Abstract
Background: Outdoor air pollution is a major threat to global public health that needs responsible participation of researchers at all levels. Assessing research output is an important step in highlighting national and international contribution and collaboration in a certain field. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze globally-published literature in outdoor air pollution – related respiratory health.
 Method: Outdoor air pollution documents related to respiratory health were retrieved from Scopus database. The study period was up to 2017. Mapping of author keywords was carried out using VOSviewer 1.6.6.
 Results: Search query yielded 3635 documents with an h-index of 137. There was a dramatic increase in the number of publications in the last decade of the study period. The most frequently encountered author keywords were: air pollution (835 occurrences), asthma (502 occurrences), particulate matter (198 occurrences), and children (203 occurrences). The United States of America ranked first (1082; 29.8%) followed by the United Kingdom (279; 7. 7%) and Italy (198; 5.4%). Annual research productivity stratified by income and population size indicated that China ranked first (22.2) followed by the USA (18.8). Analysis of regional distribution of publications indicated that the Mediterranean, African, and South-East Asia regions had the least contribution. Harvard University (92; 2.5%) was the most active institution/organization followed the US Environmental Protection Agency (89; 2.4%). International collaboration was restricted to three regions: Northern America, Europe, and Asia. The top ten preferred journals were in the field of environmental health and respiratory health. Environmental Health Perspective was the most preferred journal for publishing documents in outdoor pollution in relation to respiratory health.
 Conclusion: Research on the impact of outdoor air pollution on respiratory health had accelerated lately and is receiving a lot of interest. Global research networks that include countries with high level of pollution and limited resources are highly needed to create public opinion in favor of minimizing outdoor air pollution and investing in green technologies.
Highlights
Outdoor air pollution is a major threat to global public health that needs responsible participation of researchers at all levels
The top ten preferred journals were in the field of environmental health and respiratory health
About 25% were due to lung cancer deaths, 8% were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) deaths, and about 17% of respiratory infection deaths were caused by outdoor air pollution [41]
Summary
Outdoor air pollution is a major threat to global public health that needs responsible participation of researchers at all levels. The aim of this study was to analyze globally-published literature in outdoor air pollution – related respiratory health. Outdoor air pollution is defined as the presence of one or more substances in the atmospheric air at concentrations and duration above the natural limits [1]. Such substances include ozone [O3], airborne lead [Pb], carbon monoxide [CO], sulphur oxides [SOx] and nitrogen oxides [NOx] [2]. 6% of all global deaths) were associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution together [5] WHO reported that in 2012, outdoor air pollution caused around 3 million deaths worldwide and 6.5 million deaths (11. 6% of all global deaths) were associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution together [5]
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