Abstract
Ranaviruses are large nucleocytoplasmic DNA viruses that infect ectothermic vertebrates. Here we report the results of a scientometric analysis of the field of ranavirology for the last 10 years. Using bibliometric tools we analyse trends, identify top publications and journals, and visualise the ranavirus collaboration landscape. The Web of Science core collection contains 545 ranavirus-related publications from 2010 to 2019, with more publications produced every year and a total of 6830 citations. Research output is primarily driven by the United States and People’s Republic of China, who together account for more than 60% of ranavirus publications. We also observed a positive correlation between the average number of co-authors on ranavirus publications and the year of publication, indicating that overall collaboration is increasing. A keyword analysis of ranavirus publications from 2010 to 2019 reveals several areas of research interest including; ecology, immunology, virology/molecular biology, genetics, ichthyology, and herpetology. While ranavirus research is conducted globally, relatively few publications have co-authors from both European and Asian countries, possibly because closer countries (geographical distance) are more likely to share co-authors. To this end, efforts should be made to foster collaborations across geopolitical and cultural boundaries, especially between countries with shared research interests as ultimately, understanding global pathogens, like ranaviruses, will require global collaboration.
Highlights
Ranaviruses are a group of large double-stranded DNA viruses in the genus Ranavirus, which infect ectothermic vertebrates including fish, amphibians, and reptiles (Gray and Chinchar 2015)
The greatest number of ranavirus publications between 2010 and 2019 came from the United States (US) and People’s Republic of China (PRC) who had 199 and 153 total publications, respectively, together accounting for more than 60% of ranavirus-related publications in that time period (Table 1)
Collaboration is an important component of continued productive ranavirus research output and our study reveals that the average number of co-authors on publications in the field has increased over the 2010–2019 period, possibly resulting in the increase in research output observed (Lee and Bozeman 2005)
Summary
Ranaviruses are a group of large double-stranded DNA viruses in the genus Ranavirus (family Iridoviridae), which infect ectothermic vertebrates including fish, amphibians, and reptiles (Gray and Chinchar 2015). The first of these viruses was isolated in 1965; it was not until the late 1980s that they were recognized as pathogens of ecological and economic importance (Gray and Chinchar 2015).
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