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BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic hints at the importance of modernizing disease control system. To understand the scientific research strength of our country's disease control system in recent years is conducive to formulating more targeted policies or measures to promote the modernization of the disease control system.ObjectiveTo understand the scientific research strength and research hotspots of China's provincial-level centers for disease control and prevention (CDCs) from 2011 to 2020, and provide evidence for the development of scientific research work, discipline construction, and talent team construction in CDCs in the future.MethodsThe Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of the Web of Science Core Collection were used to retrieve SCI-indexed English papers published by 31 provincial CDCs (excluding Taiwan Province, Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions) in our country from 2011 to 2020, and to screen literature with provincial CDCs as the first affiliation for bibliometric analysis and visual analysis. Bibliometric analysis included the SCI-indexed publications of different provincial CDCs (as co-affiliation and the first affiliation), the number of SCI-indexed papers published by provincial CDCs (as the first affiliation) and funding rates by years, the high-frequency authors of SCI-indexed papers published by provincial CDCs (as the first affiliation) and their distribution, and the characteristics of the journals. Visual analysis software Citespace 5.8.R1 was used to draw keyword co-occurrence maps, cluster information tables, and emergence maps to provide information on research hotspots and their evolution.ResultsFrom 2011 to 2020, the number of SCI-indexed papers from 31 provincial CDCs was 8420 (including co-affiliation), of which 2060 papers listed provincial CDCs as the first affiliation. The provincial CDCs of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong, and Guangdong were the leading six institutes in terms of the total number of SCI-indexed papers contributed as co-affiliation or the first affiliation. There was a large gap in the total number of SCI-indexed papers among the provincial CDCs. The highest total number of SCI-indexed papers contributed by provincial CDCs as the first affiliation was Zhejiang CDC (448 papers), while the lowest number was Xinjiang CDC (only 1 paper). From 2011 to 2020, the total number of SCI-indexed papers contributed by the 31 provincial CDCs as the first affiliation showed an overall increasing trend. Except for 2011, which was 63.1%, the funding rates in other years exceeded 70%. In terms of high-frequency authors, 13 first authors published ≥10 SCI-indexed papers: Zhang Yingxiu from Shandong CDC had the highest number of SCI-indexed papers (47), followed by Hu Yu from Zhejiang CDC. Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Shandong still ranked the top six of ≥4 first authored-SCI papers. In terms of journal characteristics, the top 20 journals with the highest number of SCI papers published a total of 862 papers, accounting for 41.8% (862/2060), and PLOS ONE ranked the first (188 papers). The research hotspots were mainly concentrated in the fields of infection, child health, and epidemiology. The main keywords of the first three cluster categories were related to the research fields of adolescent overweight and obesity, HIV, and vaccine immunity. The results of keyword emergence showed that research hotspots shifted from overweight, obesity, and body mass index to antibodies, vaccines/vaccination, and cohorts.ConclusionThe past ten years have witnessed increasing numbers of SCI-indexed papers published by provincial CDCs in our country and a stubbornly high funding rate. However, the gap among the provincial CDCs is still large seeing that economically developed eastern provincial CDCs published more SCI-indexed papers. Research hotspots have gradually shifted from overweight, obesity, and body mass index to antibodies, vaccines/vaccination, and cohorts.

BackgroundBy analyzing the publication of scientific and technological papers of the provincial centers for disease control and prevention (CDCs) in China, we can understand their scientific research strength, dominant disciplines, research hotspots, and talent development, which is conducive for further optimizing the scientific research construction of the disease control system.ObjectiveTo conduct a bibliometric analysis and draw a visual map of the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD) sourced papers published by 31 provincial CDCs in China from 2011 to 2020, to understand the scientific research status of China's provincial CDC system in the past ten years.MethodsIn April 2021, China National Knowledge Infrastructure was used to retrieve CSCD sourced papers published by 31 provincial CDCs (excluding Taiwan Province, Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions) in China as the primary unit from 2011 to 2020, and finally 5231 CSCD papers were included. Bibliometric analysis indicators include number of CSCD papers published and financial support rate, proportion of CSCD papers to total Chinese papers, distribution of CSCD papers published in high-volume journals, and number of papers for a specific CDC that their first authors affiliated with. Citespace 5.8.R1 software was used to draw author's cooperation network map, keyword co-occurrence map, keyword clustering information table, and keyword emergence map.ResultsThe number of CSCD papers published every year showed a stationary trend, and the total funding rate was 61%, showing an year-by-year upward trend (increased from 49.3% in 2011 to 68.7% in 2020). Jiangsu Province, Fujian Province, and Beijing CDCs ranked the top three in the total number of CSCD papers contributed by a specific CDC. The Chinese Journal of Epidemiology, Chinese Journal of Public Health, Chinese Journal of Zoonoses, Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine, and Chinese Journal of Endemic Diseases were the top five high-volume journals. The top three authors of CSCD papers (counted as co-authors) were Xu Bianli of Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (110 papers), Yan Yansheng of Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (72 papers), and Wang Quanyi of Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control (71 papers), and they studied the epidemiology of parasitic diseases and infectious diseases, the prevention and treatment of natural epidemic diseases and AIDS, and the epidemiology of infectious diseases, respectively. The keyword co-occurrence map showed that AIDS, zoonotic diseases, hand-foot-mouth disease, etc. (frequency ≥90) were the key research directions of provincial CDCs in the past ten years. The keyword clustering categories were closely related, although there were subtle differences, the topics focused on virus and chronic disease research. The keyword emergence results suggested that the frontiers of research had gradually shifted from infectious diseases such as enterovirus, hantavirus, and Zika virus to food-borne diseases and chronic non-communicable diseases such as tumors and senile diseases over time.ConclusionThe number of papers issued by the provincial CDCs in China in the past ten years has shown an overall steady and rising trend. The leading themes of researchers and institutions are infectious diseases, parasitic diseases, etc., while food-borne diseases and elderly diseases are the hot frontiers.