A bibliometric analysis of Bacillus anthracis research published between 1975 and 2018

Abstract

Aim: Bibliometrics is a recent field and is performed to quantitatively assess the academic quality of journals or authors using statistical procedures such as citation rates, contents, authorship relations and productivity. Although anthrax still remains important globally, the scientific literature lacks a bibliometric assessment of the anthrax literature. In this study, it is aimed to perform the bibliometric analysis of anthrax. Methods: The data in this study were extracted from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database (Thomson Reuters, New York, NY, USA) from 1975 to December 2018. The database is accessible back to 1975 and we searched all documents using keywords [Bacillus anthracis OR anthrax] in the "Title" field. Results: WoS database search recorded a total of 5557 publications. More than half of the publications were original articles (n=3828, 68.8%). The country with the greatest number of publications was the United States of America (n=3203), followed by England (n=301) and France (n=264). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention had the most published documents about anthrax with 210 papers and 3.7% of the total literature. The most productive authors are Leppla SH, Collier RJ, and Mock M (n=236, 124, 101 documents), respectively. The most productive journal was Infection and Immunity, which covered 4.3% of the publications with 241 manuscripts. Conclusion: In this first bibliometric study in the literature about anthrax we found that nonendemic developed countries dominated the anthrax literature. This study will encourage further studies about the investigation of anthrax, which is endemic in some parts of the world.

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization Mapping of Anthrax Vaccine Publications from 1991 through 2021

“…If we standardize the article distribution across the population, the USA will have 2 articles per a million population and the UK will have 1.5 articles per million population, indicating the USA will still be leading regardless of the population size. This is consistent with the findings of a bibliometric analysis of Bacillus anthracis research that identifies the USA as the leading in terms of publishing, coauthoring, and funding Bacillus anthracis research [ 51 ]. Overall, it is evident that the developed countries are making the most significant contribution and achievements to research on the anthrax vaccine.…”

Anthrax revisited: how assessing the unpredictable can improve biosecurity

“…Explicit knowledge includes standard operation procedures for producing and processing biological agents and can be acquired through open-access scientific literature. In fact, a vast amount of knowledge and information from many decades of anthrax research is available and publicly accessible ( Morris and Boyack, 2005 ; Savcı, 2019 ). Undeniably, globalization and the internet have significantly diminished the barrier to acquiring explicit knowledge.…”

“…Using the most thoroughly studied traditional BW agent B. anthracis ( Savcı, 2019 ) as a prime example, this paper analyzes and assesses the possible bioterrorism threat arising from advances in synthetic biology and other converging sciences. In addition, the possible required biosecurity adaptations in the field of biodefense are identified.…”