Mapping international research output within ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of assisted reproductive technologies.

purposeResearch about ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is influenced by cultural and value-based perspectives. It impacts regulations, funding, and clinical practice, and shapes the perception of ART in society. We analyze trends in the global literature on ELSI of ART between 1999 and 2019. As most output is produced by North America, Western Europe, and Australia, we focus on international research, i.e., academic articles studying a different country than that of the corresponding author.

methodsThe corpus, extracted from PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, includes 7714 articles, of which 1260 involved international research. Analysis is based on titles, abstracts and keywords, classification into ART fields and Topic Modeling, the countries of corresponding author, and countries mentioned in abstracts.

resultsAn absolute increase in the number of international studies, and their relative proportion. Trends of decentralization are apparent, yet geographic centralization remains, which reflects an unequal distribution of research funds across countries and may result in findings that do not reflect global diversity of norms and values. Preference for studying conceptual challenges through philosophical analysis, and for fields that concern only a portion of ART cycles. Less attention was dedicated to economic analysis and barriers to access, or to knowledge of and attitudes. International studies provide an opportunity to expand and diversify the scope of ELSI research.

conclusionWe call on the research community to promote international collaborations, focus on less explored regions, and divert more attention to questions of cost, access, knowledge, and attitudes.