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

The oncobiome - a crossroads of microbiology and oncology - is becoming increasingly important to the development of precision medicine; however, the distribution of oncobiome research themes and research activity is quite uneven across the various science systems of the Middle East. A comparative scientometric analysis has been performed on oncobiome research from both Iraq and Saudi Arabia spanning 32 years (1992-2024) and examining trends in oncobiome research production, changes in thematic focus, collaborative relationships among researchers, and biases associated with databases used to collect these data. A total of 19,842 records were identified through searches of the Scopus and PubMed databases. Twenty-three bibliometric measures (for example, annual output, field-weighted citation impact, Lotka's Law, collaboration network measures) have been employed to analyze the data. Science mapping techniques using VOSviewer, Bibliometrix, and CiteSpace have been employed to create visual representations of the co-occurrence of keywords related to oncobiome research, identify changes in thematic focus, and illustrate international collaborative relationships.