Follow-up bibliometric analysis of neurosurgical publications from Pakistan and institutional comparison with other countries using h-index and i-10 index

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study was to analyze the neurosurgical research output of Pakistan and compare it with that of developed countries. Methodology: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of publically available databases for all neurosurgical publications from Pakistan. All indexed peer-reviewed publications from January 2009 to December 2014 where at least one author was affiliated with any neurosurgical departments in Pakistan and research was conducted in Pakistan were selected. Manual and electronic search was done using MeSH terms to search for articles from Pakistan. Articles were then categorized according to design, subspecialty, region, and year. Results: Our search identified 121 articles during the defined study period (mean = 20.16 ± 5.2 papers/year). A relatively constant increase was noticed for the last 6 years, i.e., 2009–2014. From the total 121 references, 100 (82.4%) publications were from one city, and on subanalysis, 80 (66.1%) were from a single institution. Three primary authors cumulatively contributed to 76 (62.8%) of these publications. Almost two-thirds (n = 76, 62.8%) of these publications were published in either regional or international journals while only 37.2% (n = 45) were published in local nonneurosurgery-specific journals. Only one study in the 6-year study period was with Level I evidence (meta-analysis). Conclusion: Neurosurgery research in Pakistan has shown modest improvement in terms of quality and quantity. Collaboration between various centers and channelizing different resources to create national data registries along with basic science laboratories is much needed.

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