bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2019–07–28
sixteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. Braz Dent J. 2019 Jul 22. pii: S0103-64402019000400307. [Epub ahead of print]30(4): 307-316
      This study investigated the presence of co-authorship from Brazil in articles published in top-tier dental journals and analyzed the influence of international collaboration, article type (original research or review), and funding on citation rates. Articles published between 2015 and 2017 in 38 selected journals from 14 dental subareas were screened in Scopus. Bibliographic information, citation counts, and funding details were recorded for all articles (N=15619). Collaboration with other top-10 publishing countries in dentistry was registered. Annual citations averages (ACA) were calculated. A linear regression model assessed differences in ACA between subareas. Multilevel linear regression models evaluated the influence of article type, funding, and presence of international collaboration in ACA. Brazil was a frequent co-author of articles published in the period (top 3: USA=25.5%; Brazil=13.8%; Germany=9.2%) and the country with most publications in two subareas. The subjects with the biggest share of Brazil are Operative Dentistry/Cariology, Dental Materials, and Endodontics. Brazil was second in total citations, but fifth in citation averages per article. From the total of 2155 articles co-authored by Brazil, 74.8% had no co-authorship from other top-10 publishing countries. USA (17.8%), Italy (4.2%), and UK (3.2%) were the main co-author countries, but the main collaboration country varied between subjects. Implantology and Dental Materials were the subjects with most international co-authorship. Review articles and articles with international collaboration were associated with increased citation rates, whereas the presence of study funding did not influence the citations.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-6440201902826
  2. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2019 Jul 20.
       BACKGROUND: The most-cited papers help to better understand important characteristics of this specific science field.
    OBJECTIVE: To analyse the 100 most-cited papers in the field of Paediatric Dentistry.
    DESIGN: A search of the most-cited papers in Paediatric Dentistry journals was performed using journals included in the category of "Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine" in the Thompson Reuters Web of Science citation indexing database up to December 2018. Two researchers performed the data extraction, which included: number of citations, title, authors, country, year, journals, study design and thematic area.
    RESULTS: The number of citations of each paper included in the top 100 most-cited ranged from 42-182 (mean: 64.51). Seven papers were cited more than 100 times. Most of the papers were published in the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry (36%), between 2006 and 2015 (55%), with a cross-sectional design (39%). Twenty-six authors participated in two or more papers. The countries with the highest number of most-cited papers were United States (25%), Australia (11%) and Brazil (9%). Cariology was the most studied thematic area.
    CONCLUSION: The evaluation of the top 100 most-cited papers in Paediatric Dentistry journals allowed for a better understanding of the world scenario regarding this research field.
    Keywords:  Bibliographic Databases; Bibliometrics; Evidence-Based Dentistry; Journal Article; Paediatric Dentistry; Publications
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/ipd.12563
  3. AIDS Rev. 2019 ;21(2): 93-107
      With emerging contextual factors and epidemiological transition of HIV/AIDS, the role and contributions of health behavior theories (HBT) are a compelling question after three decades of efforts to eradicate HIV. This study aims at exploring the global and historical evolution of literature and suggesting the most frequent research topics and research gaps in relation to the use of HBT in HIV/AIDS. A cross-sectional analysis of global HIV/AIDS bibliography was conducted through Web of Science (WoS) up to December 31, 2017. We utilized exploratory factor analysis to test the likelihood of research domains and landscape from the abstracts. A total of 29,997 papers in 153 HIV-related research areas were retrieved from the WoS database. This study suggests that HIV/AIDS research based on HBTs is increasing, and mainly focuses on elucidating traditional HIV driven factors and consonant with western perspectives most HBTs tend to be individually focused. Despite its important advancement, more research based on HBTs is essential to provide cultural background, social value, and contextualized factors where the HIV pandemic is dynamic; where new cases are transmitted from high-risk subgroups to the general population; and where epidemiological, social, and behavioral transitions change new infection routes, new perspectives for health service delivery especially non-medical services, and resource allocation.
    Keywords:  Global mapping; Health behavior theories; Scientometrics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.24875/AIDSRev.19000062
  4. Laryngoscope. 2019 Jul 23.
       OBJECTIVE: The proportion of women specializing in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (Oto-HNS) and seeking fellowship training has steadily increased over the last several years. In academic Oto-HNS, gender differences exist in research productivity, scholarly impact, and funding. This study aims to evaluate gender differences in academic productivity between otolaryngologists in early, mid-, and later careers stages and within various subspecialties.
    METHODS: Departmental websites for all Oto-HNS residency programs were accessed, and data including gender, academic rank, and fellowship training/subspecialty field was collected. Bibliometric data including h-index, publication years, number of citations, documents, and coauthors was obtained from the Scopus database. Career groups were defined as early (1-5 years), mid- (6-15 years), and later (16+ years). Continuous data was compared using the t test.
