Research articleScientific profile of brain-computer interfaces: Bibliometric analysis in a 10-year period

- Brain-computer interface (BCI)/Brain-machine interface (BMI) research and the relevant literature have expanded.
- Analysis of highly cited articles can help identify outstanding scientific studies.
- We investigated 100 highly cited BCI papers in the past 10 years, which can help distinguish between incremental and transformational studies.
- It provides insights into priorities and trends for guiding future BCI studies.

BackgroundWith the tremendous advances in the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI), the literature in this field has grown exponentially; examination of highly cited articles is a tool that can help identify outstanding scientific studies and landmark papers. This study examined the characteristics of 100 highly cited BCI papers over the past 10 years.MethodsThe Web of Science was searched for highly cited papers related to BCI research published from 2006 to 2015. The top 100 highly cited articles were identified. The number of citations and countries, and the corresponding institutions, year of publication, study design, and research area were noted and analyzed.ResultsThe 100 highly cited articles had a mean of 137.1(SE: 15.38) citations. These articles were published in 45 high-impact journals, and mostly in TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING (n = 14). Of the 100 articles, 72 were original articles and the rest were review articles. These articles came from 15 countries, with the USA contributing most of the highly cited articles (n = 52). Fifty-seven institutions produced these 100 highly cited articles, led by Duke University (n = 7).ConclusionsThis study provides a historical perspective on the progress in the field of BCI, allows recognition of the most influential reports, and provides useful information that can indicate areas requiring further investigation.