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Review
. 2017 Feb 8;13(1):9.
doi: 10.1186/s12992-017-0233-9.

Global research trends of World Health Organization's top eight emerging pathogens

Affiliations
Review

Global research trends of World Health Organization's top eight emerging pathogens

Waleed M Sweileh. Global Health. .

Abstract

Background: On December 8th, 2015, World Health Organization published a priority list of eight pathogens expected to cause severe outbreaks in the near future. To better understand global research trends and characteristics of publications on these emerging pathogens, we carried out this bibliometric study hoping to contribute to global awareness and preparedness toward this topic.

Method: Scopus database was searched for the following pathogens/infectious diseases: Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Rift valley, Crimean-Congo, Nipah, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Severe Respiratory Acute Syndrome (SARS). Retrieved articles were analyzed to obtain standard bibliometric indicators.

Results: A total of 8619 journal articles were retrieved. Authors from 154 different countries contributed to publishing these articles. Two peaks of publications, an early one for SARS and a late one for Ebola, were observed. Retrieved articles received a total of 221,606 citations with a mean ± standard deviation of 25.7 ± 65.4 citations per article and an h-index of 173. International collaboration was as high as 86.9%. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had the highest share (344; 5.0%) followed by the University of Hong Kong with 305 (4.5%). The top leading journal was Journal of Virology with 572 (6.6%) articles while Feldmann, Heinz R. was the most productive researcher with 197 (2.3%) articles. China ranked first on SARS, Turkey ranked first on Crimean-Congo fever, while the United States of America ranked first on the remaining six diseases. Of retrieved articles, 472 (5.5%) were on vaccine - related research with Ebola vaccine being most studied.

Conclusion: Number of publications on studied pathogens showed sudden dramatic rise in the past two decades representing severe global outbreaks. Contribution of a large number of different countries and the relatively high h-index are indicative of how international collaboration can create common health agenda among distant different countries.

Keywords: AcrGIS 10.1; Bibliometrics; Outbreaks; VOSviewer; Virus; WHO.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Strategy and search query used to retrieve required data in Scopus
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Annual growth of publications over the study period (1996–2015)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Geographical distribution of publications on the eight emerging pathogens. The map was created using ArcGIS 10.1 program. Regions with no colors in the map have no available data
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Network visualization of inter-country collaborations among countries with minimum of 20 publications on emerging pathogens. Links represent the strength of collaboration
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Network visualization map of author collaboration. Cluster of authors having similar cluster color most probably represents a closely related research group
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Geographical distribution of publications on SARS. The map was created using ArcGIS 10.1 program. Regions with no colors in the map have no available data
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Geographical distribution of publications on Ebola. The map was created using ArcGIS 10.1 program. Regions with no colors in the map have no available data
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Geographical distribution of publications on Ebola. The map was created using ArcGIS 10.1 program. Regions with no colors in the map have no available data
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Geographical distribution of publications on MERS. The map was created using ArcGIS 10.1 program. Regions with no colors in the map have no available data
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
a Growth of publication on Ebola and SARS (1996–2015). b Growth of publications on "Crimean – Congo, Marburg, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Nipah, and Rift Valley fever" (1996–2015)
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Growth of publications on vaccine research on emerging pathogens (1996–2015)

References

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