A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 research in Africa

Patient-Related Metadata Reported in Sequencing Studies of SARS-CoV-2: Protocol for a Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Background

There has been an unprecedented effort to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 virus and examine its molecular evolution. This has been facilitated by the availability of publicly accessible databases, the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) and GenBank, which collectively hold millions of SARS-CoV-2 sequence records. Genomic epidemiology, however, seeks to go beyond phylogenetic analysis by linking genetic information to patient characteristics and disease outcomes, enabling a comprehensive understanding of transmission dynamics and disease impact.While these repositories include fields reflecting patient-related metadata for a given sequence, inclusion of these demographic and clinical details is scarce. The extent to which patient-related metadata is reported in published sequencing studies and its quality remains largely unexplored.

Methods

The NIH's LitCovid collection will be used for automated classification of articles reporting having deposited SARS-CoV-2 sequences in public repositories, while an independent search will be conducted in PubMed for validation. Data extraction will be conducted using Covidence. The extracted data will be synthesized and summarized to quantify the availability of patient metadata in the published literature of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing studies. For the bibliometric analysis, relevant data points, such as author affiliations and citation metrics will be extracted.

Discussion

This scoping review will report on the extent and types of patient-related metadata reported in genomic viral sequencing studies of SARS-CoV-2, identify gaps in this reporting, and make recommendations for improving the quality and consistency of reporting in this area. The bibliometric analysis will uncover trends and patterns in the reporting of patient-related metadata, including differences in reporting based on study types or geographic regions. Co-occurrence networks of author keywords will also be presented. The insights gained from this study may help improve the quality and consistency of reporting patient metadata, enhancing the utility of sequence metadata and facilitating future research on infectious diseases.

How does post COVID differ from other post-viral conditions in childhood and adolescence (0-20 years old)? A systematic review

Background

Post Coronavirus disease (COVID) and other post-viral infection syndromes present an overlap of pathogenesis, onset, progression, and symptom profile. We aimed to systematically describe studies on post-viral conditions and determine the entity of post COVID compared to other post-viral conditions in children.

Methods

We conducted a systematic search of the Embase, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and GoogleScholar databases (January 1946-3 November 2023), according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The main outcomes were differences in condition duration, symptom type, and development of chronic symptoms. This systematic review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42023401789).

Findings

35/5051 studies were included, with 42,934 children, adolescents and young adults (0-20 years old) overall. Twenty-eight studies focused on post COVID symptoms, followed by five papers on Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Rhinovirus, one study on Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), and one on gastrointestinal viruses. Studies on post COVID mainly reported data on older children/adolescents, describing long-lasting symptoms, including fatigue, neurologic, cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, mental health, and gastrointestinal symptoms. The maximum described symptoms duration was eighteen months, with an average follow-up of seven months. The development of chronic symptoms was reported by 30 studies (93.8%) for 10,473/28,474 patients (36.8%). Recovery was achieved in 18,001/28,474 cases (63.2%). The study on EBV reported persistent fatigue in adolescents for a similar duration (6 months, 46% chronic). Studies on RSV and Rhinovirus were mainly done in children under three years, with development of recurrent wheezing (up to 3 years).

Interpretation

Post-viral fatigue was a shared feature between post COVID and post EBV conditions. A better understanding of post COVID as a unique condition, sharing features with other post-viral syndromes, is needed. The healthcare burden and socio-economic consequences for children and their families warrant further investigation and development of appropriate healthcare management plans. The foremost requirement is the establishment of consistent and shareable definitions, as well as a consensus on outcomes, to effectively evaluate follow-up and quantify the burden of different viral infections.

Funding

EU Horizon, EDCTP, NIH.

Global landscape of COVID-19 research: a visualization analysis of randomized clinical trials

The emergence of COVID-19 in 2019 has resulted in a significant global health crisis. Consequently, extensive research was published to understand and mitigate the disease. In particular, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been considered the benchmark for assessing the efficacy and safety of interventions. Hence, the present study strives to present a comprehensive overview of the global research landscape pertaining to RCTs and COVID-19. A bibliometric analysis was performed using the Scopus database. The search parameters included articles published from 2020 to 2022 using keywords specifically related to COVID-19 and RCTs. The data were analyzed using various bibliometric indicators. The volume of publications, contributions of countries and institutions, funding agencies, active journals, citation analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and future research direction analysis were specifically analyzed. A total of 223,480 research articles concerning COVID-19 were published, with 3,727 of them related to RCTs and COVID-19. The ten most productive countries collectively produced 75.8% of the documents, with the United States leading the way by contributing 31.77%, followed by the UK with 14.03% (n = 523), China with 12.96% (n = 483) and Canada with 7.16% (n = 267). Trials (n = 173, 4.64%), BMJ Open (n = 81, 2.17%), PLOS One (n = 73, 1.96%) and JAMA Network Open (n = 53, 1.42%) were the most active journals in publishing articles related to COVID-19 RCTs. The co-occurrence analysis identified four clusters of research areas: the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, mental health strategies to cope with the impact of the pandemic, the use of monoclonal antibodies to treat patients with COVID-19, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses of COVID-19 research. This paper offers a detailed examination of the global research environment pertaining to RCTs and their use in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The comprehensive body of research findings was found to have been generated by the collaborative efforts of multiple countries, institutions, and funding organizations. The predominant research areas encompassed COVID-19 vaccines, strategies for mental health, monoclonal antibodies, and systematic reviews. This information has the potential to aid researchers, policymakers, and funders in discerning areas of weakness and establishing areas of priority.

