Evolution Of The Scientific And Medical Literature On Alzheimer'S Disease From 1983 To 2017: A Bibliometric Analysis

As the global population ages, there has been an explosive (and continuing) growth in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Is research (as seen through publications) keeping up with the medical and socio-economic challenges posed by AD? Towards this end, our paper charts the growth of the AD literature by analyzing in five-yearly periods from 1983-2017 articles retrieved from the SCI-Expanded database of the Web of Science. During the past 35 years, articles on AD have increased 46-fold (1,095 papers in 1983–1987 to 50,532 in 2013–2017), accelerating especially during the last 20 years. Simultaneously, the number of journals containing AD-papers increased 14-fold (227 journals in 1983–1987 to 3,257 in 2013–2017). In 2013–2017, the ten most productive journals concentrated 19% of the AD literature (7% in three AD-focused journals: The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s & Dementia and Current Alzheimer Research), while nearly two-thirds of the journals published five or fewer AD papers. The number of countries with publications on AD has grown from 27 in 1983–1987 to 152 in 2013–2017. The USA was by far the most prolific country; however, its share decreased from 43% in 1983–1987 to 33% in 2013–2017. Several EU countries (Germany, UK, Italy and France), English-speaking countries (Canada and Australia), and Japan follow behind the USA in productivity; however, by the end of the 1990s, several Asian countries (China, South Korea and India) have emerged as important contributors of AD research. This study reveals an increasing concern worldwide in the various challenges of AD.