    RESULTS: Data was collected on 1,754 academic otolaryngologists (412 women, 1,342 men). Overall, men exhibited significantly higher h-indices, number of documents, citations, and coauthors and actively published for more years compared to women (P < 0.0001 for all variables). Similar trends persisted across all subspecialties. When authors were broken down into career groups, women and men showed similar research productivity across all career groups in the subspecialties of otology, facial plastics, and rhinology; however, in head and neck, laryngology, and pediatrics, women continued to lag behind men.
    CONCLUSION: This study suggests that female otolaryngologists within certain subspecialties are keeping pace with their male counterparts in publication productivity in the early career time frame. This represents a change from prior studies which have shown women to be less productive in the early career period.
    LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA Laryngoscope, 2019.
    Keywords:  Gender; otolaryngology; publications; research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/lary.28189
  5. J Orthop Surg Res. 2019 Jul 19. 14(1): 227
       BACKGROUND: The past century has witnessed the rapid development of operation technique, surgical instruments, and knowledge of the diseases in orthopedics. In the academic history, a number of classic papers boosted the advancement for surgery. In this paper, we performed a bibliometric analysis, aiming to determine the most influential studies within the field.
    METHODS: Articles were searched from the publication year of 1900 to 2016 according to the Science Citation Index Expanded database of the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection database. Two citation indicators TCyear and Cyear were employed to characterize the classic articles and the articles were identified and analyzed.
    RESULTS: A total of 30 classic articles with TC2016 ≥ 1000 in Web of Science category of orthopedics were identified, all written in English between 1961 and 2007 by nine countries. The minimal value of TC2016 was 1010; the maximum 3570; and the average 1591. Thirty classic articles were published in eight journals that were listed in the Web of Science category of orthopedics in 2016, and in two other orthopedics journals that were no longer tracked by Web of Science category of orthopedics as of 2016. Among the top 10 cited articles in both TC2016 and C2016, five articles barely received attention in the first few years after their publication, while they became cited more and more frequently in the last decade.
    CONCLUSION: This study evaluated the development and trend of orthopedics research by adopting bibliometric analysis. It serves as a guide for investigators in the future research.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric; Classic publications; Orthopedics; Web of science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-019-1247-1
  6. Iran J Public Health. 2019 Jun;48(6): 1116-1123
       Background: Web is considered an important tool for formal and informal communication and cooperation among members of the community including researchers. Universities' websites played a significant role in the development of social structure through the creation of cyberspace. We aimed to evaluate the growth and Webometrics rankings of the country's medical universities web sites base on interventional approach.
    Methods: This interventional study assessed Iranian universities of medical sciences' websites from the periods of Jan 2015, Jul 2015 and Jan 2016. Medical universities websites were ranked based on four Webometrics indicators; PRESENCE, VISIBILITY, OPENNESS, and EXCELLENCE. To enhance the ranking of websites, 4 strategies were introduced in 3 seminars conducted from Jan to Jul 2015. Information needed from these 30 medical universities were obtained from Webometrics Ranking of World Universities based on 4 indicators and were collected in 2 steps (before and after introduction of strategies).
    Results: About 21% to 70% of the country's medical universities have increased ranking after the interventions while 9% to 30% obtained a downward trend in their rankings, Tehran University of Medical Sciences obtained the highest rank followed by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and the third rank was obtained by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.
    Conclusion: The presence of websites play a vital role in the academic community. Doubtlessly, the idea of designing and launching a website without any knowledge of the principles and standards would be problematic and impossible.
    Keywords:  Iran; Ranking; University; Webometrics
  7. J Foot Ankle Surg. 2019 Jul 23. pii: S1067-2516(19)30005-5. [Epub ahead of print]
      Underrepresentation of females in surgery is reflected in research productivity across academic medicine, with male faculty being more likely to publish research than their female counterparts. In this study, we aimed to describe the representation and longevity of female investigators among the authors of articles in 3 foot and ankle research journals from 1993 to 2017. In this retrospective bibliometric analysis, authors from 3 prominent foot and ankle research journals (Foot and Ankle International, The Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery, and Foot and Ankle Clinics) were identified. The proportion of female authors who were first, middle, and senior authors and the total publication count per author were determined. From 1993 to 2017, 8132 original articles were published and a total of 6597 (81.1%) had an accessible author list. This allowed us to identify 25,329 total authors, of whom 22,961 (90.7%) were successfully matched to a gender. A total of 9273 unique authors were identified (females, 19.2%). Female representation increased for first and senior authors over the years from 6.5% and 5.9% (1993 to 1997) to 16.9% and 13.1% (2013 to 2017, p < .001), respectively. However, compared with male authors, female authors published fewer articles (mean: 1.7 versus 2.4, p < .001). Of the 2691 authors who first published during 2006 to 2011, 369 authors (13%), consisting of 8.1% females and 15% males (p < .001), continued to publish 5 years after their initial publication. Female representation in academic foot and ankle research has increased >2-fold over the past 2 decades. But despite these advances, compared to male authors, female authors are less likely to continue publishing 5 years after initial publication, and on average publish fewer articles.