Estimating spatially disaggregated probability of severe COVID-19 and the impact of handwashing interventions: The case of Zimbabwe

INTRODUCTION

The severity of COVID-19 disease varies substantially between individuals, with some infections being asymptomatic while others are fatal. Several risk factors have been identified that affect the progression of SARS-CoV-2 to severe COVID-19. They include age, smoking and presence of underlying comorbidities such as respiratory illness, HIV, anemia and obesity. Given that respiratory illness is one such comorbidity and is affected by hand hygiene, it is plausible that improving access to handwashing could lower the risk of severe COVID-19 among a population. In this paper, we estimate the potential impact of improved access to handwashing on the risk of respiratory illness and its knock-on impact on the risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease across Zimbabwe.

METHODS

Spatial generalized additive models were applied to cluster level data from the 2015 Demographic and Health Survey. These models were used to generate continuous (1km resolution) estimates of risk factors for severe COVID-19, including prevalence of major comorbidities (respiratory illness, HIV without viral load suppression, anemia and obesity) and prevalence of smoking, which were aggregated to district level alongside estimates of the proportion of the population under 50 from Worldpop data. The risk of severe COVID-19 was then calculated for each district using published estimates of the relationship between comorbidities, smoking and age (under 50) and severe COVID-19. Two scenarios were then simulated to see how changing access to handwashing facilities could have knock on implications for the prevalence of severe COVID-19 in the population.

RESULTS

This modeling conducted in this study shows that (1) current risk of severe disease is heterogeneous across the country, due to differences in individual characteristics and household conditions and (2) that if the quantifiable estimates on the importance of handwashing for transmission are sound, then improvements in handwashing access could lead to reductions in the risk of severe COVID-19 of up to 16% from the estimated current levels across all districts.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken alongside the likely impact on transmission of SARS-CoV-2 itself, as well as countless other pathogens, this result adds further support for the expansion of access to handwashing across the country. It also highlights the spatial differences in risk of severe COVID-19, and thus the opportunity for better planning to focus limited resources in high-risk areas in order to potentially reduce the number of severe cases.

COVID-19 research in South Asia: a bibliometric analysis of the 100 most-cited articles

Background

With the surge in the number of infected individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was also a surge observed in the number of publications discussing its epidemiology, characteristics, path-o-phys-i-ol-o-gy, diagnosis, prevention and treatment. This bibliometric analysis focuses on the papers published on COVID-19 in South Asia.

Methods

We searched articles in the Scopus database from December 2019 to October, 2022. After manual screening, a list of the 100 most-cited articles was obtained, which was analyzed for various factors, including the type of article, citation count, author's affiliation, country of origin, funding bodies, etc.

Results

The majority of the top 100 articles (n=79) in South Asia were published during 2020. India was affiliated with the highest number of articles (n=68), followed by Bangladesh (n=18) and Pakistan (n=12). However, 7 articles were authored by a researcher in Bangladesh. Female authors were under represented (32.38%), with no female author in lists of authors with 4 or more articles. The average number of citations for each of the top 100 most-cited articles was 180.8. Original articles constituted the major portion of the publications (82%), followed by letters (11%) and reviews (4%). Half of the publications belonged to the field of medicine (n=49), while others were contributed by science, psychology, social sciences, and biochemistry and allied sciences (n=8). Vaccine trials were under-represented. Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh was affiliated with the maximum number of articles. Most articles were published in Science of The Total Environment (n=8) while Indian Council of Medical Research (n=4) was the top funding body.

Conclusion

These findings highlight that South Asia has a great potential to conduct research addressing its challenging health problems. But lack of funds hinders conducting trials of new medications and vaccines. Thus, there is need for allocation of sufficient funds for research and clinical trials by governments and the private sector to enhance the research productivity of this region.

Funding and COVID-19 research in Africa: two years on, are the research needs of Africa being met?

BACKGROUND

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused significantly lower reported mortalities on the African continent as compared to other regions. Yet, many countries on the continent are still contending with the devastating economic, social and indirect health impacts. African researchers and policy makers have identified research priority areas which take cognisance of the unique research needs of African countries. A baseline assessment of the alignment of funded research in Africa to these priorities and World Health Organization's COVID-19 research priorities was undertaken in July, 2020. We present a two-year update to this analysis of funded COVID-19 research in Africa.

METHODS

Data captured in the UK Collaborative on Development Research and Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness COVID-19 Research Project Tracker as of 15th July, 2022 was analysed. An additional analysis of institutions receiving funding for COVID-19 research is presented. We also analysed the change in funding for COVID-19 research in Africa since July, 2020.

RESULTS

The limited COVID-19 research identified in Africa early in the pandemic has persisted over the subsequent two-year period assessed. When number of projects are considered, governmental funders based in Europe and United States supported the most research. Only nine research funders based in Africa were identified. A number of partnerships between African institutions and institutions based on other continents were identified, however, most research projects were undertaken in research institutions based in Africa only. Our findings highlight the relevance of the WHO research priorities for the pandemic response in Africa. Many research questions raised by African researchers remain unaddressed, among which are questions related to clinical management of COVID-19 infections in Africa.

CONCLUSIONS

Two years after the identification of Africa's COVID-19 research priorities, the findings suggest a missed opportunity in new research funding to answer pertinent questions for the pandemic response in Africa.

