Respiratory syncytial virus: a systematic scientometric analysis of the global publication output and the gender distribution of publishing authors

Abstract

ObjectiveWorldwide, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) represents the predominant viral agent causing bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children. To conduct research and tackle existing healthcare disparities, RSV-related research activities around the globe need to be described. Hence, we assessed the associated scientific output (represented by research articles) by geographical, chronological and socioeconomic criteria and analysed the authors publishing in the field by gender. Also, the 15 most cited articles and the most prolific journals were identified for RSV research.DesignRetrospective, descriptive study.SettingThe NewQIS (New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science) platform was employed to identify RSV-related articles published in the Web of Science until 2013. We performed a numerical analysis of all articles, and examined citation-based aspects (eg, citation rates); results were visualised by density equalising mapping tools.ResultsWe identified 4600 RSV-related articles. The USA led the field; US-American authors published 2139 articles (46.5%% of all identified articles), which have been cited 83 000 times. When output was related to socioeconomic benchmarks such as gross domestic product or Research and Development expenditures, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and Chile were ranked in leading positions. A total of 614 articles on RSV (13.34% of all articles) were attributed to scientific collaborations. These were primarily established between high-income countries. The gender analysis indicated that male scientists dominated in all countries except Brazil.ConclusionsThe majority of RSV-related research articles originated from high-income countries whereas developing nations showed only minimal publication productivity and were barely part of any collaborative networks. Hence, research capacity in these nations should be increased in order to assist in addressing inequities in resource allocation and the clinical burden of RSV in these countries.

New quality and quantity indices in science (NewQIS): results of the first decade—project progress review

“…The field of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) research can give an example how this is achieved: After having identified all relevant RSV-associated publications, the collaborative studies were related to their countries of origin. Publications with two or more authors affiliated to the same country were counted only once for the total number of collaborations of this particular country (Bruggmann et al 2017c). If an author had two affiliations, these were counted for every country mentioned in the affiliations.…”

“…If an author had two affiliations, these were counted for every country mentioned in the affiliations. Connecting vectors visualized these co-operations; their width and shade of grey reflected the number of joint publications (Bruggmann et al 2017c). Figure 2 illustrates international collaborations for RSV research.…”

“…I.e. two quotients were calculated to assess the scientific output of a specific country for RSV research (Bruggmann et al 2017c):…”

“…(1) in relation to the number of inhabitants (Q1) (2) in relation to its economic power (as measured by the gross domestic product, GDP, Q2) (Bruggmann et al 2017c). Data regarding the population and GDP of investigated countries was obtained from 2012 The quotients were calculated as follows:…”

“…Articles/population index (Q1) = number of articles/population in million inhabitants 2. Articles/GDP index (Q2) = number of articles/GDP in 1000 billion US-Dollars Within the RSV research NewQIS study, also, all countries were classified into highincome, upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income and low-income groups according to World Bank definitions (Bruggmann et al 2017c). Then, the total number of RSV articles was related to the gross domestic expenditure on Research and Development (R&D in % of GDP) as well as to the number of researchers (per million inhabitants) affiliated to the investigated countries.…”