Puberty in the Last 25 Years: A Retrospective Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Puberty research has been highly productive in the past few decades and is gaining momentum. We conducted an analysis of bibliographic data, including titles, abstracts, keywords, indexing terms, and citation data to assess the sheer numbers, audience and reach, publication types, and impact of puberty-related publications. Findings suggest that puberty-related publications are increasing in sheer numbers, and have reach in many fields as befits an interdisciplinary science. Puberty-related publications typically have higher impact in terms of citations than the journal averages, among the journals that published the most studies on puberty. Limitations of the field and recommendations for researchers to improve the impact and reach of puberty-related publications (e.g., clear conclusions in abstracts, highlighting the importance of puberty) are discussed.

Next Steps in Puberty Research: Broadening the Lens Toward Understudied Populations

“…In tackling these challenges, it is important to recognize that current pubertal research resides in silos across fields such as medicine, genetics, psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, public health, and epidemiology (see Marceau et al, , in press), each with its own focus. Discipline‐specific foci drive diverging theoretical models, definitions, terminology, and research designs, which create large and often impenetrable divides between fields, and in turn prevent them from coming together to answer cross‐cutting questions about pubertal development.…”

“…Understanding normative pubertal processes has provided important foundational knowledge for the field. However, existing scholarship largely has focused on girls and on individuals of European descent (see Marceau, Hottle, & Yatcilla, , in this issue). Inadequately addressing certain populations in sufficient depth limits our understanding of the broad range of experiences associated with puberty, across individuals, and within certain populations.…”

Conceptualizing Puberty as a Window of Opportunity for Impacting Health and Well‐Being Across the Life Span

“…Although we recognize our two searches were not exhaustive (e.g., other databases could have been used, more years searched), we did want to provide a few examples to illustrate what is being published regarding puberty. We also refer the reader to Marceau, Hottle, & Yatcilla (, in this issue) on complementary search of the literature reported in this issue. Our results follow.…”

A Researcher’s Guide to the Measurement and Modeling of Puberty in the ABCD Study® at Baseline

“…Analyses of the baseline data suggest that there is sufficient variance to relate individual differences in pubertal development to other measures (5). Furthermore, the field of pubertal research has largely focused on girls of European descent, and examination of puberty in males and in racially/ethnically diverse participants fills in critical knowledge gaps (10,11).…”