Objectives: This study evaluates malaria vaccine research carried out in different parts of the world during 1972-2004 using different bibliometric indicators.
Method: Data have been downloaded from PubMed for the period 1972-2004 using the keywords (malaria* or plasmodium or falciparum) and (vaccine*) in the title and abstract fields. The study examined the pattern of growth of the output, its geographical distribution, profile of different countries in different subfields and pattern of citations using GOOGLE Scholar.
Results: Malaria vaccine research output is gradually increasing. The USA, followed by the UK and Australia contributed the highest number of papers. Publication activity has decreased in Switzerland and Sweden, but has increased in Brazil and China. The majority of the countries have focused on the development of asexual blood stage malaria. Citations per paper and incidence of high-quality papers for the USA, the UK, Papua New Guinea and Denmark are more than the average. The majority of the prolific institutions are located in the USA, the UK, France and Australia.
Conclusion: The last two decades have witnessed considerable growth in research output in this field, while a successful malaria vaccine still remains elusive. Interestingly, the countries like the USA, the UK and Australia that lead in the quantity, quality and citation of this output are often not those directly affected by malaria.