title: The current status of environmental health research in Australia.
abstract: At present, the extent of environmental health research in Australia is unclear and there are no recent overarching reviews of national publications on the subject. This study investigates the current status of environmental health research in Australia using a bibliometric analysis. Three databases (Medline, Web of Science, and AUSTHealth) were used to access original, peer-reviewed journal articles with Australian data published between 1 January 2001 and 11 June 2010. A total of 337 articles from 174 different journal titles were used in the analysis and were classified according to 15 pre-determined environmental health areas. The highest number of articles related to water health and resources (66 articles), exposure to hazardous chemicals (57 articles), and air pollution including indoor air (58 articles). These areas made up 54% of the total publication output over the past 10 years. The amount of environmental health research published in Australia over the past 10 years, and the topics explored in these studies, is comparable to that of other countries of similar socio-economic status.
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Australia. gibboa02@student.uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gowland
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heyworth
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D015706:Bibliometrics; D004782:Environmental Health; D012106:Research