A bibliometric analysis of homosexuality research in SAARC countries

Homosexuality, which was considered to be deviant sexual behaviour, has been recognized as normal sexual behavior in recent years. Despite this change in scientific viewpoint, there are still many taboos centered around this entity. Even the research concerning homosexuality seemingly suffered discrimination. This research attempts to understand the trend of research in homosexuality in the SAARC countries todate.We did a literature search in the PubMed database since the time of inception till date (28th September 2021) by using the search terms: homosexuality [tiab] and (Bangladesh [tiab] OR India [tiab] or Maldives [tiab] OR Afghanistan [tiab] OR Pakistan [tiab] or Sri Lanka [tiab] OR Bhutan [tiab] or Nepal [tiab]). A total of 67 articles were found from the database. Most articles were published in the Journal of homosexuality (n=4).The articles were published between 1976 to 2020, with the highest number of publications (n=5) in 2009 and 2018. The average number of authors per article was 2.433, and the average number of citations per paper was 2.866.Though homosexuality is a highly sensitive issue, there is a paucity of research in this field in the SAARC countries.