RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to assess the 5-year h-index (h5)-index by nation. We aimed to assess the relationship between a nation's h5-index and numbers of neurosurgeons, population, gross domestic product (GDP), and expenditure on both health and research. METHODS: Using Web of Science we collected data on each nation's h5-index and number of publications for the 5-year period 2016 to 2020. Neurosurgical data were collected from the global neurosurgical workforce map provided by the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies. National economic data were collected from the World Bank Open Data provided. We analyzed how economic and neurosurgical factors correlated with h5-index and publication numbers. RESULTS: We report the top 28 countries ranked according to their h5-index. Regarding the h5-index the strongest positive relationship was found with GDP, proportion of GDP spent on health and total amount spent on health per capita. In regard to the total number of publications (2016 to 2020), the strongest positive relationship was found with GDP and total number of neurosurgeons. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to explore the h-index between nations on an international level. GDP and proportion of GDP spent on health expenditure are the strongest correlates of the h5-index. Although a higher number of neurosurgeons in a nation does result in more publications, this is not necessarily translated into higher quality research.
