Abstract
Purpose: According to World Health Organization, Africa occupies the second highest position in the prevalence of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) with 6.1% of its adult population infected. However, little is known about HBV research on Africa and the extent of involvement of African scholars. This study is a bibliometric analysis of HBV literature on Africa published between 1999 and 2018.
Methodology: A total of 866 articles were retrieved from PubMed. Article and journal details were extracted from each article, while citations were extracted from Harzing Publish and Perish and Google scholar.
Findings: There was an increase in HBV literature during the period and over 65% were by Africans. About 60% of the journals were located in USA and UK, and only 12.8% in Africa. Only 15.7% of articles by African authors were published in African journals. Linear regression result shows the probability of articles increasing yearly (β = 4.672, p = 0.000) as positive. Chi square results also show a moderate association between number of authors and author’s affiliation (X2 (5, N = 866) = 46.558, p = .000) and a weak association between citations received and author’s affiliation (X2 (6, N = 866) = 13.154, p = .041).
Originality/Value: The study showed that African researchers are visible in HBV research on Africa, however, most African authors preferred to publish in foreign journals which are mostly not accessible to Africans.