Scientific Trends in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology: A Bibliometric Analysis of Five Turkish National Journals (2005-2023)

Background: Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative method used to evaluate scientific research, authors, journals, and institutions compared to their peers. This study aimed to analyze five Turkish journals publishing in the field of “Infectious Diseases” and “Clinical Microbiology” and to examine the thematic evolution over time. Materials and Methods: Data from five journals published between January 1, 2005, and January 27, 2024, were obtained from the Web of Science database and analyzed. Results: The dataset included 2,418 original articles authored by 5,825 individuals, with 73 sole authors. International co-authorship accounted for 1.73%. Among the articles, 1,137 were open access, 1,331 were indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index, and 1,087 were indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded. A total of 1,872 articles were published in Turkish and 543 in English. Journal-1 and Journal-2 contributed the most, with 1,087 and 625 articles, respectively. After excluding 5,527 self-citations, the articles received 7,087 citations, averaging 2.93 per article. Journal-2 was the first journal indexed in Web of Science (h-index: 11, g-index: 16, m-index: 0.55). Institution-3 was the top contributor with 134 documents and a total link strength of 14,303. The most prolific author was affiliated with Institution-1. Thematic analysis from 2007 to 2021 showed early focus on “serodiagnosis,” “gram-negative bacteria,” “field gel electrophoresis,” and “culture.” From 2016 onwards, the focus of attention shifted to “infection,” “epidemiology,” and “susceptibility.” Recently, clinical management and disease-related terms such as “diagnosis,” “risk,” “mortality,” and “severity” became prominent. The keyword “infection” appeared 210 times, and “antibiotics and antimicrobials” were the most common thematic categories with 687 occurrences. Conclusion: While microbiology-centered topics were more prominent in the early 2000s, the findings suggest a growing shift toward clinically oriented subjects in recent years.