Orofacial cleft research in Nigeria: a bibliometric analysis

Orofacial cleft (OC) is a group of heterogeneous congenital abnormalities affecting the orofacial region. All over the world, several studies have been conducted on OC. This study aims to analyze OC research outputs in Nigeria. A SCOPUS-based bibliometric analysis of OC research outputs in Nigeria was done. A total of 130 outputs, of which 90% were articles, published within a 5-2-year (1970-2022) interval were identified. These publications had a total of 1,145 citations with a h-index of 19. There was skewedness in the geopolitical distribution and ownership of Nigerian institutions engaged in OC research; the majority of which were owned by the federal government and situated in the southern parts of Nigeria. The University of Lagos was the Nigerian institution with the highest frequency (n = 52) of outputs on OC research. Adeyemo WL was the Nigerian researcher with the highest: number of publications on OC (n = 46), h-index (n = 11) and citations on OC publications (n = 474). Half of the top ten overseas institutions having researchers collaborating with OC researchers in Nigerian institutions were based in the USA. All the institutions funding OC research in Nigeria were foreign and predominantly in the USA. The majority of the 10 most-cited OC outputs from Nigerian institutions were first authored by foreign researchers. There is a need to locally strengthen OC research capacity in Nigeria, especially in the area of funding, and institutional strengthening.