3.1 Analysis of annual publications

As of November 6, 2024, a total of 237 articles have been published in the WOS database, comprising 207 articles and 30 reviews. The first articles on ferroptosis and ovarian cancer appeared in 2017, totaling two. Prior to 2022, the number of publications remained low, with fewer than 50 articles published each year. However, after 2022, the number of published articles experienced a significant surge, reaching 73 in 2023, which is 36 times the output in 2017. By November 6, 2024, 67 articles have also been published (Fig. 2A). The daily publication rate shows that the average daily output in 2024 has exceeded that of 2023 (Fig. 2B). Calculating both the total annual publication volume and daily averages indicates that articles on the relationship between ferroptosis and ovarian cancer continue to rise each year, particularly after 2022, and the fitted curve suggests an ongoing upward trend (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

Analysis of annual publications. A Annual publications. B Daily average publication

3.2 Analysis of countries/regions

A total of 34 countries/regions contributed to this field. As shown in Fig. 3A, China dominates publication output with 169 articles, followed by the United States (n = 32) and Japan (n = 12). In terms of total citations, the top three countries are China (n = 2476), the United States (n = 2448), and Japan (n = 456).

Longitudinal analysis (Fig. 3B) reveals a gradual increase in overall output, especially notable for China and the United States (Fig. 3B). It is worth mentioning that although Japan and Canada published fewer articles, both countries published work in 2017 and 2018, signaling their pioneering role in the area of ferroptosis and ovarian cancer (Fig. 3B).

Collaboration patterns (Fig. 3C) further demonstrate the United States has the highest level of international collaboration (Total link strength (TLS) = 21), followed by China (TLS = 17) and Canada (TLS = 10), with the collaboration between China and the United States being the strongest in the national collaboration network diagram (link strength = 8) (Fig. 3C).

Fig. 3

Analysis of countries. A Top 10 countries by publication volume. B Annual publication of top 10 countries by publication volume. C Co-authorship analysis of 34 countries/regions

3.3 Analysis of institutions

A total of 411 institutions published articles on ferroptosis and ovarian cancer. Notably, Chinese institutions dominate productivity: All ten top-publishing organizations are from China, collectively contributing 83 articles (35.0% of total publications). Leading this group are Central South University (12 articles), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (11), and Zhejiang University (11) (Table 1; Fig. 4A)(Table 1) (Fig. 4A). The three institutions with the most citations are Harvard University with 989 citations, Broad Institute with 987 citations, and Harvard Medical School with 564 citations (Table 1) (Fig. 4B).

Collaboration analysis reveals distinct networks. The strongest collaboration is with the University of Toronto (TLS = 27), followed by Harvard Medical School (TLS = 24) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (TLS = 23) (Table 1) (Fig. 4C). Additionally, a visual network of institutional collaborations among these 411 institutions demonstrates that the University of Toronto, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, among others, form a closely-knit collaborative network (Fig. 4D, cluster in green).

Fig. 4

Analysis of institutions. A Density visualization of 411 organizations by document numbers. B Density visualization of 411 organizations by citation numbers. C Density visualization of 411 organizations by TLS numbers. D Network visualization of 411 organizations by TLS numbers

Table 1 Top 10 organizations by document numbers, citation numbers, and TLS numbers3.4 Analysis of authors

A total of 1,656 authors contributed 237 articles on ferroptosis and ovarian cancer. The most prolific contributors are Yung, Mingo M.H., Xiong, Ying, and Ngan, Hextany S., each publishing four articles (Table 2) (Fig. 5A). The three authors with the highest citation totals are Deik, Amy A., cited 995 times, Clish, Clary B., also cited 995 times, and Zou, Yilong, cited 987 times (Table 2) (Fig. 5B).

There are 108 authors with more than two publications. The collaboration among these highly productive authors, highlighting the cooperation patterns in this field. The results indicate that tThe collaboration network formed by Clish, Clary B., Deik, Amy A., Eaton, John K., and others is the most cohesive. Yung, Mingo M.H., Chan, David W., Chan, Karen K.I., among others, also established a close collaborative network. However, there is a lack of connection between these two collaboration networks and limited ties with other collaborative groups (Table 2) (Fig. 5C-D).

Table 2 Top 10 authors by document numbers, citation numbers, and TLS numbersFig. 5

Analysis of authors. A Density visualization of 108 authors with more than two publications by document numbers. B Density visualization of 108 authors with more than two publications by citation numbers. C Density visualization of 108 authors with more than two publications by TLS numbers. D Network visualization of 108 authors with more than two publications by TLS numbers

3.5 Analysis of journals

A total of 153 journals contributed 237 articles on ferroptosis and ovarian cancer. The top three journals by publication volume are the International Journal of Molecular Sciences with 8 articles, Frontiers in Oncology with 7 articles, and Scientific Reports with 7 articles. The top three journals by citation count are Nature Communications with 551 citations, Cancer Research with 491 citations, and Nature with 436 citations. The publication and citation counts for these 153 journals can be displayed using density visualization (Table 3) (Fig. 6A-B). Subsequently, an overlay visualization shows that journals such as Nature, Redox Biology, and Nature Communications primarily published earlier (nodes in blue), while Aging-US, Apoptosis, and Clinical Cancer Research primarily published more recently (nodes in yellow) (Fig. 6C).

