bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2019–05–05
nineteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. Nature. 2019 May;569(7754): 20-23
      
    Keywords:  Developing world; Education; Funding; Government
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01124-7
  2. J Clin Invest. 2019 Apr 29. pii: 128764. [Epub ahead of print]130
      Reflecting an increasing emphasis on collaborative science, the number of authors on published articles has markedly risen with time. With this trend, we see an increase in papers designating 2 or more co-first authors. To improve transparency in how such designations are made and reduce bias in the assignment of order, the JCI is now requiring an explanation for how the first-author position is determined when shared among contributing authors.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI128764
  3. J Med Internet Res. 2019 Apr 29. 21(4): e12953
       BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews (SRs) are often cited as the highest level of evidence available as they involve the identification and synthesis of published studies on a topic. Unfortunately, it is increasingly challenging for small teams to complete SR procedures in a reasonable time period, given the exponential rise in the volume of primary literature. Crowdsourcing has been postulated as a potential solution.
    OBJECTIVE: The feasibility objective of this study was to determine whether a crowd would be willing to perform and complete abstract and full text screening. The validation objective was to assess the quality of the crowd's work, including retention of eligible citations (sensitivity) and work performed for the investigative team, defined as the percentage of citations excluded by the crowd.
    METHODS: We performed a prospective study evaluating crowdsourcing essential components of an SR, including abstract screening, document retrieval, and full text assessment. Using CrowdScreenSR citation screening software, 2323 articles from 6 SRs were available to an online crowd. Citations excluded by less than or equal to 75% of the crowd were moved forward for full text assessment. For the validation component, performance of the crowd was compared with citation review through the accepted, gold standard, trained expert approach.
    RESULTS: Of 312 potential crowd members, 117 (37.5%) commenced abstract screening and 71 (22.8%) completed the minimum requirement of 50 citation assessments. The majority of participants were undergraduate or medical students (192/312, 61.5%). The crowd screened 16,988 abstracts (median: 8 per citation; interquartile range [IQR] 7-8), and all citations achieved the minimum of 4 assessments after a median of 42 days (IQR 26-67). Crowd members retrieved 83.5% (774/927) of the articles that progressed to the full text phase. A total of 7604 full text assessments were completed (median: 7 per citation; IQR 3-11). Citations from all but 1 review achieved the minimum of 4 assessments after a median of 36 days (IQR 24-70), with 1 review remaining incomplete after 3 months. When complete crowd member agreement at both levels was required for exclusion, sensitivity was 100% (95% CI 97.9-100) and work performed was calculated at 68.3% (95% CI 66.4-70.1). Using the predefined alternative 75% exclusion threshold, sensitivity remained 100% and work performed increased to 72.9% (95% CI 71.0-74.6; P<.001). Finally, when a simple majority threshold was considered, sensitivity decreased marginally to 98.9% (95% CI 96.0-99.7; P=.25) and work performed increased substantially to 80.4% (95% CI 78.7-82.0; P<.001).
    CONCLUSIONS: Crowdsourcing of citation screening for SRs is feasible and has reasonable sensitivity and specificity. By expediting the screening process, crowdsourcing could permit the investigative team to focus on more complex SR tasks. Future directions should focus on developing a user-friendly online platform that allows research teams to crowdsource their reviews.
