Bibliometric Analysis of Gene Therapy Research

Abstract

Biomedical research proved that genetic disorders can be corrected only by means of Gene therapy. Gene therapy research, a top priority with a thumping progress till 2012, has slowed down due to ethical issues involved. This is a trend reporting bibliometric study of gene therapy research output covering a period of 10 years spanned between 2004 and 2013. Selective metric indicators were applied to the data. The study revealed that a sum total of 1,28,854 publications were authored altogether by 8,03,172 drawn from 78 countries publishing in 8443 journals. A sum total of 803172 authors participated in the publications of which collaborative publications outnumbered the single authored publications. The results of the study were not found to be in conformity to those of either the Pareto’s 80x20 rule or Bradford’s law. The publications, though maintained for all the nine years duration, suffered a depression in the 10th year i.e. 2013. Commercialisation of gene therapy has been lingering at the doorstep warranting for removing certain precision lacking procedures in administering the therapy. Separate bibliometric studies may reveal whether gene therapy suffers the general theory of technology life cycle which advocates that any technology suffers a downward trend after reaching a peach in research output