A Scientometric Analysis of Research Productivity in Surgery from Arab countries (2001-2021)

Research Productivity in Surgery from Arab countries

Authors

  • Muhammad Imran Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine in Rabigh, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • Ahmad Azam Malik   Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine in Rabigh, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v4i03.586

Keywords:

Surgery, Research, Arab Countries, Bibliometrics, Web of Science

Abstract

Several surgical procedures are being performed on daily basis globally along with continuously expanding research in all surgery fields. Objective: To assess the surgery related research trends and performance in Arab countries using bibliometric indicators. Methods: In this descriptive bibliometric study, data were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS). All surgery related English language articles, from 2001 to 2021 from Arab countries were analyzed in R-Bibliometric package. Results: There were 10,269 articles in English language, with 158 authors’ countries. There was increase in publications each year with escalating trend from 2017 onwards. Al-Qattan MM was the leading author with >200 publications and >2000 total citations (TC)), while the highest h-index was demonstrated by Alio 25. Egypt USA, and Saudi Arabia were leading in production and TC. Cairo University (Egypt) and King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) were the leading affiliations. International Journal of Surgery Case Reports was the leading sources. Case report, bariatric surgery, surgery, laparoscopy and sleeve gastrectomy were the most frequently used keywords. Conclusions: This study showed increasing publications over time with more productivity since 2017. The magnitude and increasing trend of obesity and bariatric surgery-research was observed. Egypt and Saudi Arabia were leading contributors, which signifies the need of more efforts from other Arab countries. More collaboration among Arab researchers, increase in funding sources, efforts toward high impact research in the field of surgery, and support for less resourceful countries are warranted in future

References

Zargaran A, Fazelzadeh A, Mohagheghzadeh A. Surgeons and surgery from ancient Persia (5,000 years of surgical history). World Journal of Surgery. 2013 Aug; 37: 2002-4. doi: 10.1007/s00268-013-2055-0

Weiser TG, Haynes AB, Molina G, Lipsitz SR, Esquivel MM, Uribe-Leitz T, et al. Estimate of the global volume of surgery in 2012: an assessment supporting improved health outcomes. The Lancet. 2015 Apr; 385: S11. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60806-6

Weiser TG, Regenbogen SE, Thompson KD, Haynes AB, Lipsitz SR, Berry WR, et al. An estimation of the global volume of surgery: a modelling strategy based on available data. The Lancet. 2008 Jul; 372(9633): 139-44. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60878-8

Statistical Yearbook of 2019, General authority for statistics. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [Last Cited: 22nd Feb 2023]. Available at: https://www.stats.gov.sa/en/1006.

Al Shahrani AS, El-Metwally A, Al-Surimi K, Salih SB, Saleh Y, Al-Shehri A, et al. The epidemiology of thyroid diseases in the Arab world: A systematic review. Journal of Public health and Epidemiology. 2016 Feb; 8(2): 17-26.

Yahya A. Burden of Surgery in Saudi Arabia, an Experience of a Tertiary Academic Hospital: A Longitudinal Descriptive Study. Journal of Research in Medical and Dental Science. 2020 Mar; 8(2): 67-71.

Cheema S, Maisonneuve P, Lowenfels AB, Abraham A, Doraiswamy S, Mamtani R. Influence of age on 2040 cancer burden in the older population of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: public health implications. Cancer Control. 2021 Sep; 28: 10732748211027158. doi: 10.1177/10732748211027158

Abusnana S, Fargaly M, Alfardan SH, Al Hammadi FH, Bashier A, Kaddaha G, et al. Clinical practice recommendations for the management of obesity in the United Arab Emirates. Obesity Facts. 2018 Oct; 11(5): 413-28. doi: 10.1159/000491796

Hilal L, Shahait M, Mukherji D, Charafeddine M, Farhat Z, Temraz S, et al. Prostate cancer in the Arab world: A view from the inside. Clinical Genitourinary Cancer. 2015 Dec; 13(6): 505-11. doi: 10.1016/j.clgc.2015.05.010

Safi S, Ahmadieh H, Katibeh M, Yaseri M, Ramezani A, Shahraz S, et al. Burden of vision loss in the Eastern Mediterranean region, 1990–2015: findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study. International Journal of Public Health. 2018 Aug; 63(1): 199-210. doi: 10.1007/s00038-017-1000-7

Hossain A. Evolution of mutual knowledge-based economy in regional integration: an experience from the Cooperation Council of Arab States of the Gulf. Journal of the Knowledge Economy. 2015 Dec; 6: 790-817. doi: 10.1007/s13132-013-0148-5

Nurunnabi M. Transformation from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy in Saudi Arabia: the direction of Saudi vision 2030. Journal of the Knowledge Economy. 2017 Jun; 8: 536-64. doi: 10.1007/s13132-017-0479-8

Jackson SR and Patel MI. Robotic surgery research in urology: a bibliometric analysis of field and top 100 articles. Journal of Endourology. 2019 May; 33(5): 389-95. doi: 10.1089/end.2018.0866

Malik AA, Baig M, Butt NS, Imran M, Alzahrani SH, Gazzaz ZJ. Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Productivity on Vitamin D and Bone Metabolism (2001–2020): Learn from the Past to Plan Future. Nutrients. 2022 Jan; 14(3): 542. doi: 10.3390/nu14030542

Mellor KL, Powell AG, Lewis WG. Laparoscopic surgery’s 100 most influential manuscripts: a bibliometric analysis. Surgical Laparoscopy, Endoscopy & Percutaneous Techniques. 2018 Feb; 28(1): 13-9. doi: 10.1097/SLE.0000000000000507