    Keywords:  crowdsourcing; meta-analysis as topic; research design; systematic reviews as topic
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/12953
  4. PLoS One. 2019 ;14(5): e0216135
      Aristolochic acids and their derivatives are components of many traditional medicines that have been used for thousands of years, particularly in Asian countries. To study the trends of research into aristolochic acids and provide suggestions for future study, we performed the following work. In this paper, we performed a bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace and HistCite software. We reviewed the three phases of the development of aristolochic acids by using bibliometrics. In addition, we performed a longitudinal review of published review articles over 60 years: 1,217 articles and 189 review articles on the history of aristolochic acid research published between 1957 and 2017 were analyzed. The performances of relevant countries, institutions, and authors are presented; the evolutionary trends of different categories are revealed; the history of research into aristolochic acids is divided into three phases, each of which has unique characteristics; and a roadmap of the historical overview of aristolochic acid research is finally established. Finally, five pertinent suggestions for future research into aristolochic acid are offered: (1) The study of the antitumor efficacy of aristolochic acids is of value; (2) The immune activity of aristolochic acids should be explored further; (3) Researchers should perform a thorough overview of the discovery of naturally occurring aristolochic acids; (4) More efforts should be directed toward exploring the correlation between aristolochic acid mutational signature and various cancers; (5) Further efforts should be devoted to the research and review work related to analytical chemistry. Our study is expected to benefit researchers in shaping future research directions.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216135
  5. PLoS One. 2019 ;14(4): e0216146
      Scientific research is often thought of as being conducted by individuals and small teams striving for disciplinary advances. Yet as a whole, this endeavor more closely resembles a complex and integrated system of people, papers, and ideas. Studies of co-authorship and citation networks have revealed important structural properties of researchers and articles, but currently the structure of scientific ideas themselves is not well understood. In this study, we posit that topic networks may be a useful framework for revealing the nature of conceptual relationships. Using this framework, we map the landscape of interconnected research topics covered in the multidisciplinary journal PNAS since 2000, constructing networks in which nodes represent topics of study and edges give the extent to which topics occur in the same papers. The network displays small-world architecture, characterized by regions of dense local connectivity with sparse connectivity between them. In this network, dense local connectivity additionally gives rise to distinct clusters of related topics. Yet notably, these clusters tend not to align with assigned article classifications, and instead contain topics from various disciplines. Using a temporal graph, we find that small-worldness has increased over time, suggesting growing efficiency and integration of ideas. Finally, we define two measures of interdisciplinarity, one of which is found to be positively associated with PNAS's impact factor. Broadly, this work suggests that complex and dynamic patterns of knowledge emerge from scientific research, and that structures reflecting intellectual integration may be beneficial for obtaining scientific insight.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216146
  6. Child Care Health Dev. 2019 Apr 30.
       BACKGROUND: The 'F-words in Childhood Disability' (function, family, fitness, fun, friends, and future) were introduced by Rosenbaum and Gorter (2012) in a concept paper entitled, "The F-words in childhood disability: I swear this is how we should think!". The 'F-words' are grounded in, and aim to operationalize, the World Health Organization's (WHO, 2001) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. A citation analysis was conducted to explore the extent of research uptake of the 'F-words' concepts.
    METHODS: Three databases - Google Scholar, Wiley Online, and Web of Science - were searched from July 2012 to December 2018 for sources that cited the original 'F-words' paper. Dates of publication and countries of first authors were extracted from all cited articles and a taxonomy was developed to categorize the type of usage.
    RESULTS: The search yielded 157 sources from 26 countries and the number of citations has continued to increase since the paper's publication. Sources were placed into three categories: cited/referenced (n=109) (i.e., the paper was simply cited), integrated/informed (n=36) (i.e., the 'F-words' were stated within the text), and non-English (n=12). Of the 36 integrated/informed sources, 34 (94.4%) applied the 'F-words' to the ICF framework and five themes emerged with respect to the use of the 'F-words': i) support of a holistic approach to childhood disability; ii) association of the 'F-words' to physical activity and rehabilitation; iii) application and measurement of quality of life; iv) 'F-words' research team-related papers; and v) 'other' category.
    CONCLUSION: This citation analysis shows that the 'F-words' are mainly being used to operationalize the ICF, support a holistic approach to childhood disability, and inform physical activity and rehabilitation-based interventions. These perspectives will play an important role in informing the next steps with respect to moving the F-words into research and practice.
