Contribution from the SAARC Region to Ophthalmic Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

To review the contributions to the ophthalmic research from the SAARC region in the top twenty ophthalmology journals.

This was a bibliometric study and the top 20 ophthalmology journals, as ranked by the Scimago Journal Rankings (SJR) from 2021 and 2022 (two years), were selected for analysis. Only original research articles were included in the analysis. Articles were analysed based on authorship, corresponding authorship, and research centres within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). The main research topics were also examined. This data was recorded on Microsoft excel sheet and then descriptive analysis were calculated.

Of the total 4952 articles reviewed, 208 (4.2%) had authorship from the SAARC region. Of the 38079 authors in total, 1133 (2.97%) were from the SAARC region and 715 (63.1%) were male. The authors from India contributed the most (n=1074, 94.8%) articles. Of the 155 corresponding authors from SAARC, 150 (96.78%) were from India. Research centres from India were the leading contributors, (n=166, 93.26%). Out of all the publications, medical retina accounted for 1546 (31.22%) of the total articles.

Compared to its share of the world's population, the SAARC region's research contribution to the top twenty ophthalmology journals is nominal.