India’s Contribution to Neglected Tropical Diseases: A Scientometrics Study

Abstract

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of parasitic and bacterial infections that are prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical regions. These diseases mainly affect improvised people of developing countries living in abject poverty. These are called "neglected" because they are often overlooked by the mainstream healthcare systems, despite their significant impact on public health. India has a large burden of NTDs and has made significant progress in developing and implementing interventions to control and eliminate these diseases. It is important to note that Indian researchers and institutions contribute to global research efforts in various fields, including neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). In this context, this paper is a scientometric assessment of Indian authors’ contribution to NTDs. For this purpose, scholarly publication data was downloaded from the Scopus® database of Elsevier science. The study observed that developed countries particularly the US and UK are predominant in research on NTDs. Among the ‘Global South’ Brazil and India ranked third and fourth respectively. Indian scholarly output contributes about 6 percent of the global contribution. For some diseases, Indian researchers contribute significantly. For example, in Leprosy research, India is at the top with 18 percent of publications. For some diseases, Indian contributions are comparatively less. This is due to the variation in disease conditions and also in local or regional focus in research. Hence 'South-South' cooperation is required for a detailed investigation and prevention of NTDs.