    Keywords:  F-words; ICF; childhood disability; physical activity; quality of life; rehabilitation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12680
  7. Oral Dis. 2019 Apr 29.
       OBJECTIVES: Altmetrics, or Alternative metrics, have recently emerged as a web-based metrics measuring the impact of research with an emphasis on the public engagement with the research output. In this study we aimed to identify and analyse research articles about oral cancer that provoked the most online attention.
    METHODS: Altmetric Explorer was used to identify articles about oral cancer that generated the highest online attention. Descriptive and correlational statistics were performed, and the top 100 articles were identified and analysed.
    RESULTS: A total of 7940 articles were identified. Topics were mostly discussed on Facebook, Twitter, Mendeley, and news outlets. The top-100 articles that generated the highest online attention discussed mainly topics related to treatment outcomes and quality of life. Human papilloma virus (HPV) was the most commonly discussed individual topic in the list of top 100 outputs (n=20). Most articles originated from USA (n=46) and Europe (n=33; mainly from UK (24 articles). Articles were published in 47 journals that belong to different specialities; journals with a social media account had significantly higher Altmetric scores for their articles compared to those without an account.
    CONCLUSION: Topics of general interest to the public such as HPV transmission and vaccination, risk factors, and treatment generated the highest online attention. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
    Keywords:  Altmetrics; cancer; citation; mouth; online attention; oral; public engagement; research dissemination; social media
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/odi.13111
  8. J Bras Pneumol. 2019 Apr 25. pii: S1806-37132019000200501. [Epub ahead of print]45(2): e20180420
       OBJECTIVE: Most studies of tuberculosis originate from high-income countries with a low incidence of tuberculosis. A review of the scientific production on tuberculosis in Latin American countries, most of which are low- or middle-income countries (some with high or intermediate tuberculosis incidence rates), would improve the understanding of public health challenges, clinical needs, and research priorities. The aims of this systematic review were to determine what has been published recently in Latin America, to identify the leading authors involved, and to quantify the impact of international collaborations.
    METHODS: We used PubMed to identify relevant manuscripts on pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), or multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), published between 2013 and 2018. We selected only studies conducted in countries with an annual tuberculosis incidence of ≥ 10,000 reported cases and an annual MDR-TB incidence of ≥ 300 estimated cases, including Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. Articles were stratified by country, type, and topic.
    RESULTS: We identified as eligible 395 studies on PTB and 188 studies on DR/MDR-TB-of which 96.4% and 96.8%, respectively, were original studies; 35.5% and 32.4%, respectively, had an epidemiological focus; and 52.7% and 36.2%, respectively, were conducted in Brazil. The recent Latin American Thoracic Association/European Respiratory Society/Brazilian Thoracic Association collaborative project boosted the production of high-quality articles on PTB and DR/MDR-TB in Latin America.
    CONCLUSIONS: Most of the recent Latin American studies on tuberculosis were conducted in Brazil, Mexico, or Peru. Collaboration among medical societies facilitates the production of scientific papers on tuberculosis. Such initiatives are in support of the World Health Organization call for intensified research and innovation in tuberculosis.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-3713/e20180420
  9. Integr Cancer Ther. 2019 Jan-Dec;18:18 1534735419846401
       BACKGROUND: The prevalence of cancer has increased over time worldwide. Nevertheless, the number of deaths has been reduced during the past 2 decades. Thus, one-third of the cancer patients are users of complementary and alternative therapies, looking for other types of interventions. The main aim of the present study is to understand the current status of the research in integrative and complementary oncology. Three different aspects were analyzed: production trends, country collaboration, and leading research topics.
    METHODS: The dataset was obtained from the documents indexed under the Integrative and Complementary Medicine category of the Web of Science database from 1976 to 2017. VOSviewer and SciMAT software were employed to perform the bibliometric analysis.
