Scientometric Analyses and Visualization of Scientific Outcome on Nipah Virus

This study presents scientometric analysis and network visualization of journal articles on Nipah virus for a better understanding of research trends on the subject. Metadata of journal articles were retrieved from Scopus database in 2018. After filtration of irrelevant and incomplete records, 1007 records were analysed to examine the publishing trends on Nipah virus. The network visualization was accomplished using ‘VOSviewer’, ‘Gephi’ and ‘Sciencescape’ software. Results revealed inconsistent growth of articles on the subject. There were only few productive authors with ≥ 15 records, but others contributed on the subject occasionally. The United States (as a country) and North America (as continent) led the world in terms of contribution to the number of articles (n = 469 and 522 records respectively). Six leading institutes contributed to ≥50 records each. Out of 373 journals, ten core journals published 31% of the total journal articles. Predominant topics discussed in the articles included: characterization, pathogenesis, clinical symptoms, transmission, outbreaks and vaccine development. A great degree of inter-country and inter-continent collaboration was detected among the US, Australia, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Bangladesh, depicting that the developed world is working in association with the developing nations to tackle the problem.