Global research mapping on reproductive health: a bibliometric visualisation analysis

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to examine the research productivity and network visualisation on reproductive health (RH) domain with several bibliometric indicators and applied visualisation approach in co-authorship, citation, co-occurrence of keywords and bibliographic coupling analysis in the area of RH.Design/methodology/approachThis study used bibliometric indicators to determine the highly productive authors, source title, documents and organisations. This study used Web of Science database and retrieved a total of 18,186 scientific publications on the domain of RH published during the period of 2010–2020. Data analysis was also performed using VOS viewer software and RStudio.FindingsThe findings discovered the increasing trends of research publications in reproductive health in past ten years. The USA UK, China and Australia were the top four productive countries in terms of publishing research in the arena, and “Kishsin DM” and “Hauser R” have secured in top two positions under highly prolific authors category. University of California, Harvard University and University of London were observed under the top three productive institutions in the domain. This study also revealed association and collaboration among authors, country and institutions in the visualisation analysis. The core findings of co-occurrence of keywords emphasised that “RH,” “assisted reproductive technology,” “women,” “pregnancy” and “in-vitro fertilization” were established frequently used keywords and have robust link strength.Practical implicationsThe findings will be helpful to the researchers to know about the status of latest trends and development of the domain. This study is also helpful to the library authority for collection development in the specific subject domain.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, there was no past study found on the evaluation of research productivity and network visualisation in the domain of RH, which is a globally important issue.