    RESULTS: The Journal of Ethnopharmacology, China Medical University and the People's Republic of China are the leading producers in the field. Regarding the collaboration, the United States and China present a close connection. The scientific community is focused on the following topics: apoptosis, breast cancer, oxidative stress, chemotherapy, and nuclear factor-Kappa-B (NF-Kappa-B).
    CONCLUSIONS: The present article shows potentially important information that allows understanding of the past, present, and future of research in integrative and complementary oncology. It is a useful evidence-based framework on which to base future research actions and academic directions.
    Keywords:  alternative medicine; bibliometrics; complementary oncology; integrative medicine; integrative oncology; scientometrics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/1534735419846401
  10. Acta Radiol. 2019 May 01. 284185119843226
       BACKGROUND: Alternative metrics (Altmetrics) based on mentions in online media is a new tool that can help identify articles that have the most influence on diverse public audiences.
    PURPOSE: To determine the 100 most mentioned articles in the field of neuroimaging and to analyze their characteristics.
    MATERIAL AND METHODS: We selected the 668 journals that were considered to potentially publish neuroimaging articles. Using the Altmetric.com search tool, we identified the 100 most mentioned neuroimaging articles based on the highest Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) within selected journals. Each article was evaluated for several characteristics including AAS, number of citations, journal title, impact factor of journal, year of publication, authorship, country, type of document, disease entity, and imaging technique.
    RESULTS: The AAS for the top 100 articles were in the range of 145-1467. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience published the largest number of articles (n = 9), followed by Radiology (n = 8) and Neurology (n = 8). All articles were published during 2006-2018, with 56% of articles being published in 2016-2018. The majority of articles originated from the United States (n = 56), were original articles (n = 81), covered normal population (n = 67), and used functional magnetic resonance imaging (n = 56). Sasaki was the most prolific, authoring three of the most mentioned neuroimaging articles.
    CONCLUSION: This study presents a detailed list of the 100 most mentioned neuroimaging articles in online media, thus providing useful information on the dissemination of neuroimaging research to the general public.
    Keywords:  Altmetrics; bibliometric analysis; neuroimaging; social media
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0284185119843226
  11. Cornea. 2019 Apr 25.
       PURPOSE: To map the publication trends in and explore hotspots of keratoconus research.
    METHODS: A bibliometric analysis based on the Web of Science Core Collection was conducted to investigate the publication trends in research related to keratoconus. The records extracted were analyzed, and a knowledge map was constructed using VOSviewer v.1.6.10 to visualize the annual publication number, distribution of countries, international collaborations, author productivity, source journals, intellectual base, and research hotspots in the field of keratoconus.
    RESULTS: In total, 3194 peer-reviewed publications on keratoconus published between 2009 and 2018 were retrieved, and the annual research output increased with time. The United States ranked the highest among the countries with the most publications, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences was the most active institution. JL Alio contributed to the most number of publications on keratoconus, and Cornea was the most prolific journal publishing keratoconus research. The top cited references mainly focused on corneal collagen cross-linking. The keywords formed 6 clusters: 1) pathogenesis of keratoconus, 2) corneal collagen cross-linking, 3) management for early-stage keratoconus, 4) corneal parameter measurement, 5) surgical treatment of keratoconus, and 6) corneal biomechanics-related research.
    CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of the data extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection, the quantity and quality of publications on keratoconus were assessed using bibliometric techniques. The cited references and research hotspots could provide insights into keratoconus research as well as valuable information to cornea specialists for performing research in this field and discovering potential collaborators.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/ICO.0000000000001984
  12. Dent J (Basel). 2019 May 01. pii: E46. [Epub ahead of print]7(2):
      Animal experiments are a source of debate. This bibliometric study aims to identify published research in two representative dental journals: the Journal of Periodontology (JP) and the Journal of Clinical Periodontology (JCP). Two time points (1982/83 and 2012/13) covering 30 years were chosen. Articles describing data from animal experiments were identified and the data were extracted and compared between journals and time points. In 1982/83, 27 animal studies were published in JP and 17 in JCP. For 2012/13, 54 animal studies were considered in JP and 37 in JCP. The species examined were predominantly dogs (37%) in JCP and rats (61%) in JP in 1982/83. In 2012/13, rodents accounted for 85% in JP and for 54% in JCP. The number of animals used per study increased by a factor of 1.6-2.6. The diversity of geographic origin and articles from emerging countries increased over time. The number of animals examined per study and the publications describing these experiments seemed to have increased in the journals analyzed in the last decades.
