title: Global cardiovascular research output, citations, and collaborations: a time-trend, bibliometric analysis (1999-2008).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health research is one mechanism to improve population-level health and should generally match the health needs of populations. However, there have been limited data to assess the trends in national-level cardiovascular research output, even as cardiovascular disease [CVD] has become the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a time trends analysis of cardiovascular research publications (1999-2008) downloaded from Web of Knowledge using a iteratively-tested cardiovascular bibliometric filter with >90% precision and recall. We evaluated cardiovascular research publications, five-year running actual citation indices [ACIs], and degree of international collaboration measured through the ratio of the fractional count of addresses from one country against all addresses for each publication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Global cardiovascular publication volume increased from 40 661 publications in 1999 to 55 284 publications in 2008, which represents a 36% increase. The proportion of cardiovascular publications from high-income, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] countries declined from 93% to 84% of the total share over the study period. High-income, OECD countries generally had higher fractional counts, which suggest less international collaboration, than lower income countries from 1999-2008. There was an inverse relationship between cardiovascular publications and age-standardized CVD morbidity and mortality rates, but a direct, curvilinear relationship between cardiovascular publications and Human Development Index from 1999-2008.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cardiovascular health research output has increased substantially in the past decade, with a greater share of citations being published from low- and middle-income countries. However, low- and middle-income countries with the higher burdens of cardiovascular disease continue to have lower research output than high-income countries, and thus require targeted research investments to improve cardiovascular health.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi, India ; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Huffman
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Abigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baldridge
authors.affiliation: Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Gerald S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Bloomfield
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Public Health, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lisandro D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Colantonio
authors.affiliation: Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Poornima
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Prabhakaran
authors.affiliation: Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Vamadevan S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Ajay
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.affiliation: King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lewison
authors.affiliation: Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Dorairaj
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Prabhakaran
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D011642:Publications / Q000639:trends; D058028:Research Report