Bibbiometric analysis of the studies on health system performance

Health system performance is an umbrella term covering the health system's outcomes or ultimate goals of good health, responsiveness, and financial risk protection; intermediate objectives of access, coverage, quality, safety, efficiency, and system structure, resources, and functions, including service provision and management. The aim of this study is to perform a bibliometric analysis of studies on health system performance, which has become increasingly popular in the field of health. Based on the Web of Science database, this master's thesis aims to determine the publishing trends, research topics, authors and their affiliations, and template the evolution of studies on the topic of health system performance between 1990 and 2020 through bibliometric analysis methods. By using Bibliometric R Package (Biblioshiny), performance analysis and science mapping procedures were performed. Based on "topic", the search procedure identified 3,338 papers in the WoS database. The number of papers constantly increased during the years 2000 to 2021. The five most relevant sources, also called core sources by Bradford Law, are BMC Health Services Research, Health Policy and Planning, PlosOne, Social Science& Medicine and Human Resources. The most cited sources are The Lancet, Health Policy and Planning, Social Science and Medicine, BMC Health Services Research and Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Alan Lopez, Christopher Murray, and Rafael Lozano are the most relevant authors. "Public Health", "human resources for health", "health system governance", "health policy", "health system performance" and "health financing" are the most occured author keywords. In this study, thematic map and thematic evolutions of publications were also investigated and niche, motor, basic and emerging & declining themes were identified. The study are expected to help researchers, legislators, and practitioners understand the basic concepts of the health system performance, and to assist them to raise new research and policy implications.