International Journal of Knowledge Management and Practices

Rabiya Mushtaq ¹, Fayaz Ahmad Loan ²

Affiliations
1 Research Scholar, Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, J&K, IN
2 Documentation Officer, Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, J&K, IN

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to provide an overview of the global research productivity on colorectal cancer with an in-depth analysis of India and Iran. The study also identifies the authorship collaborations among the Indian and Iranian medical scientists. The research started with the selections of terms on "Colorectal cancer". The three (3) terms - Colorectal Neoplasm, Colorectal Cancer, and Colorectal Tumour were selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to retrieve the data from the Web of Science (WOS) maintained by the Thomson Reuters using the Boolean Operator "OR". The data related to the Colorectal cancer research from 1989-2017 was retrieved and downloaded in the excel file. Later, the STRATA and Eviews software were used to analyse the data. The three important means- annual growth rate (AGR), relative growth rate (RGR), and Doubling Time (Dt) have been used to trace the development of literature from 1989 to 2017. Further, authorship patterns were analysed using the authorship collaboration and collaborative coefficient methods. The results reveal that the USA (64,031; 30.86%), Peoples Republic of China (20,209; 9.74%) and Japan (18,085; 8.71%) are the highly contributing nations in the field of Colorectal Cancer. India stands at 24th position and Iran at 32nd position with a contribution of 1,983 and 1057 publications respectively. The values of the annual growth rate (AGR) and relative growth rate (RGR) show fluctuations from 1989 to 2017 for both the nations. In India, AGR shows negative values in the years 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2009 and in Iran, AGR is negative in 2003, 2009, 2012 and 2013. However, the AGR of both the countries shows an increasing trend towards the end of 2017 which is a positive sign. The average growth rate of India is 43.96% whereas the average growth rate of Iran is 49.68%. The calculated values of Relative Growth Rate (RGR) and Doubling Time (Dt) clearly signify an inverse relationship between the two in both the nations. In India, the mean of the RGR is 0.27% and doubling time (Dt) is 3.68 years whereas in Iran, the mean of the RGR is 0.38% and doubling time (Dt) is 2.36 years. Authors in both the nations like to work in collaboration as the degree of collaboration (India = 0.97; Iran = 0.98) and the collaborative coefficient (India = 0.65; Iran = 0.66) of both the countries have very high values.

Keywords

Colorectal Neoplasm, Colorectal Cancer, Colorectal Tumour, Oncology, Scientometrics, Bibliometrics.

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