Abstract
BackgroundNovel influenza in 2009 caused by H1N1, as well as the seasonal influenza, still are a challenge for the public health sectors worldwide. An increasing number of publications referring to this infectious disease make it difficult to distinguish relevant research output. The current study used scientometric indices for a detailed investigation on influenza related research activity and the method of density equalizing mapping to make the differences of the overall research worldwide obvious. The aim of the study was to compare scientific effort over the time as well as geographical distribution including the cooperation on national and international level.MethodsTherefore, publication data was retrieved from Web of Science (WoS) of Thomson Scientific. Subsequently the data was analysed in order to show geographical distributions and the development of the research output over the time.The query retrieved 51,418 publications that are listed in WoS for the time interval from 1900 to 2009. There is a continuous increase in research output and general citation activity especially since 1990.ResultsThe identified all in all 51,418 publications were published by researchers from 151 different countries. Scientists from the USA participate in more than 37 percent of all publications, followed by researchers from the UK and Germany with more than five percent. In addition, the USA is in the focus of international cooperation.In terms of number of publications on influenza, the Journal of Virology ranks first, followed by Vaccine and Virology. The highest impact factor (IF 2009) in this selection can be established for The Lancet (30.75). Robert Webster seems to be the most prolific author contributing the most publications in the field of influenza.ConclusionsThis study reveals an increasing and wide research interest in influenza. Nevertheless, citation based-declaration of scientific quality should be considered critically due to distortion by self-citation and co-authorship.
Highlights
Novel influenza in 2009 caused by H1N1, as well as the seasonal influenza, still are a challenge for the public health sectors worldwide
The H1N1 pandemic was less severe compared to earlier pandemics
Data sources Data was retrieved from the database Web of Science (WoS) by Thomson Scientific and, for further specific analyses, in the Medline database (PubMed) by the U.S National Library of Medicine
Summary
Novel influenza in 2009 caused by H1N1, as well as the seasonal influenza, still are a challenge for the public health sectors worldwide. The aim of the study was to compare scientific effort over the time as well as geographical distribution including the cooperation on national and international level. Zoonotic emergence of human infectious diseases leads to a global risk to public health. 50 million deaths worldwide [1]. The experience of H5N1, with a case fatality rate of at least 50 percent in 2003, the outbreak of the “novel influenza” (H1N1) in 2009 caused concerns of a global spread of this pandemic with millions of deaths estimated. Seasonal influenza is still a challenge to local public health sectors all over the world [2,3].
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