Predictors associated with critical care need and in-hospital mortality among children with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection in a high HIV infection burden region

Introduction

Despite the extra mortality associated with COVID-19 death globally, there is scant data on COVID-19-related paediatric mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. We assessed predictors of critical care needs and hospital mortality in South African children with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in region with high HIV infection burden.

Methods

We conducted a secondary multicentre analysis of the AFREhealth cohort (a multinational, multicentre cohort of paediatric COVID-19 clinical outcomes across six African countries) of children admitted to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli, a quaternary hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with confirmed RT-PCR between March 2020 and December 2020. We constructed multivariable logistic regression to explore factors associated with the need for critical care (high care/ intensive care hospitalisation or oxygen requirement) and cox-proportional hazards models to further assess factors independently associated with in-hospital death.

Results

Of the 82 children with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (mean ± SD age: 4.2 ± 4.4 years), 35(42.7%) were younger than one year, 52(63%) were female and 59(71%) had a pre-existing medical condition. Thirty-seven (45.2%) children required critical care (median (IQR) duration: 7.5 (0.5-13.5) days) and 14(17%) died. Independent factors associated with need for critical care were being younger than 1 year (aPR: 3.02, 95%CI: 1.05-8.66; p = 0.04), having more than one comorbidity (aPR: 2.47, 95%CI: 1.32-4.61; p = 0.004), seizure (aPR: 2.39, 95%CI: 1.56-3.68; p < 0.001) and impaired renal function. Additionally, independent predictors of in-hospital mortality were exposure to HIV infection (aHR: 6.8, 95%CI:1.54-31.71; p = 0.01), requiring invasive ventilation (aHR: 3.59, 95%CI: 1.01-12.16, p = 0.048) and increase blood urea nitrogen (aHR: 1.06, 95%CI: 1.01-1.11; p = 0.017). However, children were less likely to die from COVID-19 if they were primarily admitted to quaternary unit (aHR: 0.23, 95%CI: 0.1-0.86, p = 0.029).

Conclusion

We found a relatively high hospital death rate among children with confirmed COVID-19. During COVID-19 waves, a timely referral system and rapid identification of children at risk for critical care needs and death, such as those less than one year and those with comorbidities, could minimize excess mortality, particularly in high HIV-infection burden countries.

A phase I COVID-19 vaccine trial among SARS-CoV-2 seronegative and seropositive individuals in Uganda utilizing a self-amplifying RNA vaccine platform: Screening and enrollment experiences

We report the screening and enrollment process for a phase I vaccine trial in Masaka, Uganda that investigated the safety and immunogenicity of a self-amplifying SARS-CoV-2 RNA vaccine amongst individuals with and without antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. Participant screening and enrollment were conducted between December 2021 and April 2022. Individuals were eligible if they were aged between 18 and 45 years, healthy, and never vaccinated against COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 antibody status was determined using two point-of-care rapid tests, i.e. Multi G (MGFT3) and Standard Q (Standard Q COVID-19 IgM/IgG Plus). Data were entered and managed in OpenClinica. Analyses were performed and presented descriptively. A total of 212 individuals were screened and 43(20.3%) enrolled. The most common reasons for exclusion were ≥ grade 1 laboratory abnormalities (39, 18.4%), followed by discordant SARS-CoV-2 antibody results (23, 10.9%). While the first 38 participants were quickly enrolled over a period of 9 weeks, it took another 9 weeks to enroll the remaining five, as antibody negative participants became scarce during the surge of the Omicron variant. The SARS-CoV-2 antibody positivity rate was determined to be 60.8% and 84.4% in each half of the 18 months of screening respectively. The mean age (±Standard Deviation, SD) of screened and enrolled participants was 27.7 (±8.1) and 30.2 (±8.3) years respectively. We demonstrated that it is feasible to successfully screen and enroll participants for COVID-19 vaccine trials in Uganda in the time of a pandemic. Our experiences may be useful for investigators planning to undertake similar work in Africa.

COVID research across the social sciences in 2020: a bibliometric approach

Research on the COVID-19 pandemic has produced an incredible volume of social science research. To explore the initial areas of COVID-19 scholarship, the following study uses bibliometric co-citation network analysis on data from Clarivate's Web of Science database to analyze 3327 peer-reviewed studies published during the first year of the pandemic and their 107,396 shared references. Findings indicate nine distinct disciplinary research clusters centered around a single medical core of COVID-19 pandemic research. Topics ranging from tourism collapse, fear scales, financial contagion, health surveillance, shifts in crime rates, quarantine psychology, and collective trauma among others are found to have emerged in this initial phase of research as covid spread across the world. A corresponding infodemic highlights early communication challenges and a broader need to thwart misinformation. As this body of work continues to grow across the social sciences, key intersections, shared themes, and long-term implications of this historic event are brought into view.

Internationalization of the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry: A bibliometric study

In this research paper, we analyzed the bibliographic data of the research publications issued by the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry between 2013 and 2021. As an open-access country-based research journal with a narrow area of interest and international online exposure, it will be interesting to see how it affects the local chemical research community through the comparison of the characteristics of the research outputs of the journal as retrieved from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) with the features of Moroccan chemical research from 2014 to 2021 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS). In this context, we generated scientometric networks using Gephi, a tool for large-scale data visualization, to reveal the patterns of the publications in the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry. When performing our analysis, we found a significant alignment between the research topics featured in the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry and the main research areas of the Moroccan chemical scholarly outputs, particularly Multidisciplinary Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, and Analytical Chemistry. We also identified that the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry functions as an incubator for establishing new traditions of research collaboration between Moroccan institutions and target nations such as Asian and African countries. As well, it is clear that the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry is an interesting venue for the most productive chemical researchers in Morocco for sharing preliminary research findings and discussing trendy topics.

