A bibliometric analysis for estimating the global research trends related to applications of ionic liquids in drug delivery

Many scientists are interested in ionic liquids (ILs) as they are efficient solvents, especially for drug delivery systems. A bibliometric analysis was performed in this article to assess the applicability of ILs in drug delivery. 519 publications from the Web of Science (WoS) database were analysed using VOSviewer and MS Excel. An analysis was conducted to identify publication trends, well-known authors, institutions, countries, sources, and the most cited articles in this field. This research comprised 1984 authors from 574 institutions and 52 countries. Regarding the total number of publications produced, Masahiro Goto, Muhammad Moniruzzaman, and Rie Wakabayashi were the most prolific authors. Based on the number of publications, the top three institutions were Kyushu University, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, and Shandong University. For the period from 2007 and 2021, the most productive countries were China, India, and the United States. In both the number of publications produced and the number of citations received, the Journal of Molecular Liquids has maintained its dominant position. This study demonstrated the continued use of ILs in drug delivery applications, indicating that more investigation might aid in advancing drug delivery systems. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.