Department of Physiology, Pharmacology/Toxicology, Division of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
Global Health. 2018 Nov 8;14(1):106. doi: 10.1186/s12992-018-0427-9.
Human trafficking is a crime against humanity. It is also a serious threat to global health and security. Globalization has made human trafficking an easier task for the criminal organizations. No data are available on the volume, research trends, and key players in this field. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the research activity and research trends on human trafficking.
A bibliometric method was adopted. Literature published in academic journals indexed in Scopus database was retrieved. The study period was set from 2000 to 2017.
Two thousand forty-four documents were retrieved. The average number of authors per document was 1.9. Over one third (n = 771; 37.7%) of the retrieved documents were about sex trafficking, 616 (30.1%) were about labor trafficking/forced labor, 199 (9.7%) were about child trafficking, and 138 (6.8%) were about organ trafficking. One third (n = 707; 34.6%) of the documents were in health-related fields while 1526 (74.7%) were in social sciences and humanities. The USA ranked first (n = 735; 36.0%) regarding the number of published documents. Geographic distribution of the retrieved document showed that world regions with a high prevalence of human trafficking had the least research contribution. International research collaboration has a limited contribution to the retrieved literature. The Harvard University (USA) was the most active institution (n = 39; 1.9%). International Migration (n = 35; 1.7%) was the most active journal in publishing documents on HT. Documents published in Transplantation journal received the highest number of citations per document (25.5) and two of the most cited documents were about organ trafficking.
There was an under-representation of health-related literature on human trafficking. Literature on sex trafficking dominated the field of human trafficking. Research networks and research collaboration between the source and destination countries is important. Future research plans need to focus on health issues and on exploited/trafficked laborers.
人口贩运是一种反人类罪。它也是对全球健康和安全的严重威胁。全球化使犯罪组织更容易从事人口贩运活动。目前尚无关于该领域的数量、研究趋势和主要参与者的数据。因此，本研究旨在评估人口贩运方面的研究活动和研究趋势。
采用文献计量学方法。检索了 Scopus 数据库中收录的学术期刊上发表的文献。研究时间设定为 2000 年至 2017 年。
共检索到 2044 篇文献。每篇文献的平均作者数为 1.9 人。检索到的文献中，超过三分之一（n=771；37.7%）涉及性交易，616 篇（30.1%）涉及劳动/强迫劳动，199 篇（9.7%）涉及儿童交易，138 篇（6.8%）涉及器官交易。三分之一（n=707；34.6%）的文献属于与健康相关的领域，而 1526 篇（74.7%）属于社会科学和人文学科。美国发表的文献数量最多（n=735；36.0%）。检索文献的地理分布表明，人口贩运发生率较高的世界区域对研究的贡献最小。国际研究合作对检索文献的贡献有限。哈佛大学（美国）是最活跃的机构（n=39；1.9%）。国际移民（n=35；1.7%）是发表人口贩运相关文献最多的期刊。发表在《移植》杂志上的文献每篇被引频次最高（25.5），被引频次最高的两篇文献均与器官交易有关。
与人口贩运相关的健康文献代表性不足。性交易方面的文献在人口贩运领域占据主导地位。来源国和目的地国之间的研究网络和研究合作非常重要。未来的研究计划需要关注健康问题和被剥削/被贩运的劳动者。
