The Interplay between Microbiology and Oncology: A Comparative Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends in Iraq and Saudi Arabia

The oncobiome, defined as the functional interface between microbiology and oncology, represents an increasingly important interdisciplinary domain in contemporary biomedical science; however, its development remains uneven across national research systems. This comparative scientometric study examines oncology–microbiology research output from Iraq and Saudi Arabia between 1992 and 2025 using 19,842 records retrieved from Scopus and PubMed. Standard performance indicators, science mapping techniques, and collaboration network analyses were applied to evaluate longitudinal productivity trends, thematic structures, and collaboration patterns. The analysis identifies a substantial database coverage discrepancy for Iraq, where Scopus retrieves 3,421 documents compared with 1,612 in PubMed, implying that 52.4% of the Iraqi output in this intersection is not visible in PubMed. Iraq shows a pronounced increase in output after 2018, reflecting a recovery-oriented profile with clinical and epidemiological emphases, including breast cancer and Helicobacter pylori-related research. Saudi Arabia shows a policy-driven expansion with an inflection after 2017 and higher citation maturity, alongside a thematic shift toward metagenomics, bioinformatics, molecular docking, and precision oncology. Despite shared regional health burdens, direct collaboration between the two countries remains limited, indicating an unmet opportunity for intra-regional knowledge integration. Overall, the findings highlight complementary national strengths and demonstrate the value of multi-database approaches for accurate comparative evaluation in scientometric research.