Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pain, a critical symptom prevalent in various diseases and syndromes, has garnered increased attention in recent scientific literature. Bibliometric analyses can offer valuable multi-disciplinary insights into pain. This bibliometric analysis focused on journals with "pain" in their titles. METHODS: Using the Master Journal List in the Web of Science (WoS) database (up to December 31, 2024), we searched all the journals indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) or Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) with "pain" in their titles. For further analyses, we extracted data about the journals including publisher, country, language, frequency, SCIE/SSCI categories, journal impact factor, and citation. RESULTS: We identified 19 journals with "pain" in their titles. All the included journals were indexed in SCIE, with Pain Management Nursing also indexed in SSCI. More than half of the journals were published in the United States of America or the United Kingdom, and all were in English. Regarding the SCIE categories, 13 journals were listed in "clinical neurology," 8 in "anesthesiology," and 5 in "neurosciences." From 2018 to 2022, either Pain or Journal of Headache and Pain maintained the highest impact factor. Furthermore, Pain held the record for the most citable articles and reviews and the most total citations in 2022. CONCLUSION: This study is the first bibliometric analysis of journals, rather than articles, in the field of pain. Pain is the most recognized journal in the field, with the highest number of citations and the highest average impact factor. In the future, bibliometric studies should explore other relevant journals without the word "pain" in their titles, in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the scientific literature on pain studies.