Faculty of Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
Department of Medicine, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand.
World J Surg. 2019 Nov;43(11):2689-2698. doi: 10.1007/s00268-019-05112-w.
There has been a growing interest in addressing the surgical disease burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Assessing the current state of global surgery research activity is an important step in identifying gaps in knowledge and directing research efforts towards important unaddressed issues. The aim of this bibliometric analysis was to identify trends in the publication of global surgical research over the last 30 years.
Scopus was searched for global surgical publications (1987-2017). Results were hand-screened, and data were collected for included articles. Bibliometric data were extracted from Scopus and Journal Citation Reports. Country-level economic and population data were obtained from the World Bank. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise data and identify significant trends.
A total of 1623 articles were identified. The volume of scientific production on global surgery increased from 14 publications in 1987 to 149 in 2017. Similarly, the number of articles published open access increased from four in 1987 to 68 in 2017. Observational studies accounted for 88.7% of the included studies. The three most common specialties were obstetrics and gynaecology 260 (16.0%), general surgery 256 (15.8%), and paediatric surgery 196 (12.1%). Over two times as many authors were affiliated to an LMIC institution than to a high-income country (HIC) institution (6628, 71.5% vs 2481, 28.5%, P < 0.001). A total of 965 studies (59.5%) were conducted entirely by LMIC authors, and 534 (32.9%) by collaborations between HICs and LMICs.
The quantity of research in global surgery has substantially increased over the past 30 years. Authors from LMICs seemed the most proactive in addressing the global surgical disease burden. Increasing the funding for interventional studies, and therefore the quality of evidence in surgery, has the potential for greater impact for patients in LMICs.
人们对解决中低收入国家（LMICs）的外科疾病负担越来越感兴趣。评估全球外科研究活动的现状是确定知识差距并将研究工作指向重要未解决问题的重要步骤。本计量分析的目的是确定过去 30 年来全球外科研究出版物的趋势。
在 Scopus 中搜索全球外科出版物（1987-2017 年）。结果进行手工筛选，并为纳入的文章收集数据。从 Scopus 和期刊引文报告中提取书目数据。从世界银行获得国家一级的经济和人口数据。使用描述性统计数据总结数据并确定显著趋势。
共确定了 1623 篇文章。全球外科研究的科学成果数量从 1987 年的 14 篇增加到 2017 年的 149 篇。同样，1987 年发表的开放获取文章数量从 4 篇增加到 2017 年的 68 篇。观察性研究占纳入研究的 88.7%。三个最常见的专业是妇产科 260 篇（16.0%）、普通外科 256 篇（15.8%）和小儿外科 196 篇（12.1%）。与高收入国家（HIC）机构相比，隶属于 LMIC 机构的作者多出两倍以上（6628 人，71.5% 对 2481 人，28.5%，P < 0.001）。共有 965 项研究（59.5%）完全由 LMIC 作者进行，534 项（32.9%）由 HIC 和 LMIC 之间的合作进行。
在过去的 30 年中，全球外科研究的数量大幅增加。来自 LMICs 的作者似乎在解决全球外科疾病负担方面最为积极。增加干预性研究的资金投入，从而提高外科手术的证据质量，有可能为 LMIC 患者带来更大的影响。