Bibliometric analysis of the worldwide scientific production on COVID-19 infection and cerebrovascular disease

Objective

To identify the worldwide bibliometric characteristics of research on SARS-CoV-2 infection and cerebrovascular disease.

Methods

A retrospective, descriptive, and bibliometric study was performed. We analyzed 1834 publications about COVID-19 and cerebrovascular disease from the Scopus database considering the time since the beginning of the pandemic between 2019 and 2020. Bibliometric indicators were evaluated such as number of citations, citations per publication by authors, countries, journals, and collaborations at national, international, institutional, and impact levels according to Cite Score Quartile and h-index metrics. All analysis was performed using SciVal software.

Results

The highest percentage of articles corresponded to universities in the United States, including Harvard and New York with 59 and 20 publications, respectively, and the University of Toronto in Canada with 22 publications. In relation to citation indicators, journals such as Stroke and Journal Stroke and Cerebrovascular diseases obtained 1971 and 561 citations, respectively. Regarding collaboration indicators, the national collaboration index was 39.4% and the institutional collaboration index was 31.1%. Finally, neurology, cardiovascular medicine, and cardiology and surgery were the subject areas with the highest research results, with 424, 217, and 128 studies, respectively.

Conclusion

It was observed that the United States was the country with the highest scientific production on COVID-19 and cerebrovascular disease in the year 2020 in the different health areas; however, more research is still needed worldwide for a better analysis of the bibliometric indicators on the subject.

Household Readiness to Care for Mild and Asymptomatic COVID-19 Cases at Home, Southwest Ethiopia: A Community-based Cross-Sectional Study

Background

Corona virus disease (COVID-19) continued with its notorious effects overwhelming health institutions. Thus, home-based identification and care for asymptomatic and mild cases of COVID-19 has been recommended. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the level of household readiness for caring asymptomatic and mild cases of COVID-19 at home.

Methods

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March-June 2021 on randomly selected 778 households. Data entry and analysis were carried out using EpiData and SPSS version 25, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression was modeled to identify independent predictors of community readiness.

Results

Overall readiness of the community was very low (43.8%). Factors positively affecting household readiness were male household heads (AOR = 1.6; 95%CI: 1.05, 2.45), primary (AOR=2.0; CI:.62, 1.59) and higher (AOR = 1.90; 95%CI: 1.04, 3.45) educational level of the respondents, number of rooms within household (AOR = 1.22; CI: 1.03, 1.46), having additionally house (AOR = 2.61; CI: 1.35, 5.03), availability of single use eating utensils (AOR = 2.76; 95%CI: 1.66, 4.56), availability of community water supply (AOR = 8.21; 95% CI: 5.02, 13.43), and community participation and engagement (AOR = 2.81; 95% CI: 1.93, 4.08) in accessing transport, water and sanitation.

Conclusions

The community was less prepared in terms of housing, infection prevention, water and sanitation. Considering alternative options including universal coverage of vaccine is important; designed behavioral change communications can enhance community participation and engagement in improving access to transport, water and sanitation to reduce risk of infections.

A Bibliometric Analysis of COVID-19 Scientific Literature From the English-Speaking Caribbean

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global crisis and has affected the Caribbean islands, leading to significant health and socioeconomic consequences in this region. Efforts to mitigate the burden of this disease have led to an accelerated amount of research in the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC). This bibliometric analysis aimed to evaluate the COVID-19-related scientific literature from the ESC nations. A total of 175 articles were included and analyzed from an initial PubMed search (n = 638) for COVID-19-related scientific literature from the ESC nations published between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022. Microsoft Excel 2016 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington) and the VOSviewer (version 1.6.18) were used to characterize countries, authorship, journals, affiliations, and keywords of the COVID-19-related articles. Trinidad and Tobago (38%), Jamaica (22%), Barbados (20%), and Grenada (15%) contributed to the greatest number of publications. The University of the West Indies (UWI) campuses in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados, and St. George's University in Grenada were the most prolific institutions. Srikanth Umakanthan from the UWI was the most prolific author. Cureus, SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine, and Frontiers in Public Health were the first three most productive journals; 59% of the 175 articles had either the first or last author affiliated with an institution in the ESC, and 19% of the articles were country-focused: Trinidad and Tobago (16/175), Jamaica (9/175), Barbados (5/175), and Antigua and Barbuda (2/175). Among the top themes of research, 27% were outbreak response and rearrangements, epidemiological studies (23%), clinical management (23%), and medical education (13%). Over the last two years, an interest stimulated by the pandemic has expanded the research in ESC countries. However, gaps in the knowledge exist, especially in the epidemiology of COVID-19 complications in the sub-populations of chronic non-communicable diseases, post-COVID syndrome, and the long-COVID syndrome in the region. Hence, there is enormous scope for more research across the region.

Current global research landscape on COVID-19 and cancer: Bibliometric and visualization analysis

BACKGROUND

Cancer is a severe public health issue that seriously jeopardizes global health. In individuals with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), cancer is considered an independent risk factor for severe illness and increased mortality.

