Global trends and themes in genetic counseling research

This article seeks to highlight the most recent trends and themes in genetic counseling that are of broad interest. A total of 3505 documents were published between 1952 and 2021, with a trend toward increase in paper/year. The most common documents are original articles (2515, 71.8%), followed by review articles (341, 9.7%). Journal of Genetic Counseling publishes the highest number of genetic counseling articles (587, 16.7%), followed by Clinical Genetics (103, 2.9%) and the South American Journal of Medical Genetics (95, 2.7%). Co-occurrence analysis revealed five research themes: genetic testing, cancer, genetic counselor, prenatal diagnosis, and psychiatry. The genetic counselor theme contained most of the recent keywords, including covid-19, underrepresented population, service delivery models, workforce, disparities, service delivery, professional development, cultural competence, access, diversity, telemedicine, and health literacy. Genetic counseling researchers may use these keywords to find topics pertinent to their future research and practice.

Automated summary

This article discusses the recent trends and themes in genetic counseling. A total of 3505 documents published from 1952 to 2021 were analyzed, showing an increasing trend in publication rate. The most common types of documents are original articles (71.8%) and review articles (9.7%). The Journal of Genetic Counseling has the highest number of genetic counseling articles (16.7%), followed by Clinical Genetics (2.9%) and the South American Journal of Medical Genetics (2.7%). Five main research themes were identified, including genetic testing, cancer, genetic counselor, prenatal diagnosis, and psychiatry. The genetic counselor theme contains recent keywords such as covid-19, underrepresented population, service delivery models, workforce, disparities, service delivery, professional development, cultural competence, access, diversity, telemedicine, and health literacy. These keywords can guide future research and practice in the field of genetic counseling.