Global cocaine intoxication research trends during 1975-2015: a bibliometric analysis of Web of Science publications.
Cocaine is subject to recreational abuse as a stimulant and psychoactive agent, which poses a major worldwide health problem. The aim of the present study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of publication related to cocaine intoxication an insight of the research trends at a global level to enable recommendations for future research strategies in this field.



Publications about cocaine intoxication were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database on December 28, 2016, and analysed regarding the following bibliometric indicators: research trends, document types, languages, countries/territories with their h-index, collaboration patterns, journals with their impact factors (IF), and institutions.



In total, 2,902 scientific publications from 1975 to 2015 were retrieved from the WoS database. The annual number of publications related to cocaine toxicity increased slightly after 1990 and reached a peak of 148 in 1992, with an average of 103 publications per year. The USA outranked other countries/territories with 2,089 publications, of which 1,927 arose exclusively from the USA and 162 involved international collaborations. The h-index for all publications related to cocaine was 212, and the h-index for all publications related to cocaine intoxication was 99. Moreover, the USA had the highest h-index of 95, followed by Spain with h-index of 24, and Canada with h-index of 24. The main research topics were consistently reproductive toxicity, clinical management of acute cocaine exposure, laboratory methods for detection of exposure to cocaine, cocaine metabolism, and cocaine toxicity in animals.



This is the first bibliometric approach to examining research related to cocaine toxicity and shows that research activity has become more global and extensive since 1990. The USA remains the leading country regarding published literature, the highest h-index, and greatest role in international collaborations.
Poison Control and Drug Information Center (PCDIC), College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, 44839, Palestine. saedzyoud@yahoo.com.|Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, 44839, Palestine. saedzyoud@yahoo.com.
Sa'ed H
SH
Zyoud
Acute Medical Unit, York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Wigginton Road, York, YO31 8HE, UK.
W Stephen
WS
Waring
Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, 44839, Palestine.
Samah W
SW
Al-Jabi
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, 44839, Palestine.
Waleed M
WM
Sweileh
D015706:Bibliometrics; D003042:Cocaine / Q000633:toxicity*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D058028:Research Report / Q000639:trends*
D003042:Cocaine
Bibliometric; Cocaine; Intoxication; Web of Science