Worldwide and Brazilian scientific publications on Leishmaniasis in the first 19 years of 21st century: a bibliometric study

Abstract

Introduction: Leishmaniasis is a set of tropical diseases widely distributed throughout the world. Publications concerning different aspects of leishmaniasis have shown an increasing trend in recent years, especially in Brazil, where this disease has been under continuous expansion. The present study analyzes the data and assess trends in publications on leishmaniasis in Brazil and worldwide.
 Methodology: The bibliometric analysis was performed on the Scopus database, addressing data on scientific publications about leishmaniasis in the first nineteen years of the 21st century. The tendency of the annual number of publications was analyzed by mean of linear regression equations.
 Results: The literature search identified 19.317 publications. Brazil was the country with the largest number of studies (24.88%). The annual growth rate for Brazilian publications was 4.66%, whereas worldwide publications grew 2.96%. The leading ten international authors contributed to 8.71% of the publications, whereas the ten principal Brazilian authors contributed to 4.31%. The largest collaboration network between authors was between Brazil and the United States. Oswaldo Cruz Foundation occupied the premier position in both worldwide and Brazilian ranking in number of publications. The international journal with the largest number of publications and SCImago Journal Rank indicator was PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The Journal of Immunology had the highest H-index. Most of the research covered topics related to immunology and molecular biology.
 Conclusions: The data show relevant characteristics of the scientific production on leishmaniasis and demonstrate the fundamental role played by Brazil in the production of knowledge in this area of study.

Developments in Leishmaniasis diagnosis: A patent landscape from 2010 to 2022

“…These are also major markets of protection. This finding is consisting with the outstanding contribution of Brazil, the USA and India to leishmaniasis research [21][22][23][24][25], the fact that these countries are endemic for leishmaniasis [26] and that China and the USA are the leading countries in overall patent filings and filings by residents [27]. The expressive contribution of Brazil and India is also in line with the impact of the disease in these countries.…”

“…Our patent data analyses indicate that the strong international collaborative research observed when analyzing scientific publications on leishmaniasis worldwide [ 23 , 25 ] does not lead to co-ownership of patent applications for leishmaniasis diagnosis. In fact, only 16% of our patent families contained some type of joint research (international or national), the vast majority of which occurred between two academic institutions from the same country.…”

“…Most of them target the kDNA minicircle (11) or 18S ribosomal RNA/DNA (4). Considering the form of the disease and species tested, most target VL (23) and TL (18, including CL data). The most tested species are L. donovani (19), L. infantum PLOS GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH (16) or L. major (15).…”

Vocational education’s growing focus on employability skills: A bibliometrics evaluation of current research

“…Analysis using bibliometrics has existed since the early 20th century [38]- [40]. The term "bibliometrics" refers to a statistical method for compiling information about publications' authors, institutions, journals, and other relevant sources [41]. Due to the growing body of literature on a specific subject, it is helpful to employ a variety of quantitative rubrics to assess the most critical developments in that field [42].…”

Temporal patterns, spatial risks, and characteristics of tegumentary leishmaniasis in Brazil in the first twenty years of the 21st Century

“…Implementation of effective protective measures demands knowledge of the characteristics of notifications and the epidemiology of the disease, particularly regarding the spatial and temporal patterns of new cases, which better indicate the transmission patterns [ 18 , 19 ]. However, literature concerning the epidemiology of TL in Brazil is based predominantly on data from local surveys [ 19 , 20 ] and there are no studies that evaluated the spatial and temporal patterns of TL in the country over 20 years at the subnational level.…”