Participation of the hospitals in the Republic of Ireland in international research over more than a decade: a bibliometric analysis

This study provides an accurate awareness of the present situation of health research in Irish hospitals both public and private. We aimed to analyze factors that may influence it and provide recommendations for active steps to improve the current situation of Irish health research based on our findings.

We performed a bibliometric analysis to assess qualitatively and quantitatively the publications from Ireland over a period between 2007 and 2018. We also investigated the associated variables with the quality of research. Furthermore, we conducted a Joinpoint analysis to see the trends in Irish research over these years.

From 12,828 included peer-reviewed articles, the average citation count per article was 19.98. Furthermore, we showed that a higher impact factor (IF) and institutions number, present per article, were significantly associated with more citations. Also, the publication count and the mean IF showed an increase over the years according to the Joinpoint analysis. Moreover, the oncology research had the highest output, followed by pediatrics, then neurology while the specialties with least publications were ear, nose, and throat (ENT), urology, plastic surgery, and dentistry. Additionally, cardiovascular, obstetrics and gynecology, oncology, pediatrics, pulmonology, dermatology, ophthalmology, dentistry, and radiology research showed an increased publication count trend in recent years. While anesthesiology, ENT, general surgery, gastroenterology and hepatology, infection and tropical medicine, nephrology, neurology, orthopedics, plastic surgery, and urology showed a decrease in the publications trend.

Our findings may serve as a useful approach to benchmark scientific output from hospitals and guide the future allocation of research spending.