Bibliometrics of Tunisian publications in "General Surgery" (Medline, 2009-2018).

Objective: To describe the bibliometric characteristics of Tunisian publications in "General Surgery", indexed in "Medline" database from 2009 to 2018.

Methods: This is a bibliometric study conducted through a comprehensive documentary query applied to the "Pubmed" portal and using the "Medline" database. The essential themes of a publication have been defined by referring to its major keywords.

Results: A total of 173 publications were included in this study, representing a productivity rate of 14 articles / 100 surgeons' teachers-year. These publications were co-authored by 65 authors in first position and published by 55 journals in 15 countries, including mainly the national journal "Tunis Med" during the first five-year period 2009-2013 (27%) and the Ugandan magazine "Pan Afr Med J" during the second five-year period 2014-2018 (33%). Case reports were the most widespread type of publication in Tunisian "General Surgery", during the two periods of the study, respectively in 63% and 51% of cases. English was the major language with 57% of publications. Among the 259 major descriptors used to index the "General Surgery" articles, the occurrence of "Pancreatic Neoplasms" and "Echinococcosis, Hepatic" was respectively 3% and 2%.

Conclusion: During the decade 2009-2018, the Tunisian research in "General Surgery" was not very prolific and was mainly "case reports" but it was directed toward population health problems; Hence the interest of a thorough training of surgeons in research methodology and scientific medical writing.