Bibliometric analysis of global sickle cell disease research from 1997 to 2017

Sickle cell disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disease caused by a single point mutation in the β-globin chain of the hemoglobin. It has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a public health priority since 2006.

The Scopus database was used in this study with the search descriptors: "sickle cell" and "sickle cell disease". We applied common bibliometric indicators to evaluate the trend in scientific literature in sickle cell disease research.

We retrieved a total of 19,921 pieces of scientific literature in the repertoire from 1997 to 2017. The Price law was fulfilled in the trend of production of scientific literature on SCD as the growth of scientific literature was more exponential (r=0.9751; r²=0.9509) than linear (r=0.9721; r²=0.9449). We observed a duplication time of 4.52 years. The Bradford core was made up of 69 journals with Blood at the top, publishing the greatest number of articles. The most productive institutions were mostly United States agencies and hospitals. The United States was the most productive country. The National Institute of Health was the most productive institution and also had the highest number of citations. Vichinsky E was the most productive author, while the most cited article was published by Circulation.

The growth of scientific literature in Sickle cell disease was found to be high. However, the exponential growth trend shows a "yet-to-be-explored" area of research. This study will be useful for physicians, researchers, research funders and policy-cum-decision makers.