Monkeypox: Scientometrics of 50 years of global scientific publications

Background: Scientific publications related to epidemic diseases are crucial for controlling and treating such diseases. The present study aimed to explore and analyze international publications on monkeypox through scientometric methods. Methods: This review is an applied research conducted using the scientometric method with an analytical meth od All world scientific publications on monkeypox Ivere extractedfrom the Web Of Science (WOS) citation databasefrom Januarv 1972 to May 2022 through an appropriate search strategv. Moreover, Excel and the VOS viewer Bibliometrix package ofthe R programming language were usedfor data analysis. Results: In total, 1130 publications related to monkeypor were extractedfrom the WOS citation database. Most of the publications Mere original papers published in 2010. The United States, Germany, and the Congo had the most publications on monkeypox. The topic clusters ofscientific publications on monkeypox have been in four topic orientations: prevention, epidemiologv, treatment, and immune response. Conclusion: The findings of the present investigation provided a clear picture of the publications and scientific productions of"'orld researchers in the field of monkeypcm Accordingly, researchers and policymakers on monkeypox can better understand the scientific publications on this disease and its dimensions

Bibliometric trends of South African environmental health articles between 1998 and 2015: Making local research visible and retrievable

Background. South Africa (SA) has to grapple with multiple burdens of disease for which environmental factors have a role to play in both causation and prevention. This article describes a bibliometric review of environmental health indexed literature for SA over an 18-year period.Objectives. To provide an overview of the nature of SA-based published environmental health indexed research and to identify search challenges, frequently researched topics, and gaps and opportunities for future research.Methods. The Web of Science, PubMed and Science Direct were used to search for original, peer-reviewed and review articles with the inclusion criteria 'environmental health' and 'South Africa' available online and published between 1998 and 2015, inclusively.Results. A total of 230 journal articles were included in the bibliometric analysis. The highest number of articles (n=54) was published in 2015. The majority of the first authors were affiliated with SA institutions (n=160, 69.5%). For the articles where funding was explicitly declared (n=148), the three most frequently occurring agencies that funded the published research were the National Research Foundation in SA (n=17), the South African Medical Research Council (n=13) and the Water Research Commission (n=9). There was little inter-annual/environmental health category variation over time owing to the relatively small sample size. The largest number of retrieved journal articles was in the area of environmental pollution control (n=76), followed by environmental health lifestyle and behaviour-related topics (n=42) and then water monitoring (n=26).Conclusions. Despite the research needed to solve large environmental health challenges in SA, environmental health was only used as a keyword in title, author keywords or abstract for 230 SA-based studies over an 18-year period. This makes it extremely difficult for environmental health research to be located and used to inform the profession as well as the research agenda. Several issues that environmental health practitioners are typically tasked to implement and monitor are not indexed as environmental health topics. The need for authors to use 'environmental health' as a keyword is emphasised, particularly if research is to inform decision-making and policy support, as well as guide future research in the country

A bibliometric analysis of research publications funded partially by the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) during a 10-year period (1994-2003)

Background: The aim of this study is to estimate the quantity and quality of research publications output of grant recipients of the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) over a ten-year period (1994-2003). Methods: Peer-reviewed publications; relevant to CANSA grants; in the PubMed database; published between 1994 and 2003 were counted per grantee in 2005 and the mean impact factor of all publications was obtained from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) valid for 2005. Results: Over the 10-year period; 129 different researchers from 10 different institutions conducted 192 projects which yielded 570 relevant peer-reviewed publications which are recorded in the PubMed database. CANSA grants totaled R28.2 million and the mean impact factor of all publications was 3.8. The number of publications per grantee; over the period analysed; varied considerably from 0 to 79 with 10of grantees publishing more than 10 (1 per year) while a significant group of 36; did not publish at all. Most studies (64) concerned aspects of cancer biology and therapy while only 26of projects involved prevention; epidemiology and social aspects of cancer. Conclusions: Because grants from CANSA are partial and do not pay for the major components of most research projects; such as salaries; the data obtained here is insufficient to create a benchmark for the cost of an average; peer-reviewed cancer research publication in South Africa. Nevertheless; it can be concluded that on average a contribution of about R50 000 from CANSA (1994 -2003 value); contributed to the appearance of one peer reviewed; cancer research publication with an average impact factor of 3.8 in the period under study. The most popular subjects of research were cancer biology and treatment. In order to bring about more balance in future more attention needs to be focused on prevention; early detection; epidemiology and social aspects of cancer