The Status of Cancer Publications in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

This study evaluates the status and number of publications addressing cancers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). All publications about cancer as a research topic in three cities of the KRI were retrieved from local journals, and the ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases up to December 2019. Out of the net total of 269 studies conducted, including both local and international publications, 40.5% were reported from Sulaimani, followed by 37.9% from Erbil, and 21.6% from Duhok. In international journals the highest percentage of studies concerned Sulaimani 25.3%, with 46.2% of these records being in PubMed, followed by 34.5% and 19. 3% of records in PubMed from Erbil and Duhok, respectively. In contrast, more articles published within local journals concerned Erbil and Duhok cities 18.2% and 9.3%, respectively). Additionally, we screened the number of authors involved in each particular published article and found that the highest percentage of papers with more than three authors concerned Sulaimani 24.9%, followed by Erbil 16%, then Duhok 8.2%. Generally, the majority of the published articles originated from research based on the clinical data instead of basic studies, and patient data was mainly used in all articles in all selected cities. Moreover, a continuous increase in the number of published articles was observed in all the three cities from 2006 until 2019. Interestingly, the highest number of published articles was relevant to multiple cancers in both ...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research