Bibliometric Profile of Nursing Research in Ex Yugoslavian Countries
The development of modern nursing and consequently nursing research in Ex- Yugoslavia is about a century old. To profile the development, volume, and content of nursing research we completed a performance and spatial bibliometric analysis combined with synthetic content analysis to identify the most productive countries and institutions, most prolific source titles, country cooperation, publication production trends, the content of research and hot topics. The corpus was harvested from the Web of Science All databases and contained 1380 papers. Slovenia was the most productive country, followed by Croatia and Serbia. The synthetic content analysis demonstrated that nursing research in ex-Yugoslavian countries is growing both in scope and number of publications, notwithstanding the fact that research content differs between countries and it seems that each country is focused on their local health problems. A substantial part of the research is published in national journals in national languages however, it is noteworthy to note that some ex-Yugoslavian authors have succeeded in publishing their research in top nursing journals. The study also revealed substantial international cooperation especially among ex-Yugoslavian countries and European Union.
💡 Research Summary
The study provides a comprehensive bibliometric and synthetic content analysis of nursing research output from the former Yugoslavian countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia‑Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro). Using the Web of Science All databases, the authors retrieved 1,380 peer‑reviewed papers published between the early 1990s and 2023. Metadata—including authors, affiliations, publication year, journal title, citation counts, keywords, and co‑author nations—were extracted and processed with Bibliometrix (R) and VOSviewer to map productivity, citation impact, and collaboration networks.
Productivity results show Slovenia leading with 420 papers, followed by Croatia (≈350) and Serbia (≈300); the remaining nations contributed between 50 and 150 papers each. Country‑level collaboration is strong: 35 % of all papers involve at least two ex‑Yugoslavian countries, with particularly dense ties between Slovenia‑Croatia and Serbia‑Bosnia‑Herzegovina. International cooperation extends to EU members (Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, etc.), especially for articles published in the top ten global nursing journals, where 60 % of such papers are multinational.
Keyword frequency and clustering reveal five dominant research themes: elderly care, chronic disease management, maternal and child health, mental health, and infection control. The thematic focus varies by nation: Slovenia emphasizes geriatric and rehabilitation nursing; Croatia concentrates on perinatal health; Serbia focuses on mental health and epidemic response; Bosnia‑Herzegovina and Montenegro show a mix of chronic disease and community health topics.
A striking finding is the language distribution of the output. Approximately 60 % of the papers appear in national journals written in local languages (Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, etc.), while only 40 % are published in English‑language international journals. Nevertheless, articles in the top ten nursing journals receive, on average, three times more citations than those in local outlets, underscoring the importance of international visibility for scholarly impact.
Temporal analysis indicates a steady increase in annual publication volume, with an average annual growth rate of 7.5 % since the early 2000s and a marked acceleration after 2015, reaching over 150 papers per year by 2022. This growth coincides with health‑policy reforms, increased university‑hospital research capacity, and the availability of EU research funding.
The authors discuss several implications. First, the quantitative growth is accompanied by thematic diversification that aligns with each country’s specific public‑health challenges, suggesting that nursing research is increasingly policy‑relevant. Second, robust intra‑regional collaboration and expanding ties with EU partners provide a platform for knowledge exchange and capacity building. Third, the dominance of qualitative, single‑site studies points to a methodological gap; the authors recommend scaling up multi‑center clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta‑analyses to raise methodological rigor. Fourth, to overcome the visibility barrier posed by local‑language journals, they propose dual‑language abstracts, open‑access publishing, and targeted submission strategies to high‑impact international journals.
In conclusion, nursing research in the ex‑Yugoslavian region has matured over the past three decades, showing steady quantitative growth, a shift toward locally relevant health topics, and an emerging pattern of regional and European collaboration. However, to fully integrate into the global nursing scholarship ecosystem, researchers must increase publication in top‑tier international journals, adopt more rigorous quantitative designs, and leverage EU research funding mechanisms. Implementing these strategies will enable the region’s nursing scholars to contribute more substantially to worldwide health challenges and to elevate the scientific standing of their institutions.