Research productivity and scientific impact of gender- based violence in sub-Saharan Africa

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a common occurrence and contributes to human rights abuses of both men and women globally. It therefore requires investigation from different perspectives to shed light on its depth and breadth. While research in the domain is increasing, the status, nature and extent of this research are not readily known, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which has been identified as the region worst hit by this atrocity. This study appraises research publications on GBV in SSA from 1996 to 2020 with a view to determining the performance of researchers, institutions, and countries in terms of GBV research productivity and scientific impact in the domain. This is largely a quantitative study that applies content analysis through bibliometric means to analyse GBV publications indexed in Scopus database from 1996 to 2020. Using the publication count technique, the study focuses largely on publication of the research by author, institutional, and source as well a citation analysis to determine citation counts and research impact. The data were processed and analysed with Microsoft Excel, and VOSviewer. Findings reveal a growing research pattern in the domain, with higher research performance in terms of usage and visibility coming from the leading research countries and institutions in SSA. The same countries and institutions produce higher citations and research impact. While there have been concerns of growing GBV in the developing countries, productivity of the countries to add to global gender-based research is equally minimal, suggesting low investment in and priority of GBV research.