Geospatial Health: development of a maturing scientific journal 2006-2023

AbstractGeospatial Health is an international, peer-reviewed scientif-ic journal produced by the International Society of Geospatial Health. The journal covers all aspects of geographical informa-tion system (GIS) applications, remote sensing and other spatial analytic tools focusing on human and veterinary health.Our study illustrates how the interdisciplinary domain of Geo-spatial Health has evolved over time by analysing the published content of the journal for the period 2006 – 2023.A systematic bibliometric analysis was conducted based upon all (review) articles and editorials published in Geospatial Health. To capture key research topics, methods & techniques, geographic areas studied, and temporal development, our analysis proceeds through three stages: (1) high-frequency keywords identification, (2) co-occurrence analysis that identifies how high-frequen-cy keywords are related, and (3) cluster analysis that identifies groups of interlinked keywords. Impact analysis based on citation counts is included.Original research papers represent the largest publication catego-ry, followed by editorials, and review papers. Three quarters of the publications focus on human health, the rest is on veterinary applications. Geographic focus was initially largely on Africa and Asia. This remained up to around 2020 after which a strong decline in African studies, and a major increase of Asian studies is observed. Initially, focus was on schistosomiasis and malaria, but the scope widened to 35+ different diseases, injuries and risk factors. Over time there is growing attention for non-communi-cable disease such as cancer and obesity. Spatial and statistical analytical techniques used are diverse and exhibit increasing so-phistication over time.Scaling up the analysis to include related journals is straightfor-ward. This would enable a solid understanding of the temporal de-velopment of the scientific discipline Geospatial Health as a whole