldstein I, Graziottin A, Heiman J, Laan E, Leiblum S. Report of the international consensus development conference on female sexual dysfunction: definitions and classifications. The Journal of urology. 2000 Mar;163(3):888-93.

Continence 2S2 (2022) 100389
DOI: 10.1016/j.cont.2022.100389