AIM

To identify research hotspots and prospects, we used bibliometrics to examine the global production of COVID-19 literature published in the field of oncology.

METHODS

Data on publication output were identified based on the Scopus database between January 1, 2020, and June 21, 2022. This study used VOSviewer to analyze collaboration networks among countries and assess the terms most often used in the titles and abstracts of retrieved publications to determine research hotspots linked to cancer and COVID-19. The Impact Index Per Article for the top 10 high-cited papers collected from Reference Citation Analysis (RCA) are presented.

RESULTS

A total of 7015 publications were retrieved from the database. The United States published the greatest number of articles (2025; 28.87%), followed by Italy (964; 13.74%), the United Kingdom (839; 11.96%), and China (538; 7.67%). The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (n = 205, 2.92%) ranked first, followed by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (n = 176, 2.51%). The European Journal of Cancer (n = 106, 1.51%) ranked first, followed by the Frontiers in Oncology (n = 104, 1.48%), Cancers (n = 102, 1.45%), and Pediatric Blood and Cancer (n = 95; 1.35%). The hot topics were stratified into “cancer care management during the COVID-19 pandemic”; and “COVID-19 vaccines in cancer patients”.

CONCLUSION

This is the first bibliometric analysis to determine the present state and upcoming hot themes related to cancer and COVID-19 and vice versa using VOSviewer during the early stages of the pandemic. The emergence of hot themes related to cancer and COVID-19 may aid researchers in identifying new research areas in this field.

Mapping research output on library and information science research domain in South Africa: a bibliometric visualisation

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the research output on “library and information science” (LIS) research domain in South Africa. It also highlights the top LIS research organisations, authors, journals, collaboration types and commonly used keywords. This research will aid in the identification of emerging concepts, trends and advances in this subject.

Design/methodology/approach

The Web of Science (WoS), an indexing and abstracting database, served as a tool for bibliographical data. By applying advanced search features, the authors curated data from 1989 to 2021 through the WoS subject category WC = (Information Science & Library Science), limiting the scope to the region, CU = (South Africa), which resulted in 1,034 articles. Moreover, the research focuses on science mapping using the R package for reliable analysis.

Findings

The findings reveal that the publications have considerably grown over time, indicating significant attention among researchers in LIS. The findings indicate the critical operator’s performance, existing thematic choices and subsequent research opportunities. The primary topical fields of study that emerged from the bibliometric analysis are impact, information, science, model, management, technology, knowledge and education. Pouris and Fourie are the most productive citations, h-index and g-index. The influential institute was The University of Pretoria.

Research limitations/implications

The use of the WoS database for data collecting limits this study. Because the WoS was the only citation and abstract database used in this study, bibliometric investigations using other citation and abstract databases like “Scopus”, “Google Scholar” and “Dimension” could be interesting. This study presented a bibliometric summary; nevertheless, a systematic and methodical examination of highly cited LIS research publications could throw more light on the subject.

Practical implications

This paper gives valuable information about recent scientific advancements in the LIS and emerging future academic subject prospects. Furthermore, this research work will serve as a reference for researchers in various areas to analyse the evolution of scholarly literature on a particular topic over time.

Originality/value

By identifying the standard channels of study in the LIS discipline, and the essential journals, publications, nations, institutions, authors, data sources and networks in this subject, this bibliometric mapping and visualisation provide new perspectives into academic performance. This paper also articulates future research directions in this realm of knowledge. This study is more rigorous and comprehensive in terms of the analytical procedures it uses.

COVID-19 burden, author affiliation and women's well-being: A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 related publications including focus on low- and middle-income countries

BACKGROUND

Published literature documents tremendous gender inequities in the social, economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but less evidence has come from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and even less from LMIC-based authors. We examine whether a) COVID-19 burden and b) LMIC-based authorship were associated with academic publications related to COVID-19 and women's well-being in LMICs.

METHODS

We reviewed academic articles on COVID-19 and women's well-being in LMICs published between February 2020 and May 2021 (n=1076 articles), using six electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo, EconLit, RePeC, NBER). Multilevel, mixed effects linear regressions assessed the relationships between each of our independent variables - a) COVID-19 burden (cases/100 population, deaths/100 population, deaths/cases) and b) author's country of primary affiliation, with publications related to COVID-19 and women's well-being, both overall and stratified by country income group.

FINDINGS

Eight-eight percent of articles had lead and/or senior authors affiliated with in-country institutions. Linear mixed effect models indicate that COVID-19 cases and case fatality ratios in a country were significantly and positively associated with the number of publications related to COVID-19 and women's well-being, though these relationships were significant only in upper-middle income group countries in stratified analyses. LMIC lead and senior authorship were also significantly and positively associated with our outcome, after adjusting for COVID-19 burden.

INTERPRETATION

While the majority of COVID-19 research examining women's well-being in LMICs in the first year and a half of the pandemic included country-affiliated author leadership, there were important gaps in representation. Findings highlight the importance of LMIC-based scholars to build local and gendered research in crises.

FUNDING

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-018007).

