Visualizing Zika Virus Research Literature Through Bibliometric Mapping

Abstract

This study outlines a significant relationship between a spurt of research activity in the field and the outbreak of the Zika disease, for the purpose of visualizing the phenomenon. By using bibliographic research, it is possible to correlate data with this disease. To identify the hotspots of research the data is evaluated using the following parameters: literature growth since 1975; most prolific authors and their contributions; top contributing institution, country, and journal; identify co-authorship clusters of the authors and institutions; and finally, to create and examine co-word maps of the keywords. It is also found that under-developed countries like Senegal and Zambia have contributed to Zika research along with the USA, France and Germany. Forty-five per cent of the contributions are concentrated in six journals.