Bettencourt LM and Kaur J. Evolution and structure of sustainability science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2011 Dec; 108(49): 19540-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1102712108

Li K, Rollins J, Yan E. Web of Science use in published research and review papers 1997–2017: A selective, dynamic, cross-domain, content-based analysis. Scientometrics. 2018 Apr; 115(1): 1-20. doi: 10.1007/s11192-017-2622-5

Kmeid J, Jabbour J-F, Kanj SS. Epidemiology and burden of invasive fungal infections in the countries of the Arab League. Journal of infection and public health. 2020 Dec; 13(12): 2080-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2019.05.007

Sharara E, Akik C, Ghattas H, Makhlouf Obermeyer C. Physical inactivity, gender and culture in Arab countries: a systematic assessment of the literature. BMC Public Health. 2018 Dec; 18(1): 1-19. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5472-z

Aria M, Cuccurullo C. Bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of Informetrics. 2017 Nov; 11(4): 959-75. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.007

Yin M, Wang H, Sun Y, Xu C, Ye J, Ma J, et al. Global trends of researches on lumbar spinal stenosis: a bibliometric and visualization study. Clinical Spine Surgery. 2022 Feb; 35(1): E259-E66. doi: 10.1097/BSD.0000000000001160

Saunders T, Rymer B, McNamara K. A global bibliometric analysis of otolaryngology: Head and neck surgery literature. Clinical Otolaryngology. 2017 Dec; 42(6): 1338-42. doi: 10.1111/coa.12910

Ahmad S, Ur Rehman S, Ashiq M. A bibliometric review of Arab world research from 1980-2020. Science & Technology Libraries. 2021 Apr; 40(2): 133-53. doi: 10.1080/0194262X.2020.1855615

Ul Haq I, Ur Rehman S, Al-Kadri HM, Farooq RK. Research productivity in the health sciences in Saudi Arabia: 2008-2017. Annals of Saudi medicine. 2020 Mar; 40(2): 147-54. doi: 10.5144/0256-4947.2020.147

Butt FM, Ashiq M, Rehman SU, Minhas KS, Ajmal Khan M. Bibliometric analysis of road traffic injuries research in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. F1000Research. 2020 Oct; 9: 1155. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.25903.2

He L, Fang H, Wang X, Wang Y, Ge H, Li C, et al. The 100 most-cited articles in urological surgery: A bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Surgery. 2020 Mar; 75: 74-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2019.12.030

Shen L, Wang S, Dai W, Zhang Z. Detecting the interdisciplinary nature and topic hotspots of robotics in surgery: social network analysis and bibliometric study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2019 Mar; 21(3): e12625. doi: 10.2196/12625

He R, Yin T, Pan S, Wang M, Zhang H, Qin R. One hundred most cited article related to pancreaticoduodenectomy surgery: A bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Surgery. 2022 Jul: 106775. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2022.106775

Zhou P, Cai X, Lyu X. An in-depth analysis of government funding and international collaboration in scientific research. Scientometrics. 2020 Nov; 125: 1331-47. doi: 10.1007/s11192-020-03595-2

Dabi Y, Darrigues L, Katsahian S, Azoulay D, De Antonio M, Lazzati A. Publication trends in bariatric surgery: a bibliometric study. Obesity Surgery. 2016 Nov; 26: 2691-9. doi: 10.1007/s11695-016-2160-x

Paolino L, Pravettoni R, Epaud S, Ortala M, Lazzati A. Comparison of surgical activity and scientific publications in bariatric surgery: an epidemiological and bibliometric analysis. Obesity Surgery. 2020 Oct; 30: 3822-30. doi: 10.1007/s11695-020-04703-0

Ghane MR, Niazmand MR, Sabet Sarvestani A. The citation advantage for open access science journals with and without article processing charges. Journal of Information Science. 2020 Feb; 46(1): 118-30. doi: 10.1177/0165551519837183

Khalifa AA and Ahmed AM. Scarcity of publications from Arab countries in one of the q1 orthopedic journals, is it us or the journal? Journal of Musculoskeletal Surgery and Research. 2020 Jan; 4: 9. doi: 10.4103/jmsr.jmsr_89_19

Baeesa SS, Maghrabi Y, Msaddi AK, Assaker R. Quality of spine surgery research from the Arab countries: A systematic review and bibliometric analysis. BioMed Research International. 2017 Feb; 2017. doi: 10.1155/2017/7560236

Sweileh WM, Zyoud SeH, Al-Jabi SW, Sawalha AF. Contribution of Arab countries to breast cancer research: comparison with non-Arab Middle Eastern countries. BMC Women's Health. 2015 Dec; 15(1): 1-7. doi: 10.1186/s12905-015-0184-3

Almarghoub MA and Al-Qattan MM. Publications from Saudi Arabia in plastic surgery in the recent five years. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open. 2019 Sep; 7(9): e2404. doi: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000002143

Sweileh WM, Al-Jabi SW, Shanti YI, Sawalha AF, Zyoud SeH. Contribution of Arab researchers to ophthalmology: a bibliometric and comparative analysis. Springerplus. 2015 Dec; 4: 1-7. doi: 10.1186/s40064-015-0806-0

Downloads

Published

2023-03-31
CITATION
DOI: 10.54393/pjhs.v4i03.586
Published: 2023-03-31

How to Cite

Imran, M., & Malik  , A. A. (2023). A Scientometric Analysis of Research Productivity in Surgery from Arab countries (2001-2021): Research Productivity in Surgery from Arab countries. Pakistan Journal of Health Sciences, 4(03), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v4i03.586

Issue

Section

Original Article

Plaudit

Most read articles by the same author(s)