Bibliometric analysis of vaccine hesitancy research from behavioural perspectives (2015–2022)

Vaccine hesitancy has emerged as one of the top challenges to global health and has received increasing attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is a descriptive bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed literature on vaccine hesitancy from a behavioural perspective, covering publications from 2015 to 2022. The study used data retrieved from the Scopus database to examine bibliometric indicators, including publication trends, citation analysis and top-cited articles, the most impactful journals in which vaccine hesitancy articles appear, the most productive and influential countries from which research was produced, international collaborations between countries, leading authors, author collaboration networks and research themes. Predictably, the literature on vaccine hesitancy has increased significantly since 2020. The most impactful journals in which this research appeared are primarily linked to the academic fields of health and behavioural studies, social sciences, health psychology, and health communications. The majority of the extant vaccine hesitancy literature, research collaborations and its authors are associated with the United States and European nations. Furthermore, analysing the most frequently occurring terms in the titles and abstracts of the retrieved 352 articles yielded four research themes. These included analyses of individual predispositions towards vaccination encompassing attitudes, behaviour, risk perceptions, belief, fear, and intentions towards vaccines and vaccination. Other prominent themes included vaccine hesitancy in general and concerning COVID-19 vaccines specifically, child vaccination and interventions to increase vaccine uptake and implications of social media and information with respect to vaccine hesitancy. The findings indicate that research productivity around vaccine hesitancy was greatest in western and high-income countries, revealing the need to invest and conduct further research in low- and middle-income countries to understand its global nuances better.