Chissaque Assucênio, Guimarães Esperança, Limaymanta Cesar H, Conjo Carolina, Sebastião Capece Bettencourt Preto, Gonçalves Luzia, de Deus Nilsa, Craveiro Isabel
Instituto Nacional de Saúde (INS), Marracuene, Mozambique.
Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.
Heliyon. 2024 Aug 3;10(15):e35767. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35767. eCollection 2024 Aug 15.
Africa has a high double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases underscoring the critical need for robust scientific research. However, it is also associated with low scientific research productivity. Mozambique, which gained independence in 1975, serves as a poignant example. However, there remains a notable scarcity of evidence evaluating the country's trajectory in scientific and academic development. This study aims to evaluate 43 years of health-related scientific knowledge production through bibliometric analysis, focusing on key indicators. Additionally, it seeks to characterize the higher education institutions within the country.
The data was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection using an advanced search tool with Boolean research strategies, covering the period from 1976 to 2022 for all PALOP and 1976 to 2019 for Mozambique. To map Mozambican higher institutions, information was sourced from the Ministry of Science Technology and Higher Education database. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize the findings, while the VOSviewer program version 1.6.19 was utilized to visualize distance-based bibliometric networks, focusing on co-authorship among institutions and keyword co-occurrence.
Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) contribute 2.5 % (10,933 out of 442,309) to Africa's total scientific output, with Mozambique leading at 63.6 % (6,951 publications) followed by Angola at 16.6 % (1,811 publications). All PALOP countries experienced decreased scientific productivity during the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Mozambique, over 70 % (1,710 out of 2,380) of health-related publications from 2011 to 2019 were concentrated in this period. Key journals for health sciences include PLOS ONE, Malaria Journal, and Tropical Medicine & International Health, focusing on HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. Higher education institutions in Mozambique show regional disparities, with 67.9 % in the South and only 8.9 % in the North, indicating significant inequality in their distribution across the country.
This study highlights Mozambique's significant progress in health research productivity over 43 years, establishing it as a leader among PALOP countries. The substantial increase in publications, particularly after 2008, underscores the nation's growing research capacity and commitment to addressing critical health challenges such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. However, regional disparities in higher education access and limited research contributions from private universities remain high in Mozambique.
非洲面临着传染病和非传染性疾病的双重高负担，这凸显了开展强有力科学研究的迫切需求。然而，非洲的科研生产力也较低。1975年独立的莫桑比克就是一个典型例子。然而，评估该国科学和学术发展轨迹的证据仍然明显匮乏。本研究旨在通过文献计量分析评估43年来与健康相关的科学知识产出，重点关注关键指标。此外，本研究还试图描述该国高等教育机构的特征。
使用具有布尔研究策略的高级搜索工具从科学引文索引核心合集检索数据，涵盖所有葡语非洲国家（PALOP）1976年至2022年以及莫桑比克1976年至2019年的数据。为绘制莫桑比克高等院校的地图，信息来源于科学技术和高等教育部数据库。采用描述性统计来总结研究结果，同时使用VOSviewer 程序1.6.19版来可视化基于距离的文献计量网络，重点关注机构间的合作作者关系和关键词共现情况。
葡语非洲国家（PALOP）对非洲科学总产出的贡献为2.5%（442,309篇中的10,933篇），其中莫桑比克领先，占63.6%（6,951篇出版物），其次是安哥拉，占16.6%（1,811篇出版物）。在新冠疫情的第三年，所有PALOP国家的科研生产力均有所下降。在莫桑比克，2011年至2019年期间70%以上（2,380篇中的1,710篇）与健康相关的出版物集中在这一时期。健康科学领域的关键期刊包括《公共科学图书馆·综合》《疟疾杂志》和《热带医学与国际卫生》，重点关注艾滋病毒、疟疾和结核病。莫桑比克的高等教育机构存在地区差异，南部占67.9%，北部仅占8.9%，表明其在全国分布存在显著不平等。
本研究突出了莫桑比克在43年健康研究生产力方面取得的显著进展，使其成为PALOP国家中的领先者。出版物数量的大幅增加，尤其是2008年之后，凸显了该国不断增长的研究能力以及应对艾滋病毒、疟疾和结核病等关键健康挑战的决心。然而，莫桑比克在高等教育机会方面的地区差异以及私立大学有限的研究贡献仍然很大。
