Sweileh Waleed M
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology/Toxicology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
Trop Dis Travel Med Vaccines. 2022 Jun 1;8(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s40794-022-00173-7.
The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are endemic in several Arab countries. The purpose of the current study was to assess the contribution of researchers in Arab countries to the knowledge base on NTDs using bibliometric indicators.
Keywords related to all 20 NTDs were obtained from previously published bibliometric studies and were combined with the names of Arab countries listed as country affiliation. the search strategy was implemented in the Scopus database and bibliometric indicators were generated for the study period from 1971 to 2020 RESULTS: The search strategy generated 6542 documents; representing less than 4% of the global research in the field. Scientific research on NTDs from researchers in Arab countries (a) has experienced slow growth; (b) generated a relatively inadequate number of publications over the study period; (c) was disseminated mainly through journals in the field of parasitology or tropical medicine; (d) was contributed by researchers from the 22 Arab countries, but mainly by researchers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan; (e) has fragmented author networks with weak collaboration between active authors in the field; (f) was characterized by strong cross-country research collaboration with researchers in the US and the UK; (g) has focused on three main diseases, specifically, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and onchocerciasis, and (h) showed less emphasis on soil-transmitted helminthiasis infections despite high prevalence.
Arab countries cannot achieve the 2030 global agenda without control and elimination of prevalent NTDs. Researchers in Arab countries need to establish strong research networks to exchange expertise on all NTDs.
被忽视的热带病在几个阿拉伯国家呈地方病流行。本研究的目的是利用文献计量指标评估阿拉伯国家研究人员对被忽视热带病知识库的贡献。
与所有20种被忽视热带病相关的关键词取自先前发表的文献计量研究，并与列为所属国家的阿拉伯国家名称相结合。检索策略在Scopus数据库中实施，并生成了1971年至2020年研究期间的文献计量指标。结果：检索策略产生了6542篇文献；占该领域全球研究的比例不到4%。来自阿拉伯国家研究人员关于被忽视热带病的科研（a）增长缓慢；（b）在研究期间发表的文献数量相对不足；（c）主要通过寄生虫学或热带医学领域的期刊传播；（d）由22个阿拉伯国家的研究人员贡献，但主要来自埃及、沙特阿拉伯和苏丹的研究人员；（e）作者网络分散，该领域活跃作者之间的合作薄弱；（f）其特点是与美国和英国的研究人员有很强的跨国研究合作；（g）主要集中在三种主要疾病，即血吸虫病、利什曼病和盘尾丝虫病，以及（h）尽管土壤传播的蠕虫感染患病率很高，但对其的关注较少。
如果不控制和消除流行的被忽视热带病，阿拉伯国家就无法实现2030年全球议程。阿拉伯国家的研究人员需要建立强大的研究网络，以交流关于所有被忽视热带病的专业知识。
