Contribution of Arab countries to Behçet disease research: a PubMed-based bibliometric and altmetric analysis

Global Monkeypox Virus Outbreak 2022: A Bibliometric Analysis

Monkeypox is a rare zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus, which spreads by direct contact mainly, thus having the propensity to cause future epidemics. The current review aimed to provide an up-to-date literature analysis for evaluating scientific data on monkeypox. A bibliometric analysis was conducted through eight electronic databases. The search period was from May 2022 to December 2023. All the articles were exported to Mendeley (Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands). The literature search resulted in 415 relevant research articles. The growth of publications gradually rose, initiated in January 2022, leading to a rapid upsurge in May 2022. A total of 409 documents reported the number of citations, with two articles documenting the highest number, ranging from 146-150 and 216-220. The European region (EURO) dominated in publishing research articles on monkeypox, with the United States having the highest number of reports (n = 41; 9.87%), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 35; 8.43%) and Italy (n = 15; 3.61%). There were 82 funding agencies that funded 44 research articles, whereas 371 were not funded by any funding agency. Our analysis has presented the outline of the research articles published on monkeypox virus-related literature during the current outbreak. Research articles should be financially and administratively supported. Future research is required to expand research on the monkeypox virus, as there is a growing demand for original articles.

Cancer research activity in the Arab world: a 15-year bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND

The Arab region comprises 22 countries located in the Middle East and North Africa, sharing cultural and linguistic ties. Arab countries have continued to lag in terms of biomedical research compared to other nations for several past decades. Cancer is a major public health concern, being the second leading cause of death globally. Given that high research activity on cancer reflects positively on screening programs, awareness, and clinical practice, this article aimed to examine the activity and trend of cancer research in the Arab world between 2005 and 2019.

METHODS

Between 2005 and 2019, the number of cancer-related articles published by each Arab country, and regarding 27 different types, was assessed using the PubMed database. Numbers were normalized with respect to each country's average population and average Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

RESULTS

Arab countries contributed to 1.52% of total cancer publications. The number of cancer publications has steadily grown since 2005, with the last 7 years alone witnessing 75.69% of the total Arab cancer-related publications. In terms of publications per million persons, Qatar ranked first (393.74 per million persons), while in terms of publications per national GDP, Egypt ranked first (464.27 per billion US dollars). Breast, liver, and colorectal cancers had the highest numbers of all Arab cancer-related publications, while testicular, vulvar, and gallbladder cancers had the least.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper pools information and insight for scientists, clinicians, funders, and decision-makers on the actualities and developments of cancer research in the Arab world. Addressing the barriers facing cancer research remains a cornerstone in the plan to improve the Arab world's output and contribution to the field of oncology.

COVID-19 from a rheumatology perspective: bibliometric and altmetric analysis

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak turned out the greatest pandemic for decades. It challenged enormously the global health system, forcing it to adjust to the new realities. We aimed to analyze articles covering COVID-19 papers in the rheumatological field and outline emerging topics raising within this frame. We applied the bibliometric database Scopus for our literature search and conducted it on the 5th of June using the following keywords: "rheumatic" OR "rheumatology" OR "rheumatoid arthritis" OR "systemic lupus erythematosus" OR "myositis" OR "systemic sclerosis" OR "vasculitis" OR "arthritis" OR "ankylosing spondylitis" AND "COVID-19". We analyzed all selected articles according to various aspects: type of document, authorship, journal, citations score, rheumatology field, country of origin, language, and keywords. With the help of the software tool VOSviewer version 1.6.15, we have built the visualizing network of authors and keywords co-occurrence. The measurement of the social impact of articles was made using Altmetric data. This study included 1430 retrieved articles with open access mostly. The top five journals in this field were Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (n = 65), Rheumatology International (n = 51), Clinical Rheumatology (n = 50), Lancet Rheumatology (n = 50), and Frontiers In Immunology (n = 33). Most studies originate from countries with a high incidence of COVID-19 among the general population (the USA-387; Italy-268; UK-184; France-114; Germany-110; India-98 and Spain-96, China-94, Canada-73 Turkey-66). Original Articles (42.1%) were the most common articles' type, following by Letters (24.4%), Reviews (21.7%), Notes (6%), Editorials (4.8%), Erratum (1%). According to the citations scores, articles dedicated to the clinical course of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic diseases were of the highest importance for the scientific rheumatologic community. Rheumatoid arthritis (n = 527), systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 393), vasculitis (n = 267), myositis (n = 71), systemic sclerosis (n = 68), and psoriatic arthritis (n = 68) were the most widely discussed rheumatic diseases in the view of COVID-19. The analysis of Altmetric and citations scores revealed a moderate correlation between them. This article provides a comprehensive bibliometric and altmetric analysis of COVID-19 related articles in the rheumatology field and summarizes data about features of rheumatology service in the time of the pandemic.

