Trends in biomedical research in Namibia: 1995-2009

Research publications are often used as proxies for the scientific progress and development of a particular country. Country-specific bibliometric studies reflect national strategies to build capacity in tertiary education, research, and health services. In Namibia, no study to date has analyzed trends at the country level. The aim of this study was to evaluate the biomedical publication patterns in Namibia between 1995 and 2009. Using the keyword 'Namibia' in PubMed and ISI Web of Knowledge, resulting papers were hand searched for information on subject areas, types of studies undertaken, first authorship patterns, and institutions involved in biomedically-focused publications. This study identified 450 publications between 1995 and 2009. Only 129 (28.6%) involved Namibian authors. Just over half (58%) of the studies were carried out in Namibia but varied dramatically by subject area. 52% of Namibian-authored papers were Namibian first-authored with a decreasing trend since 2004. Only 7.5% (34) of the publications involved authors from Namibian universities. Namibia has a strong potential to develop in biomedical research but there is a need for tertiary institutions to modify current policies, continue to diversify sub- areas and become equipped to build capacity with local and international collaborators.Peer reviewedEntomology and Plant Patholog

Biomedically-focused research productivity by Namibian authors and institutions 1995-2010

Publications are the result of individual scientists or 'webs' of collaborators who present their scientific observations and share them with the scientific community. A study of authors and institutions who have published provides way to assess a country's research environment. Using PubMed and ISI Web of Science, this study identified Namibian authors and institutions which published biomedically-focused studies between 1995 and 2010. Results consisted of 150 different biomedically-oriented publications by a total of 190 different authors from 44 different institutions. 89% of the articles by Namibian authors were the results of collaboration, either foreign or Namibian-based. 47% of the papers were 1st authored and 11% were single authored by Namibian-based authors. The majority of Namibian authors (72%) only produced one article while 28% produced 2 or more papers. Further analysis indicated that there has been a negative trend in the number of publications since 1998 which contrasts with the increasing number of institutions which have published at least one article during that period. In total, these results indicate that the biomedical science environment in Namibia has potential to develop and expand. However, it needs support from a national biomedical research strategy based on Namibian-informed research priorities, investment in potential authors and institutions and empowered tertiary institutions taking the lead to equip and build capacity in local collaborators in order to reach its true potential.Peer reviewedEntomology and Plant Patholog

Global mapping of research trends on antibacterial activity of green silver nanoparticles

Over the years, the quest for antibacterial agents from green nanoparticles has attracted great attention due to the global rise in the prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria. Although several studies on the antibacterial activity of plant-mediated silver nanoparticles have been documented, no bibliometric studies on the subject have been reported to date. As a result, the present study aimed to assess the global research trends on the antibacterial activity of green silver nanoparticles from 2000 to 2020. In the present study, we explored Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) to extract research articles written in English on the subject within the specified period. Two hundred and sixty-nine (269) eligible research articles were included in the bibliometric analysis and R-package “bibliometrix” was used to analyse the documents for annual scientific publications, authors’ impact, most relevant institutions, countries productivity, frequent words, co-occurrence network, co-citation network and authors/institutions/countries collaboration networks. Based on the analysis, the top three (3) authors, journals, institutions and countries were Kumar V (n = 5), Zangeneh MM (n = 5) and Oh BT (n = 4); King Saud University, Banaras Hindu University and Islamic Azad University; Journal of Cluster Science (n = 10), Applied Organometallic Chemistry (n = 8) and Microbial Pathogenesis (n = 8); India, Iran, and Korea. The study findings highlighted the gaps in a research collaboration that negate productivity. Therefore, we are optimitic that this study would enlighten researchers in the field about the research lapses and the need for research collaboration in future studies

Ethiopian-affiliated research in Scopus and web of science: A bibliometric mapping

This paper explores the research landscape in Ethiopia using 20-year data drawn from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. The focus was to assess yearly research productivity, key research areas, journals in which researchers publish, collaborating countries, languages used to publish papers, and major agencies that fund research. The findings indicate that research productivity has been increasing over the past decades, with biomedical research dominating much of the output. Addis Ababa, Gondar, Jimma, Mekelle, and Bahir Dar universities were identified as the institutions with a relatively higher level of research productivity than the other universities in the country. The top five collaborating countries for Ethiopian researchers were found to be the US, UK, India, Germany, and South Africa. The dominant language of research was English. However, since the country has a strong tradition of producing knowledge in local languages, this finding indicates the need to incorporate research published in African languages in journals and databases