Global research trends, knowledge structure, and future directions in melioidosis research: a bibliometric analysis,...

Research on melioidosis has expanded steadily over recent decades, but its global research landscape, knowledge structure, collaboration patterns, and thematic evolution remain insufficiently characterized.

We searched the Web of Science Core Collection for melioidosis-related Article and Review records published from 1990 to 2025. Bibliometrix-biblioshiny, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Microsoft Excel, and R were used to analyze publication output, collaboration networks, institutional and author contributions, reference co-citation patterns, keyword co-occurrence, and trend topics.

A total of 3973 Article and Review records from 955 sources were included in the final analysis. The annual publication growth rate was 8.42%, and annual output increased from 12 records in 1990 to a peak of 208 records in 2015, with a model-estimated publication peak around 2019.7 (R² = 0.973). The United States, Thailand, and Australia were the leading contributing countries, while Mahidol University was the most productive institution and CURRIE BJ was the most influential author. Keyword and co-citation analyses showed that melioidosis research was mainly organized around epidemiology and clinical management, virulence and antimicrobial resistance, pathogen identification and typing, immunopathogenesis and vaccine-related studies, and environmental sources and outbreak-related investigations. Recent trend topics increasingly involved antimicrobial resistance, biofilms, outbreak investigation, environmental factors, mortality, and clinical outcomes.

Melioidosis research has entered a stage of bibliometric consolidation, characterized by sustained publication output, stable core contributors, and increasingly diversified research themes. The field has shifted from early disease recognition and laboratory detection toward integrated research on clinical management, antimicrobial resistance, pathogen biology, environmental exposure, and outcome-oriented investigation. Strengthening international collaboration and linking molecular, environmental, and clinical data may help advance future melioidosis research and public health practice.