Oman's COVID-19 publication trends: A cross-sectional bibliometric study

Public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic led researchers and clinicians to stretch their capacities in conducting, writing, reviewing, and publishing a wealth of pandemic-related research. Oman scholars, researchers, and clinicians are no different in their quest for rapid dissemination of relevant scientific knowledge, which is of paramount importance nationally and internationally. Given the intense international interest in COVID-19 research. The study aim is to describe the COVID-19 research output in Oman in relation to publication type, journal impact factor, collaboration, author affiliation and compared it with national scholarly output over the decade. Study Design: We carried out a bibliometric cross-sectional study. Methods: We included all Oman COVID-19 publications for the period February 14 and 25, February 2021. Data retrieved using search engines PubMed, Google Scholar and Directory of Open Access Journals. Results: The COVID-19 publications search generated 210 articles. There were 36.7% review articles and 30% original articles. Of note, 2.4% randomized controlled trials articles were produced during the search period, 1.4% systematic and meta-analysis articles. The 85.7% of the publications were in journals with defined impact factor (IF) and 89.4% of articles with IF < 5. There was 53.8% international collaboration. Conclusion: The need to increase research published in journals with high impact factors and there was a high international collaboration in reviews and report articles, which may require building national research capacity.

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research Trend during the First Two Years of the Pandemic in the United Arab Emirates: A PRISMA-Compliant Bibliometric Analysis

Scientific research is an integral part of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. This bibliometric analysis describes the COVID-19 research productivity of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-affiliated researchers during the first two years of the pandemic, 2020 to 2022. The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database was utilized to retrieve publications related to COVID-19 published by UAE-affiliated researcher(s). A total of 1008 publications met the inclusion criteria and were included in this bibliometric analysis. The most studied broad topics were general internal medicine (11.9%), public environmental occupational health (7.8%), pharmacology/pharmacy (6.3%), multidisciplinary sciences (5%), and infectious diseases (3.4%). About 67% were primary research articles, 16% were reviews, and the remaining were editorials letters (11.5%), meeting abstracts/proceedings papers (5%), and document corrections (0.4%). The University of Sharjah was the leading UAE-affiliated organization achieving 26.3% of the publications and funding 1.8% of the total 1008 published research. This study features the research trends in COVID-19 research affiliated with the UAE and shows the future directions. There was an observable nationally and international collaboration of the UAE-affiliated authors, particularly with researchers from the USA and England. This study highlights the need for in-depth systematic reviews addressing the specific COVID-19 research-related questions and studied populations.

Mapping the landscape and structure of global research on nutrition and COVID-19: visualization analysis

BACKGROUND

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a significant influence on nutritional status. There have been several studies on dietary habits and nutritional status in connection with COVID-19. However, there has been no research on the bibliometric analysis of these papers. Therefore, our objective was to assess the most relevant scientific research on nutrition and COVID-19, as well as to assess current hot themes.

METHODS

We obtained data from the Scopus database on June 30, 2021. Qualitative and quantitative analyzes were conducted based on the Scopus. Collaboration and term analysis was performed using VOSviewer software version 1.6.16.

RESULTS

At the time of data collection, there were 177,946 documents in COVID-19. Scopus found 1885 articles related to nutrition and COVID-19 after narrowing the search to those terms. This includes 1309 (69.44%) research articles, 268 (14.22%) review papers, and 308 other types of document. The USA was the largest producer, with 24.83% of the documents, followed by Italy with 11.88% (n = 224), the UK with 10.82% (n = 204), and China with 7.59% (n = 143). The most active institution was Sapienza Università di Roma (n = 30, 1.59%). The leading journal in COVID-19 nutrition research was Nutrients (n = 115, 6.10%). The article with 310 citations published by Di Renzo et al. in 2020 was the most influential reference. The hot topics were stratified into three clusters: (1) "Food security in the COVID-19 pandemic"; (2) "nutritional determinants and COVID-19 outcomes"; and (3) "changes in dietary habits during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences".

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first bibliometric research to offer comprehensive information on COVID-19 and nutrition in the published literature. Research will likely be helpful to scholars and policymakers. This study sheds light on the growth and development of nutrition and covid-19-related research and should contribute to the expansion of the global frontier in the major hot topics, including "food security in the COVID-19 pandemic"; "nutritional determinants and COVID-19 outcomes"; and "changes in diet habits during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences".

Budgetary Allocations and Government Response to COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa and Nigeria

The eruption of the novel virus brought to the global scene the prediction that Africa would be worse hit by the pandemic. This prediction was partly built on the widely recognized fact that Africa is the continent with the weakest public health care system and the lowest budgetary allocations to health. However, contrary to this prediction, the COVID-19 death rate in Africa has been low compared to in other continents. Debates on Africa’s low COVID-19 death rate have generated mixed reactions, the majority of which have centred on beliefs and superstition about hot weather and Africa’s youth-dominated society. Little or none of these reactions have attributed the low COVID-19 death rate to swift and prudent budgetary adjustment, which partly aided a swift response from some African governments. Indeed, not many studies have examined the swiftness in the response of some African governments and prudent budgetary adjustment in tackling the spread of COVID-19. This paper, through secondary data, advances knowledge on how budget revision aided government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa and Nigeria. It found that both countries adjusted their budgetary allocations in response to COVID-19. It further indicates that South Africa, through budgetary revision, allocated more funds to government agencies in charge of COVID-19 and various relief packages than Nigeria. Moreover, it indicates that the swift budgetary adjustment by both countries partly aided a quick government response that progressively flattened the curve and, in the long run, partly contributed to fiscal impulse and deferrals.

Experience of Kenyan researchers and policy-makers with knowledge translation during COVID-19: a qualitative interview study

OBJECTIVES

Researchers at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) carried out knowledge translation (KT) activities to support policy-makers as the Kenyan Government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. We assessed the usefulness of these activities to identify the facilitators and barriers to KT and suggest actions that facilitate KT in similar settings.

