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BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is a common musculoskeletal condition that necessitates public health concerns. It also attracts considerable research interest among physiotherapists. OBJECTIVE: This study conducted a bibliometric analysis to reveal the affinity of Indian physiotherapists toward research on LBP using the Scopus database. METHODS: An electronic search was performed on December 23, 2020, using specific keywords. The data was downloaded in a Scopus plain text file (.txt) format and were analyzed using R studio (biblioshiny) software. RESULTS: Two hundred and thirteen articles concerning LBP published from 2003 to 2020 were retrieved from the Scopus database. Among those articles (N = 213), 85.45% (n = 182) were published between 2011 and 2020. An article published by "James SL (2018)" in the Lancet had the highest citation of 1439. The highest collaboration was between India and the United Kingdom, and India and the United States of America jointly accounted for 12.2% (n = 26) of the entire articles (N = 213). CONCLUSION: Indian physiotherapists have shown an interest through gradually increasing their research output on LBP since 2015. They contributed effectively to various journals and international collaboration. Nevertheless, there is room to improve the quality and quantity of LBP articles in high-quality journals, thereby enhancing the citation count. This study recommends improving the scientific output of Indian physiotherapists on LBP by expanding their international networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Physiotherapy research supports the advancement of evidence-based practice and the development of a highly skilled workforce. This study aims to visualize the highly cited scientific output of Indian physiotherapists from 1999 to 2018. Methods: A descriptive study design was adopted to visualize the highly cited scientific output of Indian physiotherapists using the Web of Science (WoS) database from 1999 to 2018. A search was carried out using the following keywords "((TS=(physiotherapy) OR TS=("physical rehabilitation") OR TS=("physical therapy")) AND AD=(India))Indexes=SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH, ESCI, CCR-EXPANDED, IC Timespan=1999-2018". Data collected were analyzed using Incites from WoS and VOSviewer software. Results:   A total of 488 articles were published between 1999 and 2018, with a peak of 103 in 2016 with 2419 citations. A decline in publication count was observed after 2016. The journal International Journal of Physiotherapy published the highest number of articles (n=35). Manipal University (n=36) was found to be the most active institution for physiotherapy research in India, as determined by publishing the most articles. Indian physiotherapists published the highest number of research articles in collaboration with US authors (n=24). Conclusion: There is an increasing trend in the scientific output of Indian physiotherapists over the past two decades; however, a decline is observed after 2016. It is recommended that research collaborations across the globe are increased and scientific output should be improved, leading to a higher number of citations. Future research should explore factors influencing the scientific production of Indian physiotherapists and devise appropriate strategies to attain further improvement., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2020 Subbarayalu AV et al.)