A bibliometric analysis of Mycobacterium bovis BCG research trends from 1990 to 2023.

Abstract

Introduction Mycobacterium bovis bacilli Calmette-Guèrin (BCG) vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine used against Tuberculosis (TB). BCG was produced from Mycobacterium bovis via the attenuation process by Albert Calmette and Camille Guèrin. Aim R-Bibliometrix was used for a bibliometric analysis on M. bovis BCG research from 1990 – 2023. Methodology Scopus database was used for the analysis and focused on terms related to the BCG vaccine. The data was processed and analysed through the Biblioshiny and Bibliometrix tools in R (version 4.3.3) and key metrics such as the most frequently cited papers, and author contributions were extracted. Figures were also generated for article output, citation averages, relevant keywords, and institution affiliations. Results The documents used totalled 1143 and were obtained from 519 sources. The most cited document was Behr 1999 with 1358 total citations (TCs), and the journal with the most publications in this field was the Vaccine Journal. The author with the most publications was Buddle BM (34 articles) and the most relevant institution was the University of Cape Town whilst the USA was the leading country in terms of single and multiple-country publications. Conclusion Considering that TB is still a public health problem, the current trends in M. bovis BCG research are warranted.