Bibliometric analysis of AIDS literature in Central Africa

The purpose of this paper is to present the preliminary results of a bibliometric analysis of AIDS documents as produced on Sub-Saharan Africa. AIDSLINE 1980-2000 was used to conduct the literature search. In this paper, an analysis was made only of the records retrieved under 'Central Africa'. Bibexcel (version 2001) and Microsoft Excel (2000) were used as software tools to conduct the analysis of the records. Seven countries and 1052 records were identified. Main participating countries were Democratic Republic of the Congo (527 documents), and Cameroon (271). Results indicated a high pattern of collaboration through multiple authorship. Most documents were published in English (84.50%) and French (14.73%). Over 57% corresponded to journal articles. The subject content of the documents was mainly focused on epidemiological, complications, and prevention & control issues on 'HIV Infections' and 'Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome'. Countries behind this productivity were Cameroon, USA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, and Belgium. Comparison of results among Central African countries and among other developing countries is made by the authors.