Malaria research in Malawi from 1984 to 2016: a literature review and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

BackgroundMalaria research can play a vital role in addressing the malaria burden in Malawi. An organized approach in addressing malaria in Malawi started in 1984 by the establishment of the first National Malaria Control Programme and research was recognized to be significant. This study aimed to assess the type and amount of malaria research conducted in Malawi from 1984 to 2016 and its related source of funding.MethodsA systematic literature search was conducted in the Medline/PubMed database for Malawian publications and approved malaria studies from two Ethical Committees were examined. Bibliometric analysis was utilized to capture the affiliations of first and senior/last authors, funding acknowledgements, while titles, abstracts and accessed full text were examined for research type.ResultsA total of 483 publications and 165 approved studies were analysed. Clinical and basic research in the fields of malaria in pregnancy 105 (21.5%), severe malaria 97 (20.1%) and vector and/or agent dynamics 69 (14.3%) dominated in the publications while morbidity 33 (20%), severe malaria 28 (17%) and Health Policy and Systems Research 24 (14.5%) dominated in the approved studies. In the publications, 146 (30%) first authors and 100 (21%) senior authors, and 88 (53.3%) principal investigators in approved studies were affiliated to Malawian-based institutions. Most researchers were affiliated to the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust, College of Medicine, Blantyre Malaria Project, Ministry of Health, and Malaria Alert Centre. The major malaria research funders were the National Institute for Health/USA, Wellcome Trust and the US Agency for International Development. Only three (2.5%) out of 118 journals publishing research on malaria in Malawi were from Africa and the Malaria Journal, with 76 (15.7%) publications, published most of the research from Malawi, followed by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene with 57 (11.8%) in comparison to only 13 (2.7%) published in the local Malawi Medical Journal.ConclusionsClinical and basic research, which is mostly funded externally, in the fields of malaria in pregnancy, severe malaria and vector and/or agent dynamics dominated, while health policy and system research was least supported. The quantity may reflect scientific research activity but the initial primary impact is contribution to policy development.

Research supporting malaria control and elimination in China over four decades: a bibliometric analysis of academic articles published in Chinese from 1980 to 2019

“…However, these trends were difficult to compare with those in other countries. There were only two bibliometric analysis publications on malaria research at the same scale in journals: Upasana’s research in India from 1909 to 2019 [ 12 ] and Chikondi’s research in Malawi from 1984 to 2016 [ 13 ]. Both studies described and analysed the research period as a whole, and there were no time-stratified comparisons.…”

“…Two major Chinese literature databases, the Wanfang and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases, were searched. The inclusion criteria were as follows: Chinese articles published in journals from 1980 to 2019; and articles for which at least one of the following words was included in the title or keywords: ‘malaria’, ‘Plasmodium’, or ‘Anopheles’ [ 12 , 13 , 17 ]. The exclusion criteria were articles without keywords or duplicate articles in both databases.…”

Decades of research supporting malaria control and elimination in China: a bibliometric analysis of academic articles published in Chinese from 1980 to 2019

“…However, these trends were di cult to compare with other countries. Mainly because there were only two bibliometric analysis publications of the same scale on malaria research in journals: Upasana's research in India from 1909 to 2019 [12], Chikondi's research in Malawi from 1984 to 2016 [13]. And they both described and analyzed the research period as a whole, there was no staged comparison.…”

30 years of parasitology research analysed by text mining

“…Several bibliometric analyses related to the malaria literature have been performed, including malaria in pregnancy (van Eijk et al ., 2012), insecticide resistance (Sweileh et al ., 2016) and malaria drug resistance (Sweileh et al ., 2017). There have also been studies focusing on malaria in specific countries such as Malawi (Mwendera et al ., 2017) and India (Gupta and Bala, 2011; Singh and Mahanty, 2019). Most of these studies have however, concentrated on identifying the journals where most of the work is published, the dominant authors and institutions publishing the studies, the most productive countries and publication type.…”