An Overview of Depression-related Research in the Asia Tigers Yu-Kei Su1, Wen-Ta Chiu1, Yu-Ching Tseng2, Shung-Ying Wu2, Chien-Min Lin1 and Yuh-Shan Ho3 1Department of Neurosurgery, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 2School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan 3Bibliometric Centre, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan Introduction The use of the bibilometric analysis technique for examining depression-related research in Asia Tigers, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, does not exist in the literature. The objective of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of all depression-related publications in Science Citation Index (SCI). A systematic search was performed using the SCI for publications during the period of 1991 to 2004. Analyzed parameters included authorship, patterns of international collaboration, and reprint author’s address. Methods Documents used in this study were based on the databases of the SCI which was accessed from the ISI Web of Science, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Selected documents included ‘depression’ as a part of the title, abstract, or keywords. Results Seven document types were found in the total of 1,423 documents that were published by the Asian Tigers, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Figure 2. Relationship between annual publication output and year for Asian Tigers Figure 1. Distribution of Journal’s Impact factor Table 1. Five most used author keywords in the depression-related research * Elderly, Electroconvulsive therapy, Screening, and Stroke; ** Blends, Elderly, Psychosis, and Temporomandibular disorders Conclusions The yearly publications have increased from 1991 to 2004 for Asia Tigers. Taiwan has high productivity followed by South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The US was the most frequent partner to have the international collaborative publications with Asia Tigers. Taiwan has more single country publications and South Korea has more international collaborative publications. The most productive corresponding institutes in each country were the National Yang Ming University at Taiwan, the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, and the Hanyang University at South Korea.