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Original research
A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 research in Africa
  1. Fatuma Hassan Guleid1,
  2. Robinson Oyando2,
  3. Evelyn Kabia2,
  4. Audrey Mumbi2,
  5. Samuel Akech3,
  6. Edwine Barasa2,4
  1. 1Policy Engagement & Knowledge Translation Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
  2. 2Health Economics Research Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
  3. 3Health Services Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
  4. 4Center for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Prof. Edwine Barasa; EBarasa{at}kemri-wellcome.org

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented global research effort to build a body of knowledge that can inform mitigation strategies. We carried out a bibliometric analysis to describe the COVID-19 research output in Africa in terms of setting, study design, research themes and author affiliation.

Methods We searched for articles published between 1 December 2019 and 3 January 2021 from various databases including PubMed, African Journals Online, medRxiv, Collabovid, the WHO global research database and Google. All article types and study design were included.

Results A total of 1296 articles were retrieved. 46.6% were primary research articles, 48.6% were editorial-type articles while 4.6% were secondary research articles. 20.3% articles used the entire continent of Africa as their study setting while South Africa (15.4%) was the most common country-focused setting. The most common research topics include ‘country preparedness and response’ (24.9%) and ‘the direct and indirect health impacts of the pandemic’ (21.6%). However, only 1.0% of articles focus on therapeutics and vaccines. 90.3% of the articles had at least one African researcher as author, 78.5% had an African researcher as first author, while 63.5% had an African researcher as last author. The University of Cape Town leads with the greatest number of first and last authors. 13% of the articles were published in medRxiv and of the studies that declared funding, the Wellcome Trust was the top funding body.

Conclusions This study highlights Africa’s COVID-19 research and the continent’s existing capacity to carry out research that addresses local problems. However, more studies focused on vaccines and therapeutics are needed to inform local development. In addition, the uneven distribution of research productivity among African countries emphasises the need for increased investment where needed.

  • COVID-19
  • public health
  • other study design

Data availability statement

Data are available upon request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005690

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information.

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Seye Abimbola

    • Twitter @evekagure, @Sam_Akech, @edwinebarasa

    • Contributors FHG, SA and EB conceived the protocol. FHG, RO, EK and AM participated in the data collection and extraction. FHG performed data analysis. FHG, SA, RO, EK and EB participated in the article writing.

    • Funding This manuscript is published with the permission of the Director of KEMRI. FHG is funded by a Wellcome Trust Policy Engagement pilot award (215745); additional funds from a Wellcome Trust core grant awarded to the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (092654) supported this work.

    • Disclaimer The funders had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish, drafting or submission of the manuscript. The views expressed in the papers are for the authors and not for the organisations they represent.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.