Bibliometric analysis and network visualization mapping of global research in Q fever vaccine

Abstract

Background: Query fever (Q fever), caused by Coxiella burnetii, is a highly infectious zoonotic infection to humans and livestock. Despite extensive efforts to develop effective vaccines against this disease, only one vaccine is licensed and available. The aim of this study was to investigate the global research trends, keystone bibliometric parameters, and network visualization mapping in Q fever vaccine from 1941 to 2021. Methods: A retrospective bibliometric followed by a visualized study was conducted. The searches were conducted in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) Edition of Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). The following keywords were used: "Q fever" OR "Query fever" OR "Coxiella burnetii" OR "Coxiella-burnetii" OR "C. burnetii" (Topic) AND "Vaccin*" OR "Immuniz*" OR "Immunis*" (Topic) without any limitation. The data were plotted for co-authorship countries, co-occurrence keywords plus, and bibliographic coupling sources network visualization mapping. The VOSviewer version 1.6.17 was used for network visualization. Results: The bibliographical search resulted in a total of 478 publications which were included in this study. The publications were mainly published in English (n=436), while the major document types were articles (n=391). The most productive year was 2014 (n=33), while the most cited year was 2020 (n=1026). The extensively studied research areas were immunology and veterinary science, and the most used keywords plus were Q-fever and Coxiella-burnetii. Kazar J (n=17) was the leading author, while the famous journal was Acta Virologica (n=23). The most active institution was the Slovak Academy of Sciences (n=32), and the leading country was the US (n=129). Conclusion: A rapid increase has been observed in Q fever vaccine publications and citations in the past 20 years. This study might be of great interest to provide standard bibliographic information and keystones parameters in Q fever vaccine research.