Bibliometric Analysis of Literature in Snake Venom-Related Research Worldwide (1933-2022)

Abstract

Snake envenomation is a severe economic and health concern affecting countries worldwide. Snake venom carries a wide variety of small peptides and proteins with various immunological and pharmacological properties. A few key research areas related to snake venom, including its applications in treating cancer and eradicating antibiotic-resistant bacteria, have been gaining significant attention in recent years. The goal of the current study was to analyze the global profile of literature in snake venom research. This study presents a bibliometric review of snake venom-related research documents indexed in the Scopus database between 1933 and 2022. The overall number of documents published on a global scale was 2999, with an average annual production of 34 documents. Brazil produced the highest number of documents (n = 729), followed by the United States (n = 548), Australia (n = 240), and Costa Rica (n = 235). Since 1963, the number of publications has been steadily increasing globally. At a worldwide level, antivenom, proteomics, and transcriptomics are growing hot issues for research in this field. The current research provides a unique overview of snake venom research at global level from 1933 through 2022, and it may be beneficial in guiding future research.

Keywords: VOSviewer; bibliometry; snake venom.

Figure 1

Publication profile of snake venom-related research during the years 1933–2022. A total of 2999 documents were retrieved from the Scopus database. The productivity in snake venom-related research has gradually increased since the 1960s, with the highest number of documents published in 2020.

Figure 2

Mapping of country collaboration. Out of 138 countries, 25 published a minimum of 30 documents. The size of the circle is proportional to the number of collaborations with other countries.

Figure 3

VOSviewer mapping of occurrence terms extracted from titles and abstracts in snake venom-related research articles. (a) network visualization; (b) overlay visualization. The size of the circles is proportional to the frequency of appearances. The length of the link indicates the degree of relationship. With a minimum of 50 occurrences, 255 out of 15,498 terms match the criteria.