Cancer research in the United Arab Emirates from birth to present: A bibliometric analysis

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that the incidence of cancer is increasing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This analysis aimed to determine the current cancer research output in the UAE to guide future national research.

Methods: The Scopus database was searched for cancer-related bibliographic data from the UAE. The number of publications, citation analysis, co-authorship of the author, institution, and country, keyword co-occurrence, and reference co-citations were analyzed using the R-studio bibliometrics package and VOSviewer software.

Results: A total of 1678 journal articles were retrieved from 1981 to 2022. Cancer research in the UAE (UCR) is increasing at a rate of 14.64% (R-squared = 0.75; F = 46.477; P<0.001). The UAE had a 0.06% participation rate in terms of the number of original articles. The rate of international co-authorship is 40.23%. The U.S.A., U.K., Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and Canada had more than 100 co-authored documents from 156 countries that collaborated with the U.A.E.

Conclusions: Compared to other nations, the UAE has fewer publications on cancer, although the number is growing. The current report provides an up-to-date and in-depth summary of the trends in UCR. This project is an excellent place for researchers interested in conducting data-mapping work in this field.