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Uncovering 3D bioprinting research trends: A keyword network mapping analysis

is used to determine how often a pair of documents are 2. Methods
cited together by other documents, and it allows the
identification of authors with predominant influence For this study, a scientometric analysis was developed as
on a field. Co-occurrence analysis focuses on how a part of a CTI methodology. CTI involves an ethical and
legal process through which information is transformed
often a set of keywords occurs together, and it provides into an actionable result, thereby contributing to R&D
relevant information on the focus of research. At strategic decision-making processes. CTI is developed
present, scientometric and patentometric analyses of through a virtuous cycle of information that includes
3D printing still remain scarce. A few of the studies in planning, source determination, gathering, analysis, and
this area include a US patent analysis on the evolution establishment of results. It goes beyond being a simple
of 3D printing for biomedical applications from 1980 information-gathering process. Instead of collecting
to 2014 [13] , a scientific literature (Scopus) and patent the largest amount of information, it is more important
analysis on 3D printing in Latin America from 1984 to to collect the most relevant information. In this sense,
mid-2015 [14] and a Competitive Technology Intelligence information gathering represents a crucial step for
(CTI) analysis on scientific literature (Scopus and Web further analysis. To collect the right information, the
of Science) and patents from 2000 to mid-2016 [15] . identification of keywords and design of a search query
Of these, the CTI analysis has the most recent and must be as accurate as possible. With the advent of 3D
complete information, being published in 2017; it bioprinting, the number of publications in this field has
covered the knowledge landscape of 3D bioprinting and increased exponentially, and sometimes, this can produce
identified the leading countries, institutions, journals, information noise (i.e., repeated documents, documents
and major areas in this field. These studies have noted that mention 3D bioprinting only from a general
the exponential growth in the number of patents and perspective and do not necessarily present advances in
publications in recent years. Therefore, it is important to the area, etc.). To reduce the uncertainty in determining
stay updated with and to identify current research trends keywords for the query definition, this study considered
the most frequently cited articles from Scopus con-
in this field. The present study aims to add value in this taining the word ‘bioprinting’ in their abstracts, titles,
respect by developing a keyword network mapping and keywords. Scopus is one of the largest scientific
from Scopus and Web of Science from 2000 to 2017. databases, and it contains information about more than
It pursues to determine the main research efforts from 20,000 scientific journals across various disciplines
a global perspective and to consider specific elements such as social, engineering, and health sciences [16] .
that have not yet been discussed, including materials, Results show in Table 1 that the three most cited papers
biological components, and applications as well as to discuss scientific progress in tissue engineering and
identify bioprinting techniques, cell sources, and tissue/ vascularization. Precisely, one of the current field’s
organs research. The objective is to contribute to R&D biggest challenges is to develop scaffold-free blood
decision-making processes in this field. vessels that are as mechanically strong as native vessels.

table 1. Top cited Scopus papers according to the keyword ‘bioprinting’ contained in titles, abstracts, or keywords.
title authors Year source cites
[6]
1 3D bioprinting of tissue and organs . Murphy S V, Atala A. 2014 Nature Biotechnology, 1138
32(8): 773–785
2 Scaffold-free vascular tissue engineering using Norotte C, Marga F S, Niklason L E, Forgacs 2009 Biomaterials, 529
bioprinting . G. 30(30): 5910–5917
[17]
3 3D bioprinting of vascularized, heterogeneous Kolesky D B, Truby R L, Gladman A S, 2014 Advanced Materials, 446
[5]
cell-laden tissue constructs . Homan K A, Lewis J A. 26(19): 3124–3130
4 Printing and prototyping of tissues and Derby B. 2012 Science, 426
scaffolds . 338(6109): 921-926
[7]
[18]
5 Additive manufacturing of tissues and organs . Melchels F P W, Domingos M A N, Klein T J, 2012 Progress in Polymer Science, 417
Bartolo P J, Hutmacher D W. 37(8): 1079–1104
6 25th anniversary article: Engineering hydrogels Malda J, Visser J, Melchels F P, Groll J, 2013 Advanced Materials, 376
[19]
for biofabrication . Hutmacher D W. 25(36): 5011–5028
7 A 3D bioprinting system to produce human-scale Kang H W, Lee S J, Ko I K, Yoo J J, Atala A. 2016 Nature Biotechnology, 310
tissue constructs with structural integrity . 34(3): 312–319
[20]
8 Printing three-dimensional tissue analogues with Pati F, Jang J, Ha D H, Kim D H, Cho D W. 2014 Nature Communications, 302
[8]
decellularized extracellular matrix bioink . 5: 3935
9 Tissue engineering by self-assembly and bio- Jakab K, Norotte C, Marga F, Vunjak- 2010 Biofabrication, 252
printing of living cells . Novakovic G, Forgacs G. 2(2): 022001
[21]
10 3D bioprinting of heterogeneous aortic valve Duan B, Hockaday L A, Kang K H, Butcher 2013 Journal of Biomedical Materials 244
[22]
conduits with alginate/gelatin hydrogels . J T. Research-Part A, 101A(5): 1255–1264
2 International Journal of Bioprinting (2018)–Volume 4, Issue 2