    Keywords:  academic advancement; authorship; females in surgery; gender trends
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1053/j.jfas.2019.01.002
  8. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Jul;98(29): e16500
       BACKGROUND: In the 1980s, North Korea established a socialist health care system. However, following the food crisis and the economic sanctions, it is estimated that North Korea's health care system has experienced continuous deterioration. Thus, in the present study, we estimated the current medical research trends of North Korea through an analysis of the medical journal Korean Medicine, published in North Korea.
    METHODS: We analyzed the studies in Korean Medicine, which is the only North Korean medical journal accessible to foreigners with more than 30 years of data available, based on PRISMA guidelines. We analyzed the issues of the journal published for a total of 7 years, from 1985 onwards at 5-year intervals until 2015. To evaluate changes in the North Korean medical research trends, we compared and analyzed the issues published before and after the implementation of economic sanctions against North Korea.
    RESULTS: In this study, we analyzed 775 articles of Korean Medicine. Following economic sanctions, the number of publications on approved services (conventional therapy and diagnosis)-related articles was decreased. In contrast, the articles related to non-conventional therapy increased sharply in number. This showed a similar pattern to North Korean medical research trends seen during the food crisis of 1995 to 1997.
    CONCLUSIONS: After placement of economic sanctions on North Korea, North Korean medical research trends changed significantly. These could be indirectly estimated results suggesting that recently, the North Korean health care system had deteriorated, similarly to in the food crisis of 1995 to 1997.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000016500
  9. BMC Med Educ. 2019 Jul 19. 19(1): 271
       BACKGROUND: Medical student journals play a critical role in promoting academic research and publishing amongst medical students, but their impact on students' future academic achievements has not been examined. We aimed to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of publication in the New Zealand Medical Student Journal (NZMSJ) through examining rates of post-graduation publication, completion of higher academic degrees, and pursuing an academic career.
    METHODS: Student-authored original research publications in the NZMSJ during the period 2004-2011 were retrospectively identified. Gender-, university- and graduation year-matched controls were identified from publicly available databases in a 2:1 ratio (two controls for each student authors). Date of graduation, current clinical scope of practice, completion of higher academic degrees, and attainment of an academic position for both groups were obtained from Google searches, New Zealand graduate databases, online lists of registered doctors in New Zealand and Australia, and author affiliation information from published articles. Pre- and post-graduation PubMed®-indexed publications were identified using standardised search criteria.
    RESULTS: Fifty publications authored by 49 unique students were identified. The median follow-up period after graduation was 7.0 years (range 2-12 years). Compared with controls, student-authors were significantly more likely to publish in PubMed®-indexed journals (OR 3.09, p = 0.001), obtain a PhD (OR 9.21, p = 0.004) or any higher degree (OR 2.63, p = 0.007), and attain academic positions (OR 2.90, p = 0.047) following graduation.
    CONCLUSION: Publication in a medical student journal is associated with future academic achievement and contributes to develop a clinical academic workforce. Future work should aim to explore motivators and barriers associated with these findings.
    Keywords:  Academic medicine; Medical student; Medical student journal; Undergraduate research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1704-x
  10. J Forensic Leg Med. 2019 Jul 12. pii: S1752-928X(19)30069-1. [Epub ahead of print]66 167-183
       OBJECTIVE: To determine the history of malpractice literature using forensic science based on a bibliometric and graph theory.
    METHODS: Documented data were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection of Clarivate Analytics on February 22, 2019. We selected articles for the years 1975-2018 from among documents concerning malpractice in the "Medicine, Legal" section and the Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index. Descriptive statistics and co-occurrence analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel 2016, Gephi 0.9.2, and VOSviewer 1.6.10 software.
    RESULTS: In all, 379 papers and 3160 citing articles were retrieved. The most active publication year was 2013. Relative growth rate showed no malpractice explosion during the study period. Full articles comprised 83.11% of all papers. There were marked differences between the number of publications during the first 21 years and the last 23 years. More studies were published in the United States than in other countries and regions, but malpractice research has diminished during the most recent 3 years. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics contributed the most to the field, with 51 documents. The journal with the highest impact factor, however, was Forensic Science International: Genetics. B. Madea topped the list of authors with the highest number of documents. Three clusters were identified, led by authors C. Terranova, B. Madea, and T.A. Brennan, respectively. The malpractice topics that received the most attention were malpractice claims, the types of malpractice, and the causes of medical malpractice. Our study of the citing papers also provided interesting results.
