Defining the contributors and scope of research in African health journals: a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT

Africa serves as a rich research mine due to its significant contribution to the global burden of diseases. This study sought to analyze the trends in African journals as a means to further characterize the research landscape on the continent. The African Journals Online (AJOL) database was searched from inception to 17 October 2021 and 173 journals were identified. Journal titles were then used to search nine databases via the Web of Science core collection on 16 December 2021. Journal metadata was analysed using summary descriptive statistics. 58,952 articles published by 40 journals between 1972 and 2021 were found. 62.4% (n = 36,806) were original articles with 66.4% (n = 39,118) focused on general internal medicine and 44.5% (n = 26,251) were published by the South African Medical Journal. Most authors were located in South Africa, Nigeria, China, Morocco and the United States. Top 5 author-assigned keywords were Nigeria, COVID-19, HIV, Children and Prevalence. Most popular database-assigned keywords were Prevalence, Management, Risk, Children and Disease. The African research community makes significant contributions to the literature. However, the continued ability of researchers to embark on critical scientific investigations can be further improved by increased investment and collaborations.