Exploration of medical toxicology within the field of forensic medicine through a bibliometric study

Abstract

Conducted through a thorough review of the literature indexed in Scopus, the current study employs bibliometric analysis to ascertain the historical development and some critical aspects of research in medical toxicology and legal medicine from 2000 to 2024. This descriptive documentary approach allowed for the characterization of these fields of scientific production by way of identifying trends, leading authors, top countries and institutions, as well as growth in numbers of publications, document types, and patterns of collaboration in this area. The primary results showed 136 publications done from 589 authors, with an annual growth average of 7.36% in the last few years, being 2018, 2021, 2023, and 2024 the most productive years with 11 publications each one. FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL (with 8 publications) and JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES (with 15 publications) were found to be the most productive sources leading in this field. India tops the list with 81 research papers, followed by the US at 62 and China coming in third with 37. VIVEKANANDA GLOBAL UNIVERSITY (14) and MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY (12) stand at the peak of institutions in contributing to the field of study. The authors who published the most contributions are NAGAR V, SHARMA S, and SUZUKI O. Lastly, among the most cited articles, the first was BOUMBA V in 2006, at INT J TOXICOL, with 161 citations overall, followed by MANI V, 2021, TRAC TRENDS ANAL CHEM, with 104 citations.