A Bibliometric Study on Buruli Ulcer Based on the Web of Science Database.

Abstract

Buruli ulcer is caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, a skin infection that occurs mostly in people living in the developing economies of Africa and is considered a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization (WHO). Left untreated, it can lead to chronic wounds and loss of limbs. This disease is one of the target diseases of the WHO, and there are very limited bibliometric studies published on this subject. Also, no similar study using the Web of Science Core Collection was found in the available literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate the bibliometric analysis of the literature on Buruli ulcers. For data visualization and analysis, the open-source visualization program Biblioshiny (version 2.0) was used. Although most publications are from Ghana, the United States, and European countries have also made significant contributions. The number of publications has increased especially since 2016. The most preferred keywords in the publications were treatment, diagnosis, and transmission routes. This is the first bibliometric analysis that examines the trend of scientific publications on Buruli ulcer that have been indexed in the Web of Science. Our findings have the potential to be used by academics to improve their research.