Scientific Productivity in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Global Survey of Research Activity

Objectives: Assessment of scientific productivity provides a macroscopic view of research activity in a specific field. However, no analyses of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been published to date. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the characteristics of studies published on RA worldwide.

Methods: The Web of Science database was searched for articles on RA published between 2017 and 2019. Analysis parameters included the number of articles, number of times each publication was cited, country, journal, and research output adjusted by population and gross domestic product.

Results: Overall, 16,936 publications were identified. The United States was the largest contributor (17.71%), followed by China (17.17%), Japan (6.37%), the United Kingdom (5.82%), and Italy (4.76%). High-income economies (69.98%) ranked first in productivity, followed by middle- (30%) and low-income economies (0.02%). Significant correlations were found between research productivity and population (r = 0.461, p = 0.000), as well as gross domestic product (r = 0.786, p = 0.000). Publications from the United States received the highest number of total citations (21,669), followed by China (10,952) and the United Kingdom (7846). Austria had the highest average citations (16.18), followed by Norway (8.19) and the United Kingdom (7.98). When normalized by population, the leading country was Denmark, followed by the Netherlands and Sweden. When adjusted by gross domestic product, Denmark ranked first in publications on RA, followed by the Netherlands and Greece.

Conclusion: The United States emerged as the largest contributor to the field of RA research. Countries with large populations and economies tended to have higher research productivity. Multiple countries in Europe performed better in research output when normalized by population and economy sizes.