DESIGN

The study adopted a qualitative interview study design.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Researchers at KWTRP in Kenya who were involved in KT activities during the COVID-19 pandemic (n=6) were selected to participate in key informant interviews to describe their experience. In addition, the policy-makers with whom these researchers engaged were invited to participate (n=11). Data were collected from March 2021 to August 2021.

ANALYSIS

A thematic analysis approach was adopted using a predetermined framework to develop a coding structure consisting of the core thematic areas. Any other theme that emerged in the coding process was included.

RESULTS

Both groups reported that the KT activities increased evidence availability and accessibility, enhanced policy-makers' motivation to use evidence, improved capacity to use research evidence and strengthened relationships. Policy-makers shared that a key facilitator of this was the knowledge products shared and the regular interaction with researchers. Both groups mentioned that a key barrier was the timeliness of generating evidence, which was exacerbated by the pandemic. They felt it was important to institutionalise KT to improve readiness to respond to public health emergencies.

CONCLUSION

This study provides a real-world example of the use of KT during a public health crisis. It further highlights the need to institutionalise KT in research and policy institutions in African countries to respond readily to public health emergencies.

Characterising COVID-19 empirical research production in Latin America and the Caribbean: A scoping review

Introduction

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic has struck Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) particularly hard. One of the crucial areas in the international community’s response relates to accelerating research and knowledge sharing. The aim of this article is to map and characterise the existing empirical research related to COVID-19 in LAC countries and contribute to identify opportunities for strengthening future research.

Methods

In this scoping review, articles published between December 2019 and 11 November 2020 were selected if they included an empirical component (explicit scientific methods to collect and analyse primary data), LAC population was researched, and the research was about the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of publication status or language. MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, Scielo, CENTRAL and Epistemonikos were searched. All titles and abstracts, and full texts were screened by two independent reviewers. Data from included studies was extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second independent reviewer.

Results

14,406 records were found. After removing duplicates, 5,458 titles and abstracts were screened, of which 2,323 full texts were revised to finally include 1,626 empirical studies. The largest portion of research came from people/population of Brazil (54.6%), Mexico (19.1%), Colombia (11.2%), Argentina (10.4%), Peru (10.3%) and Chile (10%), while Caribbean countries concentrated 15.3%. The methodologies most used were cross-sectional studies (34.7%), simulation models (17.5%) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (13.6%). Using a modified version of WHO’s COVID-19 Coordinated Global Research Roadmap classification, 54.2% were epidemiological studies, followed by clinical management (22.3%) and candidate therapeutics (12.2%). Government and public funds support were reported in 19.2% of studies, followed by universities or research centres (9%), but 47.5% did not include any funding statement.

Conclusion

During the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic, LAC countries have contributed to the global research effort primarily with epidemiological studies, with little participation on vaccines research, meaning that this type of knowledge would be imported from elsewhere. Research agendas could be further coordinated aiming to enhance shared self-sufficiency regarding knowledge needs in the region.

Global research trends on the links between the gut microbiome and cancer: a visualization analysis

BACKGROUND

Significant links between the microbiota and human health have emerged in the last 20 years. A correlation has recently been demonstrated between changes in the gut microbiota and the development of cancer. This study aimed to use bibliometric analysis of the published gut microbiome and cancer literature to present the research status and summarize the hotspots for frontier studies.

METHODS

A literature search for research on the gut microbiome and cancer research from 2001 to 2020 was conducted using the Scopus database on 20 March 2021. VOSviewer software (version 1.6.16) was used to perform the visualization analysis.

RESULTS

From 2001 to 2020, a total of 2061 publications were retrieved. Annual publication output grew from 10 in 2001 to 486 in 2020. The USA had the largest number of publications, making the largest contribution to the field (n  = 566, 27.46%). Before 2016, most studies focused on the 'effect of probiotics on cancer'. The latest trends showed that 'microbiota composition and gene expression' and 'host-microbiome interaction in cancer immunotherapy' would be more concerned more widely in the future.

CONCLUSIONS

Research on 'microbiota composition and gene expression' and 'host-microbiome interaction in cancer immunotherapy' will continue to be the hotspot. Therefore, this study provides the trend and characteristics of the literature on the gut microbiota and cancer literature, which provided a useful bibliometric analysis for researchers to conduct further research.

A Protocol for a Scoping Review Comparative Bibliometric Analysis of Infectious Disease Research in Africa

Introduction: Evidence on authorship trends of health research conducted about or in Africa shows that there is a lack of local researchers in the first and last authorship positions, with high income country collaborations taking up these positions. The differences in authorship calls into question power imbalances in global health research and who benefits from the production of new discoveries and innovations. Health studies may further go on to inform policy and clinical practice within the region having an impact on public health. This paper aims to compare the differences in authorship between COVID-19 and relevant infectious diseases in Africa. Materials and Methods: We will conduct a bibliometric analysis comparing authorship for COVID-19 research during a public health emergency with authorship for four other infectious diseases of relevance to Africa namely: Ebola, Zika Virus (ZIKV), Tuberculosis (TB) and Influenza. Our scoping review will follow the framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley and reviewed by Levac et al. We will search MEDLINE (Ovid), African Index Medicus (AIM), Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR) Index Medicus, Embase (Ovid), and Web of Science (Clarivate). We will compare the different trends of disease research between the selected diseases. This study is registered with OSF registries and is licensed with the Academic Free License version 3.0. The open science registration number is 10.17605/OSF.IO/5ZPGN.

