Colorectal cancer research in India: An analysis of publications output, 2005–2014

Background and Methods: The present paper examines 3042 Indian publications in colorectal cancer, as covered in Scopus database during 2005–2014, experiencing an annual average growth rate of 4.06% and citation impact of 3.91. Results: The world colorectal cancer output (171,518 publications) came from several countries, of which the top 15 (United States, China., Japan, U.K., Germany, Italy, France, etc.) together accounts for 90.64% share of the global output during 2005–2014. India's global publication share was 1.77% during 2005–2014, which increased from 1.13% to 2.27% from 2005–2009 to 2010–2014. India's international collaborative share in colorectal cancer was 19.56% during 2005–2014, which increased from 15.05% to 20.14% from 2005–2009 to 2010–2014. Only 68.01% publications were cited 1 or more times since their publications till February 2015. Medicine accounted for the largest share (58.12%) of output in colorectal cancer, followed by biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (34.62%), pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (29.26%), chemistry (9.60%), agricultural and biological sciences (4.80% share) and immunology and microbiology (3.68% share) during 2005–2014. Diagnosis, chemotherapy, surgery, and screening together account for 56.02% publications share among treatments methods used in Indian colorectal cancer research during 2005–2014 Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka together contributed 57.82% share in Indian publications output in colorectal cancer during 2005–2014. Conclusion: The authors stressed the need for developing national policy for colorectal cancer which should take care of screening for detection and diagnosis, management and treatment options of the prostate cancer patients in India.