Table 3 Top 10 journals by document numbers, and citation numbersFig. 6

Analysis of journals. A Density visualization of 153 journals by document numbers. B Density visualization of 153 journals by citation numbers. C The overlay visualization of bibliographic coupling among 153 journals

3.6 Analysis of references

Table 4 lists the top 10 most cited references in the research on ferroptosis and ovarian cancer. The three most frequently cited papers are: “CD8 + T cells regulate tumour ferroptosis during cancer immunotherapy” by Hong T et al. published in 2021 in REDOX BIOL [10], cited 43 times; “Frizzled-7 Identifies Platinum-Tolerant Ovarian Cancer Cells Susceptible to Ferroptosis” by Wang YN et al. published in 2021 in CANCER RES [9], cited 33 times; and Wang WM et al.‘s paper “CD8 + T cells regulate tumour ferroptosis during cancer immunotherapy” published in 2019 in NATURE [14], cited 32 times. Moreover, Citations from high-impact factor journals tend to have a longer Cited Half-life.

The co-citation visualization analysis using CiteSpace categorized co-cited references into several groups, including prognostic model, ferroptotic cell death, mechanisms crosstalk, therapeutic strategies, ferroptosis-related gene, gene signature, systems biology, sensitivity marker, emerging therapeutic approaches, and non-coding RNA, totaling 10 clusters. The timeline view illustrates the evolution of co-cited references over time (Fig. 7A). Notably, papers related to ferroptotic cell death were more frequently cited before 2020. In contrast, references concerning emerging therapeutic approaches and non-coding RNA were more concentrated post-2020.

Burst analysis indicates that a total of nine citations have been detected to have experienced citation bursts. The paper “Dependency of a therapy-resistant state of cancer cells on a lipid peroxidase pathway” by Vasanthi S. Viswanathan et al. [15] published in 2017 in NATURE exhibited the highest citation burst intensity (strength = 8.67), while the longest citation burst duration was observed for the paper “Ferroptosis: Death by Lipid Peroxidation” by Wan Seok Yang et al. published in 2016 in TRENDS CELL BIOL [16], which lasted from 2018 to 2021 (Fig. 7B).

Table 4 Top 10 cited references by citationsFig. 7

Analysis of journals references. A Timeline view of references clusters. B Bursts analysis of references

3.7 Analysis of keywords

Through co-occurrence analysis via VOSviewer, we identified a total of 1,103 keywords. We selected and analyzed all keywords that appeared at least five times across the papers, yielding 71 identified keywords (Fig. 8A). The top ten keywords by frequency are as follows: ferroptosis (Occurrences = 165, TLS = 628), ovarian cancer (Occurrences = 111, TLS = 399), cell death (Occurrences = 44, TLS = 229), apoptosis (Occurrences = 35, TLS = 187), expression (Occurrences = 35, TLS = 156), death (Occurrences = 34, TLS = 143), iron (Occurrences = 33, TLS = 185), resistance (Occurrences = 27, TLS = 166), metabolism (Occurrences = 25, TLS = 147), and cells (Occurrences = 25, TLS = 113) (Figs. 8B-C).

Burst analysis of keywords demonstrates that ‘in vitro’ has the highest burst strength (strength = 4.15), while ‘biology’ has the longest duration of burst, occurring from 2017 to 2020 (Fig. 8D). Additionally, through clustering analysis of keywords with Citespace and displaying the results in a timeline view, we categorized keywords into 13 clusters: sensitivity marker, clinical outcome, inhibiting cell cycle, cacna1g-as1 up-regulate, reversing multidrug resistance, novel landscape, ovarian cancer cell growth arrest, female-specific neoplasm, 4ebp1-mediated slc7a11 protein synthesis, genomic landscape analysis, cancer cell, metabolism-related Incrna, and pml-regulated mitochondrial metabolism. Among these clusters, genomic landscape analysis and metabolism-related Incrna keywords primarily emerged in recent years, while keywords from the other clusters appeared earlier and remain prevalent (Fig. 8E).

Fig. 8

Analysis of keywords. (A) Network visualization of keywords by occurrences. (B) Density visualization of keywords by occurrences. (C) Top 10 institutions by occurrences. (D) Top 10 keywords by occurrence. (E) Timeline view of keyword clustering analysis

3.8 Text mining

Using CoreMine Medical platform for text mining revealed that cisplatin, SLC7A11, and GPX4 significantly correlate with both ovarian cancer and ferroptosis. Specifically, cisplatin has 10,892 articles related to ovarian cancer (P = 3.33E-06) and 322 articles related to ferroptosis (P = 4.97E-04). SLC7A11 connects with ovarian cancer in 43 articles (P = 6.89E-03) and with ferroptosis in 1,489 articles (P = 4.03E-07). GPX4 appears in 44 articles about ovarian cancer (P = 1.71E-02) and in 3,180 articles about ferroptosis (P = 1.56E-07) (Fig. 9). This suggests that the drugs and genes mentioned likely influence the relationship between ferroptosis and ovarian cancer.

Fig. 9

Text mining analysis using coremine