JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Ae. aegypti is an important vector that transmits dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses. Although research on Ae. aegypti has been conducted for a decade ago, scientometric studies on Ae. aegypti are scarce, are limited to regions, and covered short time periods. Thus, there is still a knowledge gap in the current research focus, author co-occurrences, citation rates, journals, organization and worldwide collaborations.

Objective:

The objectives of the study are to investigate the trend, patterns, citation impact, author collaboration of the published works on Aedes aegypti to inform the current knowledge gaps and future direction of the control of the vector.

Methods:

In this study, we searched the SCOPUS database for articles on Ae. aegypti published from the year 1927 until 5 April 2024 and screened for original research articles, reviews, letters, editorials, books and book chapters, and analysed the scientometric data using VOSviewer.

Results:

A total of 16,247 records were found, review articles formed 6.1% of the results while 90.1% were research articles. The relative growth rate of the publications on Ae. aegypti fluctuated with an overall increase over time. The most prolific authors were Ritchie SA (N=126) and Scott TW (N=116). The main research clusters were ‘using Wolbachia’, ‘dengue zika’, ‘worldwide diversity’, ‘community support’, ‘larvicidal activity’, ‘mosquito genotype-dependent’ and ‘sterile insect technique’. The core journal was Journal of Medical Entomology (n=758, 4.7%). The most cited articles were authored by Halstead SB et. al. in Science (1,355 citations) and Kraemer MU et al. in eLife (1,324 citations).

Conclusions:

The researchers or entomologists could understand the current knowledge gap on Ae. aegypti and plan for future research pathways. This study contributed to the public health stakeholders in improving the vector control interventions and elucidated the extent of research subject areas.