Bibliometric Study of African Publications in Dental Medicine in Indexed Journals between 2008 and 2018

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of this work is to make a bibliometric analysis of publications in odontology of African universities between January 2008 and December 2018 based on publications published in indexed journals on Pubmed. Material and Methods: Our work is a comprehensive retrospective descriptive study intended to carry out a bibliometric analysis of articles in odontology published between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2018 by professor researchers from African universities. For each selected article, we determined the authors, the title, their affiliations, the year of publication. Results: Based on our sample of 19 African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d 'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, South Africa, DRC Congo, Senegal, Sudan, Zimbabwe) that included 66 faculties; the results of our study showed: In terms of the number of global publications, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and South Africa are the leading countries. With them 4, they account for nearly 80% of the published articles. Côte d 'Ivoire, Cameroon, Guinea and Mali do not participate. The number of African authors who have published is 489, which represents 38.99 per cent of all teaching researchers. South Africa Pr. Feller L ranks 1st with 61 published articles. Cross-sectional descriptive studies lead with an overall percentage of 37.84%. In vitro experimental studies account for 27.75%. Literature and systematic journals 10.50%. Case reports studies represent only 9.38%. Clinical trials with a percentage of 9.35%. Prospective and retrospective studies account for 3.44%. Meta-analyzes 1.39%. In the disciplines of published articles, conservative odontology represents 22.82%, periodontology 20.19%, surgical odontology 16.50%, orthodontics 16.42%, prosthesis 15.35% and pedodontics 8.70%. The contribution of Moroccan authors is 12.47%. Moroccan Pr.Bourzgui ranks 4th with 16 items. Discussion: The results show that African universities have made significant progress; however, they are still very far behind European and American universities in terms of scientific publications in odontology. Conclusion: Despite the efforts of academic teachers in the publication of scientific articles in odontology, the number of publications remains low, hence the obligation to adopt a new approach in the future. African academic institutions need to make greater efforts in the field of scientific research in all its forms by creating departments focused primarily on research and by increasing the budget Devoted to this purpose.