Bibliometrical analysis of hot literature on family physician research in China

Objective To identify current research hotspots, research trends and future trends of family research by means of literature review. Methods Family physician and general practitioner were used as the search words, to retrieve in CNKI database the literature on family physicians published during 2011-2018 using the method of subject retrieval, with related literature citations downloaded. The citespace software was used to analyze and generate the research institutions and their cooperative network, the keyword co-occurrence network and emergent word analysis. Information visualization was used to analyze the current research status of family physicians in China. Results A total of 1 616 papers were retrieved, and 773 literatures were finalized as research samples with exclusion of those obviously irrelevant. The study found that studies in China focused on talent cultivation, service contract signature of family physicians, pattern of such contracts, and the construction of primary medical institutions. In terms of future research trends, the hotspots fell on performance evaluation , incentive mechanism , talent cultivation , health management , and chronic disease management by such physicians. Conclusions This paper used citespace software in a visual analysis of the research on family physicians in the recent eight years, so as to explore the research hotspots, research trends and future trends of such study in China. Key words: Physicians, family; Contract signature; Information visualization; Hotspots; Bibliometrics