ObjectivesTo describe and map scientific literature related to alcohol consumption, its determinants, governance, harm and control policies by publication output, author affiliations, funding, countries of study and research themes.DesignBibliometric analysis using performance analysis and science mapping techniques.Data sourcesScientific articles.Eligibility criteriaIndexed scientific articles published between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2021 with an English abstract focused on alcohol consumption, its determinants, harms, governance and control policies.Data extraction and synthesisSearches were run in Web of Science and PubMed. Performance metrics were analysed using descriptive statistics. Keywords were used for science mapping in a deductive approach to cluster articles by five main research themes. The ‘policy response’ theme was further analysed by six subthemes.Results4553 articles were included in the analysis. Three out of four articles (3479/4553, 76.4%) were authored solely by authors affiliated with HIC institutions. One in five articles (906/4553, 19.9%) had at least one author affiliated to an institution from an upper-middle-income, middle-income or low-income country context. Governments, followed by research institutions, were the predominant funding source. Half (53.1%) studied a single country and, of these, 77.0% were high-income countries (HICs). Australia, USA and UK were the most studied countries, together accounting for 44.9% (975/2172) of country-specific articles. Thematically, ‘consumption’ was most studied, and ‘alcohol determinants’, least. ‘Policy response’ articles were predominately conducted in HIC contexts.ConclusionsAlthough the attributable harm of alcohol is known to affect more significantly lower-income and middle-income countries, scientific publications primarily report on HIC contexts by authors from HICs. Research themes reflect known cost-effective policy actions, though skewed towards HICs and a focus on consumption. The implementation of context-specific alcohol control policies requires addressing the determinants of the uneven geographical and thematic distribution of research.

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Introduction. Local research is critical to support the local implementation of global policies. This study explores the status and trends on research related to alcohol consumption, its determinants, governance, harm, and control policies in terms of the countries studied, affiliations of authors, funding, and research themes using bibliometric analysis. Methods. Research papers published between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2021 were searched using Web of Science and PubMed using a predefined search strategy and keywords, regardless of article type. All items that met the inclusion criteria were included in quantitative content analysis and deductive thematic analysis. Keywords were used to cluster articles by five main research themes and six subthemes related to policy interventions. The funding sources for the 100 most-cited articles were analysed. Results. A total of 4,553 articles were included in the analysis. Half (53.1%) studied a single country and, of these, 77.0% were high-income countries (HICs). Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom were the most studied countries and together accounted for 44.9% (975/2,172) of country-specific articles. Three out of four articles (3,479/4,553, 76.4%) were authored solely by authors affiliated with HIC institutions. One in five articles (906/4,553, 19.9%) had at least one author affiliated to an institution from an upper-middle, middle, or low-income country context. Governments, followed by research institutions, were the predominant funding source. Articles varied by theme: consumption (39.8%), policy response (31.0%), governance (26.9%), alcohol-related harm (26.7%), and determinants (12.6%). Across all subthemes of policy responses, articles were predominately conducted in HIC contexts. Conclusion. Although the attributable harm of alcohol is known to affect more significantly lower and middle-income countries, scientific publications primarily report on HIC contexts by authors from HICs. Themes of research reflect known cost-effective policy actions, though skewed towards HICs and a focus on consumption. The implementation of context-specific alcohol control policies requires addressing the determinants of the uneven geographical and thematic distribution of research to close the current publication gaps. Key questions What is already known?