Global research output in the health of international Arab migrants (1988–2017)

BACKGROUND: In the past few decades Arab countries had witnessed several intra-regional conflicts and civil wars that led to the creation of millions of refugees and migrants. Assessment of research activity is an indicator of national and international efforts to improve the health of those millions of war victims. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze published literature in international Arab migrants. METHODS: Literature in international Arab migrants published during the past three decades (1988–2017) was retrieved using Scopus database. A bibliometric analysis methodology was implemented on the retrieved data. Author keywords were mapped using VOSviewer program. RESULTS: In total, 1186 documents were retrieved. More than half (658; 55.5%) were published in the last five years (2013–2017). Retrieved documents received an average of 8.6 citations per document and an h-index of 45. The most frequently encountered author keywords were refugees and mental health–related terms. Three countries in the Middle East; Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, were among the most active countries. In total, 765 (63.7%) documents were about refugees, 421 (35.5%) were about migrant workers, 30 (2.5%) were about asylum seekers, and 7 (0.6%) were about trafficked and smuggled people. When data were analyzed for the nationality of migrants being investigated, 288 (24.3%) documents were about Syrians, 214 (18.0%) were about Somali, 222 (18.7%) were about Arab or Middle Eastern in general, and 147 (12.4%) were about Palestinians. The American University of Beirut ranked first with 45 (2.4%) publications. The most active journal in publishing research in this field was Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health (35; 3.0%) followed by Journal of Refugee Studies (23, 1.9%), The Lancet (19, 1.6%) and BMC Public Health (16, 1.3%). Publications from Jordan and Lebanon had the highest percentage of international research collaboration. CONCLUSION: Research in international Arab migrants showed a dramatic increase in the last few years mostly due to the Syrian war. Both mental health and Syrian refugees dominated the literature of international Arab migrants. Research in infectious diseases was relatively low. Research on non-refugee migrants such as workers, trafficked victims, and asylum seekers was also relatively low. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-5690-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.