Trends and research progress in medication consultation: A comprehensive bibliometric study

doi:10.5246/jcps.2025.04.027

Abstract

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to explore and summarize the development trajectory, current research landscape, and emerging trends of medication consultation in China, providing a valuable reference for future investigations in this domain. Relevant articles on medication consultation were systematically collected, and bibliometric software such as CiteSpace 6.4R1 was employed to analyze author and institutional collaborations, keyword co-occurrence, clustering, and emerging trends. This approach helped elucidate key themes and hot topics in the field. A total of 1267 articles were included, with the peak number of publications recorded in 2011, followed by a steady decline in subsequent years. The most prolific author was Zhen Jiancun, contributing eight publications, while the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University emerged as the leading institution with 11 publications. High-frequency identified keywords included medication consultation, rational drug use, pharmaceutical services, clinical pharmacists, and outpatient pharmacies. Cluster analysis revealed 12 significant themes, while emergent analysis highlighted that recent research hotspots centered on the Pareto chart, pregnancy, and traditional Chinese patent medicine. As a critical aspect of pharmaceutical services, the practice of medication consultation in China requires further advancement, with a particular need for enhanced collaboration among researchers and institutions. Moving forward, expanding the scope of medication consultation, improving the quality of related research, and fostering cross-regional collaboration among teams with diverse research focuses will be essential in deepening and broadening this field of study.

Key words: Medication consultation, Bibliometrics, CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Status and trends

Supporting:

Qinglei Fu, Beibei Hu, Chunxing Wu. Trends and research progress in medication consultation: A comprehensive bibliometric study[J]. Journal of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2025, 34(4): 354-369.

Figures/Tables 13

Table 1. Authors and institutions with a high number of publications.

Table 2. Information of highly cited articles.

Table 3. Information of highly downloaded articles.

Table 4. Some important keywords and their centrality.

Table 5. The clustering results and their definitions.

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