Tunis Med. 2025 Aug 1;103(8):990-1000. doi: 10.62438/tunismed.v103i8.6080.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Describing the editorial, methodological and thematic profile of scientific publications on Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases in the Arab World during the five-year period 2020-2024.
METHODS: Based on the MeSH descriptor ‘Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases’ (PID), combined with the names of 22 Arab countries, this bibliometric study was conducted on MEDLINE, via Web of Science, analyzing all available bibliographic fields. The number of authors was limited to researchers from the Arab world who had co-authored at least two publications during the study period. Visualization of author and research topic clusters was carried out using VOS Viewer.
RESULTS: During the five-year study period, 156 publications from the Arab world were indexed under the PID descriptor, published by 86 scientific journals, and tagged with 479 MeSH descriptors. These publications, often of the ‘Case Reports’ (19%) and ‘Review Article’ (15%) type, were mainly categorized under ‘Immunology’ (62%), “Pediatrics” (47%) and ‘Genetics’ (39%). They were published particularly by the Journal of Clinical Immunology (15%) and Frontiers in Immunology (12%). Among the 119 co-authors of these publications, from 12 countries, the most prolific were AL-HERZ (Kuwait), BOUSFIHA (Morocco) and ADELI (Qatar). These studies were often retrospective in nature, focused on children and the problem of “Severe Combined Immunodeficiency”, particularly in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Morocco. In addition to the ‘Genetics’ approach (39%), notably ‘Genetic Predisposition To Disease’ and ‘Genetic Diseases Inborn’, these publications also addressed “Immunology” (19%), including topics such as ‘Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes’ and ‘Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome’. Visualization of these publications reveals collaboration between two sub-regions of the Arab world (Africa and Asia) with a strong focus on ‘Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation’.
CONCLUSION: The bibliometric analysis of PID publications in the Arab world highlights a dynamic editorial landscape, diverse methodological approaches, and a wide thematic range. This stresses the need to network researchers, following a unified and interdisciplinary approach (bridging basic, clinical and public health sciences), and aligning with local epidemiological priorities.
PMID:41832635 | DOI:10.62438/tunismed.v103i8.6080
