Abstract
MelissaBackground Migration and health are key priorities in
global health and essential for protecting and promoting the health of migrants. To better
understand the existing evidence on migration health, it is critical to map the research
publication activity and evidence on the health of migrants and mobile populations. This paper
presents a search strategy protocol for a bibliometric analysis
of scientific articles on global migration health (GMH), leveraging the expertise of a global
network of researchers and academics. The protocol aims to facilitate the mapping of research and
evidence on the health of international migrants and their families, including studies on human
mobility across international borders.
Methods A systematic search strategy using Scopus will be developed to map scientific articles on
GMH. The search strategy will build upon a previous bibliometric study and will have two main
search components: (1) ‘international migrant population’, covering specific movements across
international borders, and (2) ‘health’. The final search strategy will be implemented to determine
the final set
of articles to be screened for the bibliometric analysis. Title and abstract screening will exclude
irrelevant articles and classify the relevant articles according to predefined themes and
subthemes. A combination of the following approaches will be used in screening: applying full
automation (ie, DistillerSR’s machine learning tool) and/or semiautomation (ie, EndNote, MS Excel)
tools, and manual screening. The relevant articles will be analysed using MS Excel, Biblioshiny and
VOSviewer, which creates a visual mapping of the research publication activity around GMH. This
protocol is developed in collaboration with academic researchers and policymakers from the Global
South, and a network of migration health and research experts, with guidance from a bibliometrics
expert.
Ethics and dissemination The protocol will use publicly available data and will not directly
involve human participants; an ethics review will not be required. The findings from the
bibliometric analysis (and other research that can potentially arise from the protocol) will be
disseminated through academic publications, conferences
and collaboration with relevant stakeholders to inform