Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Articles Published in the West African Journal of Orthodontics over a 10-year Period

Abstract

Background: The West African Journal of Orthodontics (WAJO) is a relatively new journal with her maiden edition published in June 2012. This bibliometric review was carried out to assess the pattern of publications from 2012-2021 in order to ascertain the trend of publications and to provide an empirical tool in refocusing the journal in the nearest future.

Methods: All past publications of WAJO from 2012-2021 were accessed on the journal's website (wajo.oauife.edu.ng) and then analyzed for their article type, study design, gender of author, number of authors, author's specialty, article source, number of affiliations of authorship and country/region of origin of authors. Data analysis was carried out with SPSS version 21

Results: A total of 99 articles were analyzed. Original research papers accounted for 63.6% of the article type, 56.6% of these were cross-sectional in design, the average number of authors per article was 3.28+1.4 and author's specialty was mainly orthodontics (97%). The majority of articles emanated from hospital and university departments with 56.6% and 41.4% respectively, while the least was from private settings (2%) and there was slightly more preponderance for female authors (51.5%).

Conclusion: Most of the articles were original research papers with cross-sectional study design. The majority of papers were written by orthodontists in hospital departments. Finally, there is need to publish more randomized clinical trials RCTs and Systematic reviews in the journal.