Exploring Researchers’ Contributions to the Study of Deaths from All Causes in Russia

Abstract

Societal changes have had effects on deaths from all causes in Russia. Up until now, deaths from all causes have been well researched, although several inconsistencies persist on the contributions of researchers. This study assessed research output, trends and topics that shaped deaths from all causes studies in Russia. Using bibliometric and topic modelling approaches, deaths from all causes in Russia published from 1914 to date was analysed using data on publications, citations, journals, keywords co-occurrence, year of publication, institutional affiliations, and country of origin from Scopus. Overall results indicate a steady growth of publications in Russia was documented after 1985. The h-index of some top 10 authors did not surpass single digits. A network visualisation map showed that ‘Russia’, ‘male’, ‘mortality’ and ‘human’ were the most commonly encountered vital terms. Of the ten most prolific authors, McKee M, Shkolnikov VM, Bobak M, Samorodskaya IV and Andreev E were the first five. Although the top 10 journals researching on death causes in Russia were Russian, these journals were not included in the most cited journals. The most prolific institutions studying deaths in Russia included; Tehran University of Medical Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University College London, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and National Research University- Higher School of Economics. Findings suggest that deaths from all causes research attention in Russia increased in recent years, but the number of publications and research related engagements (e.g., networking and/ collaboration) does not match-up to other countries (e.g., UK, US, Germany). This research lag calls for more collaborative research between public health disciplines and networking among researchers (i.e., both national and international).