Bibliometric analysis of the use of the term preembryo in scientific literature

Abstract

Our objective was to determine the prevalence of the term preembryo in the scientific literature using a bibliometric study in the Web of Science database. We retrieved data from the Web of Science from 1986 to 2005, covering a range of 20 years since the term was first published. Searches for the terms embryo, blastocyst, preimplantation embryo, and preembryo were performed. Then, Boolean operators were applied to measure associations between terms. Finally, statistical assessments were made to compare the use of each term in the scientific literature, and in specific areas where preembryo is most used. From a total of 93,019 registers, 90,888 corresponded to embryo; 8,366 to blastocyst ; 2,397 to preimplantation embryo; and 172 to preembryo. The use frequency for preembryo was 2:1000. The term preembryo showed a lower cumulative impact factor (343) in comparison with the others (25,448; 5,530; and 546; respectively) in the highest scored journal category. We conclude that the term preembryo is not used in the scientific community, probably because it is confusing or inadequate. The authors suggest that its use in the scientific literature should be avoided in future publications. The bibliometric analysis confirms this statement. While preembryo hardly ever is used, terms such as preimplantation embryo and blastocyst have gained wide acceptance in publications from the same areas of study.