bibliometrix-Assisted PRISMA-Based Review
Also known as: bibliometrix PRISMA review, R-bibliometrix systematic review, bibliometrix-enhanced evidence synthesis, bibliometrix-supported PRISMA review
A bibliometrix-assisted PRISMA-based review combines the structured, transparent reporting framework of PRISMA with the quantitative science-mapping capabilities of the bibliometrix R package. The approach embeds bibliometric analyses — such as citation analysis, co-authorship mapping, and keyword co-occurrence — into the evidence-synthesis steps of a PRISMA-guided systematic review, enabling both rigorous literature screening and macro-level visualization of the intellectual landscape.
Key highlights
- Combines PRISMA's transparent, reproducible screening workflow with bibliometrix's rich quantitative description of the evidence base.
- Produces ready-to-publish visualizations (keyword maps, citation networks, thematic evolution plots) directly from R with minimal manual effort.
- Fully open-source and reproducible: the R script, raw exports, and PRISMA flow diagram together form a complete audit trail.
- Scales efficiently to large corpora; bibliometrix handles thousands of records that would be impractical to characterize manually.
- Reveals structural insights — influential journals, author communities, emerging themes — that a purely qualitative review would miss.
Intuition
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How it works
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When to use it
Use this approach when you need both rigorous evidence synthesis and a quantitative map of the included literature's intellectual structure — typical in fields undergoing rapid growth where knowing the key actors, journals, and evolving themes is as valuable as the synthesized findings. It is especially suited to scoping or systematic reviews with large corpora (30+ studies) where manual characterization of the evidence base is inefficient. Do not use it as a substitute for a pure systematic review with meta-analysis when the primary goal is pooling effect sizes — bibliometrix adds structural description, not statistical pooling. Avoid if your databases do not export structured bibliographic metadata, or if the review corpus is so small that network visualizations would be uninformative.
Strengths & limitations
- Combines PRISMA's transparent, reproducible screening workflow with bibliometrix's rich quantitative description of the evidence base.
- Produces ready-to-publish visualizations (keyword maps, citation networks, thematic evolution plots) directly from R with minimal manual effort.
- Fully open-source and reproducible: the R script, raw exports, and PRISMA flow diagram together form a complete audit trail.
- Scales efficiently to large corpora; bibliometrix handles thousands of records that would be impractical to characterize manually.
- Reveals structural insights — influential journals, author communities, emerging themes — that a purely qualitative review would miss.
- Bibliometric analyses only cover what is indexed in the exported databases; grey literature, preprints, and non-indexed sources are invisible to bibliometrix.
- Network visualizations and thematic clusters describe co-occurrence patterns, not causal or theoretical relationships — interpretation requires domain expertise.
- The approach adds methodological complexity and reporting overhead compared to a straightforward PRISMA systematic review.
- Quality appraisal of individual studies must still be done manually; bibliometrix does not assess study risk of bias or methodological quality.
Common pitfalls
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Applications
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Frequently asked
Does using bibliometrix mean my review is automatically PRISMA-compliant?
No. PRISMA compliance depends on following the PRISMA 2020 checklist and producing a complete flow diagram — these are reporting requirements that must be fulfilled regardless of which software you use. bibliometrix handles bibliometric analysis; PRISMA compliance is a reporting standard that must be applied separately and explicitly.
Should I run bibliometrix on all retrieved records or only on PRISMA-included studies?
This depends on your research question. If you want to map the intellectual landscape of the broader field, run bibliometrix on the full pre-screened export and report it as a separate contextual analysis. If you want to characterize the evidence base of your review specifically, run it only on PRISMA-included studies. The distinction must be stated clearly in your methods section.
Can I use bibliometrix with PubMed exports?
Yes, but with caveats. bibliometrix can read PubMed exports, but PubMed records often lack some fields (e.g., cited references) that are available in Web of Science and Scopus exports. Citation-based analyses (co-citation, bibliographic coupling) work best with Web of Science or Scopus data; keyword and authorship analyses work adequately with PubMed exports.
How do I cite bibliometrix in my review?
Cite the original package paper: Aria, M., & Cuccurullo, C. (2017). bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of Informetrics, 11(4), 959–975. Also cite the specific version of the package used (retrievable via citation('bibliometrix') in R) to ensure reproducibility.
Is this approach suitable for a health sciences systematic review?
Yes, but ensure the bibliometric component is framed as supplementary structural description, not as a substitute for clinical evidence appraisal. Health sciences reviews typically require Cochrane-style risk-of-bias assessment and, where feasible, meta-analytic pooling of effect sizes — bibliometrix does not replace these components but can usefully characterize the publication landscape alongside them.
Sources
- 1.Aria, M., & Cuccurullo, C. (2017). bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of Informetrics, 11(4), 959–975.
- 2.Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., … Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ, 372, n71.
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Cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 3). bibliometrix-assisted PRISMA-based review. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/scientometrics/bibliometrix-assisted-prisma-based-review