    CONCLUSION: This bibliometric analysis indicated that studying the field of medical malpractice was poor during 1975-2018. United States was the most prolific country, and B. Madea published more documents in the field. The studies in Medicine, Legal mostly focused on the claims, appraisement methods, and causes of medical malpractice. In the future, forensic scientists should pay more attention to medical malpractice.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric; Forensic science; Gephi; Malpractice; VOSviewer; Web of Science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2019.07.002
  11. J Pharm Pract. 2019 Jul 21. 897190019863921
       PURPOSE: To summarize the top 10 most influential peer-reviewed infectious diseases (ID) pharmacotherapy articles published in the year 2018.
    SUMMARY: Members of the Houston Infectious Diseases Network (HIDN) nominated articles that were thought to have most notably contributed to ID pharmacotherapy in 2018, including those related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A total of 26 articles were nominated: 22 articles pertaining to general ID pharmacotherapy and 4 articles involving HIV/AIDS. To select the most significant articles of 2018, a survey was created and distributed to members of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) asking members to vote on their top 10 general ID publications and 1 HIV publication. Of the 462 members surveyed, 213 (46%) and 108 (23%) voted for general ID pharmacotherapy- and HIV-related articles, respectively. The top article(s) for both categories are summarized.
    CONCLUSION: With the increased emphasis on antimicrobial stewardship initiatives and the growing problem of multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms, the amount of ID literature centered on stewardship, appropriate treatment durations, and newly approved antimicrobial agents continues to expand, making it challenging for clinicians to stay informed on the most relevant publications. This review summarizes significant ID-related publications in 2018 with the goal of aiding clinicians in staying up to date on the most noteworthy publications in ID pharmacotherapy.
    Keywords:  antimicrobials; infectious diseases; pharmacotherapy; publications; stewardship
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0897190019863921
  12. Front Integr Neurosci. 2019 ;13 18
      A field's priorities are reflected by the contents of its high-impact journals. Researchers in turn may choose to pursue research objectives based on what is believed to be most highly valued by their peers. However, these assessments of the field's priorities are often subjective, owing to a lack of formal quantification of high-impact journals' contents. By compiling a corpus of abstracts from within the field neuroscience, I was able to analyze which terms had differential frequencies between 13 high-impact and 14 medium-impact journals. Approximately 50,000 neuroscience abstracts were analyzed over the years 2014-2018. Several broad trends emerged from the analysis of which terms were biased toward high-impact journals. Generally speaking, high-impact journals tended to feature: genetic studies, use of the latest and most sophisticated methods, examinations of the orbitofrontal cortex or amygdala, and/or use of human or non-mammalian subjects. Medium-impact journals tended to feature motor or cardiovascular studies, use of older methods, examinations of caudal brain regions, and/or rats as subjects. This approach also allowed for the comparison of high-impact bias among: brain regions, methods, neurotransmitters, study species, and broad themes within neuroscience. A systematic approach to the contents of high-impact journals offers the field an objective view of itself.
    Keywords:  bibliometric; brain; information science; meta-research; neuroscience
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2019.00018
  13. Adopt Foster. 2017 Dec;41(4): 369-390
      The notion of team science has recently gained popularity in European and American health sciences considering increasing evidence that scientific collaboration produces higher-impact research and that complex scientific problems are better investigated by interdisciplinary teams. While publication metrics indicate adoption research is expanding, the comprehensive structure of adoption studies as a scientific field has not been formally evaluated for collaborative and cross-disciplinary activity. This article aims to elucidate the structure, composition, and dynamics of scientific relationships within adoption research that may inform research and practice strategies, competencies, and cohesion within the field. Using social network analysis, we extracted bibliographic data on 2767 peer-reviewed adoption-related articles from 1930s to 2014 and evaluated the resulting co-authorship and co-citation networks. We found that adoption research has grown substantially over the last 25 years, and is conducted in varied disciplines, with increasing collaboration across geography and disciplinary areas. The co-authorship and co-citation networks are approaching numeric thresholds and structural configurations distinctive of well-established and more institutionalized fields of study. These findings reveal the maturation of adoption studies as a team science and argue for the development of institutional mechanisms that support such evolution. Implications for professional and research planning are discussed.
    Keywords:  Adoption; adoption research; co-authorship; co-citation; interdisciplinary teams; organization; research planning; social network analysis; team science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0308575917714714