title: Scientific research related to calcium channel blockers poisoning: Bibliometric analysis in Scopus, 1968-2012.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) were the most common agents associated with a significant morbidity and mortality rate. The main objective of this study was to examine the publication pattern related to CCBs poisoning at the global level using bibliometric analysis of articles published in SciVerse Scopus online database.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were searched for documents that contained specific words regarding CCB poisoning as keywords in the title. No time period limitations were specified in the search regarding the starting year. The ending date of the search was 31 December 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The criteria were met by 713 publications from 53 countries. The largest number of articles associated with CCBs was from the United States (30%), followed by the United Kingdom (7.4%), Japan (6%), and Germany (5.6%). No data related to CCBs were published from 159 (75%) of 212 countries registered in World Bank online database. There was no correlation between the number of published articles in the country and its population size (r = 0.03, p > 0.926). United Kingdom and Australia were the leading countries in terms of number of CCBs publications per million inhabitants (0.83 and 0.82 articles per million inhabitants, respectively), followed by the United States (0.68). Countries with a large population, such as India, tended to rank relatively low (0.01 articles per million inhabitants). The total number of citations at the time of data analysis (23 October 2014) was 6462, with an average of 9.1 citations per document. The highest median (interquartile range) number of citations was 8 (8-18) for the United States, followed by 6 (1-21) for Australia, 5 (1-15) for the United Kingdom, and 5 (1-24) for Canada. The h-index of the retrieved documents was 37.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Scientific production on CCBs poisoning is increasing; nonetheless, the international collaboration is still rare. The amount of CCBs-based research activity was low or not available in most countries. More regional epidemiological studies are required to bridge the gap in CCBs-based research and to promote better evaluation of CCBs poisoning worldwide.
authors: Poison Control and Drug Information Center (PCDIC), College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Information, National Poison Centre, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia saedzyoud@yahoo.com.
authors: S H
authors: SH
authors: Zyoud
authors: Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
authors: S W
authors: SW
authors: Al-Jabi
authors: Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
authors: W M
authors: WM
authors: Sweileh
authors: Acute Medical Unit, York Teaching Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, York, UK.
authors: W S
authors: WS
authors: Waring
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000506:poisoning*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D011643:Publishing / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers
keywords: Bibliometric; Scopus; calcium channel blockers; citations; drug overdose; poisoning; toxicity