Background: For many years, the classification and pathogenicity of Blastocystis was a subject of debate.
The study rational is built on two hypotheses; whether this uncertainty affects the research on Blastocystis
spp., and whether regional differences have an impact on diseases prevalence.
Objective: The aim of this study is to guide researchers interested in blasticystosis by presenting a
bibliometric review of the existing literature on blastocystosis.
Subjects and Methods: The VOSviewer visualization methodology was used. Institutions, nations,
international collaborations, journals, articles, authors, keywords, co-authors, co-citations, and citation
rates from the WoS database formed the study data. A total of 1192 documents were found in the WoS
database, of which 906 original articles were analyzed.
Results: The articles were cited 24,065 times in total and the mean Hirsch (H) index was 74. The countries
with the highest number of articles were as follows: USA (n = 93; 10.26%), Singapore (n = 79; 8.72%),
China (n = 76; 8.39%), and Malaysia (n: 74; 8.17%). During the period from 2000-2013, there were a
limited number of articles, while since 2014 there was a minimum of 34 publications per year. The highest
number of articles was published in 2021 (n = 87) and the highest number of citations (n=3,485) was in
2021. The leading affiliation according to the number of published articles was the National University
of Singapore (8.72%), University Malaya (6.62%), and Nara Women's University (4.64%). The USA,
Singapore, China and Malaysia have led scientific production on Blastocystis spp.
Conclusion: Due to development of recent molecular technology, the interest in Blastocystis spp. increased
as recorded by ample publicatios and cited references. Development of interdisciplinary scientific research
networks to include the most productive countries is crucial for Blastocystis related studies.