    Keywords:  Journal of Clinical Periodontology; Journal of Periodontology; animal experiments; bibliometrics; periodontal and peri-implant research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/dj7020046
  13. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Apr 29.
      Electronic waste (e-waste) has been widely studied by scholars all over the world, but the research topics and development trends in this field are still unclear. This study aimed to explore the status quo, hot topics, and future prospects in the field of e-waste. Data of publications were downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection. We used CiteSpace V, Histcite, and VOSviewer to analyze literature information. A total of 2800 papers in e-waste research were identified, and the number of publications increased rapidly after 2004. Six thousand five hundred seventy-three authors participated in the e-waste research, but 70.01% of the authors published only 1 article. The most productive country in this field was China (1146 publications), and the most productive institution was the Chinese Academy of Sciences (370 publications). The Waste Management (225 publications) was the most productive journal, and Environment Science & Technology (9704 co-citations) was the most co-cited journal. The main hot topics in e-waste field were management and recycling of e-waste in developing countries, health risk assessment after exposure to organic pollutants, degradation and recovery of waste metal materials, and impact of heavy metals on children's health. The frontier topic was degradation.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; CiteSpace; E-waste; Research trend; VOSviewer; Web of Science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05071-8
  14. J Spine Surg. 2019 Mar;5(1): 97-109
       Background: Management of spine fractures has advanced considerably even over the past decade. A review of the current and historical literature can lead to a better appreciation of current management protocols. This is the first comprehensive review of the most influential articles related to spine fracture management. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the 100 most cited publications in spine fracture management.
    Methods: Using the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science, search phrases were used to identify publications pertaining to spine fractures (110,809 publications). The 100 most cited articles were isolated. The frequency of citations, year of publication, country of origin, journal of publication, level-of-evidence (LOE), article type, and contributing authors/institutions were recorded. We also highlighted the ten most cited articles (per year) from the past decade.
    Results: The publications included ranged from 1953-2010, with the majority published between 2000-2009 (n=41). Total citations ranged from 154 to 1,076. A LOE of IV had the plurality at 36%. The most cited article was "The 3 Column Spine and Its Significance in The Classification of Acute Thoracolumbar Spinal-Injuries" (Spine 1983) by F Denis. The majority of papers originated in the United States (n=65), and the highest number were published in Spine (n=27). Osteoporotic fractures were the specific topic in 34 publications. In the past decade, the article with the most citations/year was "A Randomized Trial of Vertebroplasty for Osteoporotic Spinal Fractures" by DF Kalmes in 2009.
    Conclusions: Despite less time for citation than other decades, the 2000s contain the plurality of the influential publications. This may indicate that some of the most important changes to spine fracture management pertain to improved imaging modalities and surgical technologies. This review provides a guide for a comprehensive understanding of the historical and current literature pertaining to spine fracture management.
    Keywords:  Spine fracture; bibliometric study; citation analysis; osteoporosis; spine surgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21037/jss.2019.01.03
  15. Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2019 Mar;9(3): 465-476
       Background: With the development of new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, an increasing number of articles have been published regarding hepatocellular carcinoma magnetic resonance imaging (HCCMRI) in the past decade. However, few studies have statistically analyzed these published articles. In this study, we aim to systematically evaluate the scientific outcomes of HCCMRI research and explore the research hotspots from 2008 to 2017.