Sub-Saharan African Countries‘ COVID-19 Research: An analysis of the External and Internal Contributions, Collaboration Patterns and Funding Sources

This study aims at providing some evidence-based insight into Sub-Saharan Africa’s first eighteen months of COVID-19 research by evaluating its research contributions, patterns of collaboration, and funding sources. Eighteen months (2020 January 1-2021 June 30) COVID-19 publication data of 46 Sub-Saharan African countries was collected from Scopus for analysis. Country of affiliation of the authors and funding agencies data was analyzed to understand country contributions, collaboration pattern and funding sources. USA (23.08%) and the UK (19.63%), the top two external contributors, collaborated with Sub-Saharan African countries about three times more than other countries. Collaborative papers between Sub-Saharan African countries - without contributions from outside the region- made up less than five per cent of the sample, whereas over 50% of the papers were written in collaboration with researchers from outside the region. Organizations that are in the USA and the UK funded 45% of all the COVID-19 research from Sub-Saharan Africa. 53.44% of all the funding from Sub-Saharan African countries came from South African organizations. This study provides evidence that pan-African COVID-19 research collaboration is low, perhaps due to poor funding and lack of institutional support within Sub-Saharan Africa. This mirrors the collaborative features of science in Sub-Saharan Africa before the COVID-19 pandemic. The high volume of international collaboration during the pandemic is a good development. There is also a strong need to forge more robust pan-African research collaboration networks, through funding from Africa’s national and regional government organizations, with the specific objective of meeting local COVID-19 and other healthcare needs.

Seroprevalence and Risk Factors of COVID-19 in Healthcare Workers From Eleven African Countries: A Scoping Review and Appraisal of Existing Evidence

A better understanding of serological data and risk factors for COVID-19 infection in healthcare workers are especially important in African countries where human resources and health services are more constrained. We reviewed and appraised the evidence of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and its risk factors in healthcare workers in Africa to inform response and preparedness strategies during the SARS CoV-2 pandemic. We followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines in this scoping review. Databases including PubMed, Embase and preprint servers were searched accordingly from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to 19th April 2021. Our search yielded twelve peer-reviewed and four pre-print articles comprising data on 9,223 HCWs from eleven countries in Africa. Seroprevalence varied widely and ranged from 0% to 45.1%. Seropositivity was associated with older age, lower education, working as a nurse/non- clinical HCW, or in gynaecology, emergency, outpatient or surgery departments. Asymptomatic rates were high and half of the studies recommended routine testing of HCWs. This scoping review found a varying, but often high SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in HCWs in eleven African countries and identified certain risk factors. COVID-19 public health strategies for policy and planning should consider these risk factors and the potential for high seroprevalence among HCWs when prioritizing infection prevention and control measures and vaccine deployment.

Demographics and outcomes of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases during the first epidemic wave in Senegal

BACKGROUND

Few studies have focused on the effects of COVID-19 on African populations. During the first epidemic wave in Senegal (May 1 to July 31, 2020), COVID-19 cases were isolated in treatment centers of epidemics (TCEs). We described the demographics and outcomes of COVID-19 cases in TCEs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

All cases with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Thiès medical region of Senegal were included.

RESULTS

COVID-19 was confirmed in 600 cases. Median age of cases (men: 357, 59.5%; women: 243, 40.5%) was 34.0years. The incidence was 12 per 100,000 inhabitants per month. Overall, 46 (7.7%) cases had a severe or critical form of the disease, and nine of them died. Of 455 cases quarantined in non-hospital TCEs, 340 (74.7%) had no symptom and 115 (25.3%) had mild or moderate symptoms.

CONCLUSION

In this African retrospective cohort, COVID-19 cases were young and mostly asymptomatic with a low case fatality rate.

A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 research in Latin America and the Caribbean

Introduction: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the regions most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, there is scarce literature addressing the research strategies developed in LAC to face COVID-19. Objective: To quantify and assess the production of scientific publications about COVID-19 in 32 countries of LAC between January 1 and July 31, 2020. Materials and methods: Bibliometric study. Scientific papers on COVID-19 conducted in LAC or reporting data pertaining to LAC and published between January 1 to July 31, 2020, were searched in the Scopus, PubMed, and LILACS databases. A subgroup analysis including only original research articles was performed to determine the contribution of LAC countries to research on COVID-19, and standardization measures (# of articles per million people) were applied to compare the country-specific production of this type of articles. Results: A total of 1 291 publications were retrieved. Overall, most of them were non-original research articles (81.72%), and the countries with the highest scientific production were Brazil (43.91%) and Mexico (9.14%). However, after applying the standardization measures, Chile was the country with the highest production of original articles (0.58 per million inhabitants). Regarding original studies (n=236), cross-sectional design was the most common (25.84%). Diagnosis and treatment of the disease was the main research focus (n=354; 27.42%). However, in the subgroup analysis (n=236), epidemiology and surveillance were the most prevalent research focus (n=57; 24.15%). Conclusions: During the study period, non-original research articles were predominant in the scientific production of the LAC region, and interventional studies were scarce among original articles, while the cross-sectional design predominated. Further research with a better quality of evidence should be performed in these countries to contribute to the making of health policies aimed at easing the burden of COVID-19 in the region and preparing for future pandemics.