Abstract
BACKGROUND: Academic publications are important for developing medical specialties. Respiratory system diseases are among the most common human diseases and have a significant impact on morbidity and mortality. This is particularly true regarding the impact of the new coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. This study aimed to perform a bibliographic analysis of Taiwanese academic publications in the Web of Science (WoS) subject category of respiratory systems. METHODS: Publications in the WoS Respiratory System Category, including papers in Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index journals from 1972 to 2023, were retrieved and analyzed. RESULTS: Among 392 030 papers published worldwide in the WoS Respiratory System Category from 1972 to 2023, 3672 (0.94%) were published in Taiwan, ranking 21st in the world, with a total of 82 956 citations. Over these five decades, the annual number of Taiwanese publications and citations has increased over time. However, the mean impact factor of publications has shown a tendency to decrease since 1997. International collaboration with coauthors outside Taiwan was found in 780 papers (21.24% of the total publications), mainly from the United States, the People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom, France, and South Korea. Collaborative papers had a significantly higher mean impact factor (8.2 ± 0.3 vs 5.6 ± 0.1, p < 0.001) and citation counts per paper (44.2 ± 3.3 vs 25.2 ± 0.8, p < 0.001) than those of non-collaborative papers. CONCLUSION: Taiwanese publications in the WoS Respiratory System Category have a trend of increasing number and citations since 1972. However, the mean impact factor of the published papers has decreased since 1997. This disproportionate trend is an observational finding that deserves further investigation.