Descriptive scientometrics
The 115 articles on African neurosurgery were published in 36 journals by 90 first authors and African researchers were the first authors of 61 (53.0%) articles. African neurosurgery articles were published in World Neurosurgery (Ex-Surgical Neurology) (46, 40.0%), Journal of Neurosurgery Pediatrics (8, 7.0%), and Neurosurgery (7, 6.1%). Of note, 10 (8.7%) articles were published in African journals: South African Medical Journal (4 articles, 3.5%), Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice (2 articles, 1.7%), East African Medical Journal (1 article, 0.9%), Pan African Medical Journal (1 article, 0.9%), SA Journal of Radiology (1 article, 0.9%), and South African Journal of Surgery (1 article, 0.9%).
2010 was an index year because most (86, 74.8%) articles were published on this date or later. The 61 articles by local researchers were published between 1974 and 2020 (median = 2011) and most were published in 7 journals: World Neurosurgery (Ex-Surgical Neurology) (13, 21.3%), Neurosurgery (6, 9.8%), South African Medical Journal (4, 6.6%), Neurochirurgie (3, 4.9%), Child Nervous System (3, 4.9%), Journal of Neurosurgery - Pediatrics (3, 4.9%), and Journal of Neurosciences in Rural practice (3, 4.9%).
The median number of citations by African neurosurgery articles was 8 (IQR: 4-16) and the articles by local researchers had a median of 6 citations (IQR=2-44.5). Also, the median article usage count recorded since 2013 was 2 (IQR: 1-3).
The first authors with the most articles were Warf BC (5, 4.3%), Adeleye AO (4, 3.5%), El Khamlichi (4, 3.5%), Nathoo N (3, 2.6%), and Park BE (3, 2.6%) (Supplemental file). Qureshi MM (6), Haglund MM (5), Warf BC (5), El Khamlichi A (5), Piquer J(5), Hartl R (5), and Muhumuza M (5) had the highest H-index scores among the most cited authors of African neurosurgery articles (Table 1).
Table 1. Author H-index score calculated from the top 115 most cited African neurosurgery articles. Only authors with a H-index ≥3 are shown.
Author
|
H-index
|
Citation sum within H-core
|
All citations
|
All articles
|
Qureshi MM
Haglund MM
Warf BC
El Khamlichi A
Piquer J
Hartl R
Muhumuza M
Kiryabwire J
Santos MM
Ellegala DB
Zubkov MR
Young PH
Nathoo N
Nadvi SS
Smith ER
Ssenyonjo H
Budohoski KP
Scholler K
Dempsey RJ
Shabani HK
Abdelgadir J
Mangat HS
Ngerageza JG
Mukasa J
Mayegga E
Nicholas J
Park BE
Fuller A
Kucia EJ
Haglund M
Albright AL
Adeleye AO
|
6
5
5
5
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
|
89
132
217
98
61
51
121
115
27
48
27
51
158
154
34
27
20
20
44
20
35
20
20
58
40
27
19
25
25
30
40
13
|
105
139
221
103
65
60
124
118
27
48
27
51
161
154
34
27
20
20
44
23
35
20
22
61
40
27
19
25
25
30
40
16
|
9
7
6
7
6
8
6
5
4
4
4
4
5
4
3
3
3
3
3
4
3
3
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
|
Visualization
Bibliographic coupling of documents revealed 7 clusters composed of 91 articles and 789 links. The total link strength was 1658 and the largest clusters were organized around Lanzino G (1999), Warf BC (2011), and Warf BC (2005). The authors with the most nodes among the large clusters were El Khamlichi A (3) and Warf BC (2) (Figure 1).
There were 5 clusters in the co-authorship analysis that had 44 items connected by 191 links. The co-authorship clusters were primarily made up of researchers working in East Africa and the total link strength was 329 (Figure 2).
The map of author affiliations (by country) revealed 5 clusters constituted by 30 items with 150 links and a total link strength of 228. The United States of America had the largest node and the highest number of links with other countries. South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda had the largest nodes among African countries (Figure 3).
South Africa (22, 19.1%), Kenya (19, 16.5%), and Tanzania (16, 13.9%) contributed the most articles. Also, Kenya (33), Tanzania (33), and Uganda (25) had the strongest links among the African countries (Table 2).
Table 2. Total link strength of the most-cited African neurosurgery articles.
Country
|
Number of articles
|
Total citations
|
Total link strength
|
South Africa
Kenya
Tanzania
Uganda
Nigeria
Morocco
Rwanda
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
DR Congo
Egypt
Ethiopia
Malawi
Benin
Gabon
Guinea
Mali
Mauritania
Niger
Republic of Congo
Togo
Zimbabwe
|
22
19
16
11
10
7
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
|
345
198
134
225
54
103
12
5
4
6
24
5
17
2
6
2
2
2
2
2
2
8
|
7
33
33
25
1
15
15
14
15
15
0
3
2
14
0
14
14
14
14
14
14
0
|
The keywords of the African neurosurgery publications were organized in 3 clusters. These clusters were composed of 32 items in a 312-link network. The keyword network had a total link strength of 877 and the largest nodes were “Africa”, “Neurosurgery”, “Sub-Saharan Africa”, and “Hydrocephalus” (Figure 4).