Bibliometric analysis of scientific research on Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Turkey
Sevil Alkan Çeviker1, Mustafa Yılmaz2, Cemile Uyar2, Emine Kübra Dindar Demiray3
1Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty of Medicine, Çanakkale, Turkey
2Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Kütahya Health Sciences University, Evliya Çelebi Training and Research Hospital, Kütahya, Turkey
3Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Bitlis Tatvan State Hospital, Bitlis, Turkey
Keywords: Bibliographic analysis, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, National literature.
Abstract
Objectives: Since the first case of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) was detected in our country in 2002, the number of cases has been steadily increasing. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and provide a bibliographic review of national literature studies on this endemic and life-threatening disease in our country and conduct content analysis to guide future studies.
Materials and methods: In this study, an investigation was conducted using the website TR Dizin, one of our national databases. Between 1960 and 2019, the keywords 'Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever' and 'KKKA' were used to search for publications in scientific databases in the medical subject category. Only 41 research articles were included in the study out of a total of 101 that were accessed. Bibliographic analysis was carried on the studies.
Results: A total of 41 publications were analyzed in this study. The most scientific articles (43.9%) were detected between 2011and 2015. Ankara, Erzurum, Istanbul, and Sivas were the most commonly studied provinces; one study was conducted in two provinces (Kırşehir and Ankara) and two studies were conducted abroad (Cyprus and Iran). The majority of the papers were retrospective studies with patient samples, written in Turkish The number of cases in the sample ranged from 8 to 1,250 cases. Five of the studies (12.2%) were conducted in the pediatric age group. The rate of publications in the Web of Science (WOS) indexed journals was 46.3%. While 21 (51.2%) of the publications were cited, 13 of them were found in the WOS index. According to content analysis of the publications, demographic characteristics, epidemiological examination (36.6%) and clinical features (31.7%) were the most investigated.
Conclusion: It is critical to expand the number of CCHF studies published in our country and to establish research methodologies, particularly molecular investigation, for epidemic treatment and control.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.