    Methods: The included articles regarding HCCMRI research from 2008 to 2017 were downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection and verified by two experienced radiologists. Excel 2016 was used to analyze the literature data, including the publication years and journals. CiteSpace V was used to perform co-occurrence analyses for authors, countries/regions and institutions and to generate the related collaboration network maps. Reference co-citation analysis (RCA) and burst keyword detection were also performed using CiteSpace V to explore the research hotspots in the past decade.
    Results: A total of 835 HCCMRI articles published from 2008 to 2017 were identified. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging published the most articles (79 publications, 9.46%). Extensive cooperating relationship were observed among countries/regions and among authors. South Korea had the most publications (199 publications, 21.82%), followed by the United States of America (USA) (190 publications, 20.83%), Japan (162 publications, 17.76%), and the People's Republic of China (148 publications, 16.23%). Among the top 10 co-cited authors, Bruix J (398 citations) was ranked first, followed by Llovet JM (235 citations), Kim YK (170 citations) and Forner A (152 citations). According to the RCA, ten major clusters were explored over the last decade; "LI-RADS data system" and "microvascular invasion" (MVI) were the two most recent clusters. Forty-seven burst keywords with the highest citation strength were detected over time. Of these keywords, "microvascular invasion" had the highest strength in the last 3 years. The LI-RADS has been constantly updated with the latest edition released in July 2018. However, the LI-RADS still has limitations in identifying certain categories of lesions by conceptual and non-quantitative probabilistic methods. Plenty of questions still need to be further answered such as the difference of diagnostic efficiency of each major/ancillary imaging features. Preoperative prediction of MVI of HCC is very important to therapeutic decision-making. Some parameters of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI were found to be useful in prediction of MVI, however, with a high specificity but a very low sensitivity. Comprehensive predictive model incorporating both imaging and clinical variables may be the more preferable in prediction of MVI of HCC.
    Conclusions: HCCMRI-related publications displayed a gradually increasing trend from 2008 to 2017. The USA has a central position in collaboration with other countries/regions, while South Korea contributed the most in the number of publications. Of the ten major clusters identified in the RCA, the two most recent clusters were "LI-RADS data system" and "microvascular invasion", indicative of the current HCCMRI research hotspots.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; CiteSpace; co-citation analysis; hepatocellular carcinoma; magnetic resonance imaging
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21037/qims.2019.02.10
  16. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Apr 29.
      A bibliometric method was used to evaluate the global scientific publications about sulfur oxides and nitric oxides released by coal-fired flue gas and vehicle exhaust from 1995 to 2018 and to provide insights into the characteristics of the articles and tendencies that may exist in the publications. Performance of publications, research tendency, and hotspots were analyzed. The article number had an explosive growth in 2004 and, then, began to grow steadily. China had an absolutely advantage in publication quantities; however, America had a leading position considering publication cited times. The simultaneous removal of mercury, particulate matter, and CO2 was a research hotpot in sulfur oxide and nitric oxide control process; oxidation, absorption, and catalytic reduction were the central control methods that had the most strength in relation with sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide. Considering the study of traditional flue gas pollutant control method (limestone-gypsum method, selective catalytic reduction, etc.) was perfection, it was speculated that adsorption by ionic liquid, electricity charging, advanced oxidation progress, and multi-pollutant removal, simultaneously, would be the new research orientation in flue gas pollutant control. One of the hot points of controlling the vehicle exhaust was the application of the "green energy" biodiesel; lots of keywords concerning human health suggested that quite a lot studies were focused on the health hazard brought by sulfur oxides and nitric oxide.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric; Flue gas; Nitric oxides; SCI; Sulfur oxides
