A global bibliometric analysis on antibiotic-resistant active pulmonary tuberculosis over the last 25 years (1996–2020)

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is still a leading global cause of mortality and an increasingly crucial problem in fighting TB is antibiotic resistance. We aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis on the articles of the past 25 years on antibiotic-resistant active pulmonary TB. Methods: Appropriate keywords were combined using the Boolean and wildcard operators and searched in Scopus database for articles published between 1996 and 2020 in English language. For all the bibliometric analyses, the Bibliometrix package in RStudio and Biblioshiny web apps were used. We identified the publication and citation trends, topmost cited documents, most productive authors, countries and institutions and most influential journals and funding agencies. We constructed collaborative networks of countries and co-citations. In addition, we developed a Three-Fields plot and a Thematic Map to explore different publication themes. Results: We included 7024 articles (88.9% research articles) and a persistently increasing publication and citation trends were evident throughout the past 25 years. Boehme 2010 was the most cited paper (1609 times cited), Stefan Niemann was the most productive author (86 papers), and ‘International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease’ was the leading journal. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was the top contributing institution (3.7% papers) and both US- and UK-based funders were leading. The most productive countries were the USA, India, the UK, South Africa, and China and most of the collaborations took place between the USA, the UK, and South Africa. Conclusion: Undoubtedly, researchers and funders from the USA dominated followed by the UK in most of the fields in antibiotic-resistant TB research. The outcomes of antibiotic-resistant TB research would be more productive and translational if researchers from low- or middle-income countries (especially from Africa, South America and Asia) with high research productivity and TB burden could be in collaboration with high-income countries exhibiting low TB burden.