Insights in Neuropsychiatry: Suicide and Self-Mutilation in the Mena Region- a Bibliometric Quantitative and Co-occurrence Medline-Based Analysis

Background  Little is known about self-mutilation and suicide-related research in the Arab world. Aim We aim to quantify research activity related to suicide and self-mutilation, according to socio-economic factors, and assess inter-regional collaborations and trends of topics in the Arab world in the last 16 years. Methods A search was conducted through the PubMed database to find articles related to suicide and self-mutilation, according to author affiliation in the 22 Arab countries between 2004 and 2019 (inclusive), and standardized according to mean population, suicide, and self-mutilation disability associated life years (DALY), and gross domestic product (GDP). VOS Viewer was used for keyword and organization co-occurrence analysis. Results Only 0.61% of articles related to suicide and self-mutilation published between 2004 and 2019 were of Arab origin, compared to 1.76% in South America and 7.94% in Far East Asia. Suicide and self-mutilation articles make up 0.09% of the total publications in the Arab region. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon had the highest number of published articles related to suicide and self-mutilation. When comparing publications per million persons, Lebanon and Kuwait ranked first with 5.15 and 3.40 publications per million persons. Lebanon showed the highest number of publications per USD billion GDP, with 0.75 publications. The highest number of publications per 1% self-injury-related DALY was recorded in Saudi Arabia, with 46.97 publications. In recent years, VOS Viewer revealed poor inter-regional collaborations and a modest but increasing trend towards depression, poisoning, and cross-sectional studies. Conclusion Despite increasing publications, the region still lags in terms of suicide and self-mutilation research activity. A pan-Arab strategy should be implemented to refine suicide-related research and increase mental health awareness.

Bibliometric analysis of publication activity in the field of familial Mediterranean fever in 2010-2019: a Scopus-based study

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a systemic autoinflammatory disease, which presents with recurrent episodes of fever, serositis, synovial inflammation and various different clinical features. In parallel with the geographical distribution of FMF, the prevalence is notably higher in some population groups including Turks, Jews, Armenians and Arabs. The aim of this study was to assess FMF articles published between 2010 and 2019 bibliometrically and to present up-to-date data. This bibliometric research was conducted on the Scopus database. The key term ''familial Mediterranean fever'' was utilized to generate the publication list. The number of articles, active countries journals, prolific authors and citation data were determined. Visualization maps that revealed collaboration networks were also created. The number of FMF articles displayed a stable trend between 2010 and 2019 (p > 0.05). The top five countries according to the number of articles were Turkey (n = 473; 52.90%), Israel (n = 86; 9.61%), Japan (n = 39; 4.36%), Italy (n = 38; 4.25%) and the USA (n = 37; 4.13%. Italy, the USA and France were ranked as the top three countries for the average number of citations per article. Rheumatology International, Clinical Rheumatology, Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology, Annals of Rheumatic Diseases and Pediatric Rheumatology were the top five journals according to the number of FMF articles. The geographical distribution of FMF was seen to affect the article production of countries. Although Turkey dominated the field in the number of articles, it was not at the forefront in the average number of citations. To increase the production of articles in the field of FMF, it is necessary to support researchers in countries other than those which are already strongly active.