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05066-5
  17. J Relig Health. 2019 Apr 30.
      Scientometrics is a popular statistical application providing data revealing publication trends and patterns in a certain academic field. A quite limited number of studies investigating scientometric features of health and religion literature have been reported in academic literature. The present study aims to present a holistic analysis of health literature related to Shamanism, Paganism and Spirituality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in this field. All data of this analysis were yielded from Web of Science databases. All documents produced between 1975 and 2017 were included. In Shamanism and health field, a total of 157 documents were found, and the USA covering 35.67% of all the literature was the leading country. University of California System (USA) was the most contributor institution. Our search on Paganism and health literature retrieved 51 published documents, and the most productive institution was National Dong Hwa University from Taiwan. A total of 7862 documents were detected in Spirituality and health literature, and the most prolific author in this field was Koenig HG with 82 papers. Journal of Religion and Health was noted to be the predominant academic source in health literature related to ancient beliefs. The number of the publications produced in Spirituality and health literature was greater than total number of all documents published in health literature related to Abrahamic religions, Dharmic religions, Shamanism and Paganism.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Health; Paganism; Scientometrics; Shamanism; Spirituality
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00823-9
  18. Helicobacter. 2019 Apr 29. e12589
       OBJECTIVE: The number of articles that researchers must be familiar with is increasing, along with the importance of selective searching and summarization. This study aimed to assess and characterize the most influential articles in Helicobacter pylori research.
    METHODS: We performed a search of the top-100 cited articles using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and Google Scholar from their inception to 2018. The top-100 Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) articles based on online media mentions were also searched using the term H pylori. Each article was evaluated for the following characteristics: citation number, title, journal, publication year, and authorship.
    RESULTS: The citation number for the top-100 WoSCC articles ranged from 44 to 367. Gut published the largest number of articles (11%). In the top-100 Google Scholar articles, Lancet had the largest number of articles (13%); however, among the top-1000 cited articles published after 2012, Helicobacter published the largest number (46%). The largest number of top-100 AAS articles was published by PLOS Pathogens (6%). PubMed Central articles' citations in WoSCC or Google Scholar showed significant correlation with those from each metric; however, AAS showed no correlation. The proportion of basic research was 36%-37% in top-cited articles; but, 52% in the top-100 AAS articles. No time trend in the number of publications or citations of basic/clinical research in the top-100 bibliometrics was found. "Meta-analysis/systematic review," "gastric cancer," "eradication," and "association" were the most influential title words.
    CONCLUSION: This study presents a detailed list of top-100 articles, journals, authors, and topic title words.
    Keywords:   Helicobacter pylori ; bibliometrics; publications; research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hel.12589
  19. Int Immunopharmacol. 2019 Apr 24. pii: S1567-5769(19)30106-7. [Epub ahead of print]72 374-384
       OBJECTIVES: To identify the cooperation of authors, countries, and institutions and explore the hot topics and future prospects regarding programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) research.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Publications on PD-1 and PD-L1 research were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric analyses were performed using VOSviewer 1.6.9, HistCite 2.1, and CiteSpace V software. Network maps were generated to evaluate the collaborations between different authors, countries, and institutions.
    RESULTS: A total of 7359 articles related to PD-1 and PD-L1 research in the field of cancer were identified. We observed rapid growth in the number of publications since 2014. Oncoimmunology (326, 4.43%) had the highest number of publications, while N Engl J Med (18,828 co-citations, 6.30%) was the most co-cited journal. Hodi FS and Wolchok JD were key researchers. There were active collaborations among the top authors. The USA was the leading contributor in this field with 3496 publications. Active cooperations between countries and between institutions were observed. The main hot topics included matters related to the efficacy and prognosis of various tumors after treatment with PD-1 and/or PD-L1 inhibitors, as well as the activation or expression of important immunological factors targeted at tumors.
    CONCLUSION: PD-1 and PD-L1 studies have significantly increased after 2014. The USA contributed the most publications. There were active cooperations between authors, countries, and institutions. Further research should expand and develop new topics such as those likely to boost therapeutic strategies for cancer.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; Cancer; Development trends; Hot topics; PD-1; PD-L1
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2019.03.045