Malaria research in Nigeria: a scientometric appraisal

Abstract

Background: Malaria is an endemic tropical disease, which has seriously ravaged the African continent. In Nigeria, the disease has caused high infant, adolescent and maternal morbidity and mortality. Also, the scourge has serious economic implications. This research, therefore, scientometrically analyzed all the intellectual activities of the stake holders to see the directions of research on Malaria in Nigeria.

Objectives: This research attempted to find out the quantum volume of research activities on malaria, patterns of research collaborations through authorship, subject, and geographical/ serial distributions of articles.

Methods: Data for this study were sourced from the databank created by the Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria. The data were transcribed on cataloguing cards and Subject analysis was done by using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), 2010 edition. Bradford's Mathematical method was used for the analysis of data transcribed.

Results: There was a high degree of authorship collaboration to the maximum of twenty authors. Five authorship collaborations ranked the highest with 67 (16.9%) of articles. Yearly distributions showed year 2009 pooling 92 of articles (23.2%), followed by 88 articles (22.2%) in 2008. Lagos state recorded the highest with 52 articles (13.1%). Malaria Journal ranked the best in terms of serial distributions with 32 articles (9.1%). 86 subjects were analyzed and plasmodium falciparum had the highest number of articles (41) of articles published.

Conclusion: This work showed the research activities on Malaria disease in Nigeria, the growth of research findings, collaboration patterns of authorship and subject/geographical/serial distributions of articles were clearly displayed statistically.