bims-evares 2019-08-11 papers

bims-evares

Biomed News

on Evaluation of research

Issue of 2019–08–11
eightteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

Comparing the topological rank of journals in Web of Science and Mendeley.
The impact of the open-access status on journal indices: oncology journals.
Retraction of papers authored by Yuhji Saitoh - Beyond the Fujii phenomenon.
Sentiment analysis as a measure of conservation culture in scientific literature.
The Sentiment Analysis of Tweets as a New Tool to Measure Public Perception of Male Erectile and Ejaculatory Dysfunctions.
Evaluation of spin in abstracts of papers in psychiatry and psychology journals.
Denmark's exemplary gender balance trips up in science.
Mapping the knowledge structure and trends of epilepsy genetics over the past decade: A co-word analysis based on medical subject headings terms.
Analysis of Authorship in Hepatopancreaticobiliary Surgery: Women Remain Underrepresented.
Mapping the research of energy subsidies: a bibliometric analysis.
Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Environmental Science: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis.
Trends in Academic Dentistry and Oral Health Research Funding by Gender.
Cardiovascular disease research in the Arab world: a scoping review from seven Arab countries (2000-2018).
Research Impact Core: A Research Impact Initiative at the University of Michigan.
Bibliometric analysis of scientific publications on spinal cord stimulation in the past two decades.
Trends in Publications on the Anterior Cruciate Ligament Over the Past 40 Years on PubMed.
Top 100 most-cited articles on echocardiography: A bibliometric analysis.
Global Surgery: A 30-Year Bibliometric Analysis (1987-2017).

Heliyon. 2019 Jul;5(7): e02089

Comparing the topological rank of journals in Web of Science and Mendeley.

Yurij L Katchanov, Yulia V Markova, Natalia A Shmatko.

  Recently, there has been a surge of interest in new data emerged due to the rapid development of the information technologies in scholarly communication. Since the 2010s, altmetrics has become a common trend in scientometric research. However, researchers have not treated in much detail the question of the probability distributions underlying these new data. The principal objective of this study was to investigate one of the classic problems of scientometrics-the problem of citation and readership distributions. The study is based on the data obtained from two information systems: Web of Science and Mendeley. Here we based on the concept of the cumulative empirical distribution function to explore the differences and similarities between citations and readership counts of biological journals indexed in Web of Science and Mendeley. The basic idea was to determine, for any journal, a "size" (it is said to be the topological rank) of citation and readership empirical cumulative distributions, and then to compare distributions of the topological ranks of Web of Science and Mendeley. In order to verify our model, we employ it to the bibliometric and altmetric research of 305 biological journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports 2015. The findings show that both distributions of the topological rank of biological journals are statistically close to the Wakeby distribution. The findings presented in this study add to our understanding of information processes of the scholarly communication in the new digital environment.

Keywords:  Altmetrics; Bibliometrics; Biological journals; Information science; Ranking; Wakeby distribution

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02089
J Gastrointest Oncol. 2019 Aug;10(4): 777-782

The impact of the open-access status on journal indices: oncology journals.

Saif Aldeen AlRyalat, Anas Abu Nassar, Faris Tamimi, Esraa Al-Fraihat, Lama Assaf, Razan Ghareeb, Mahmoud Masoudi, Mohammad Al-Essa.

   Background: The field of oncology is among the highest productive fields in medicine, with the highest impact journals. The impact of open access (OA) journals is still understudied in the field of oncology. In this study, we aim to study the open-access status of oncology journals and the impact of the open-access status on journal indices.
Methods: We collected data on the included journals from Scopus Source List on 1st of November 2018. We filtered the list for oncology journals for the years from 2011 to 2017. OA journals covered by Scopus are indicated as OA if the journal is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and/or the Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources (ROAD).
Results: There were 318 oncology journals compared to 260 in 2011, an increase by about 24.2%, and the percentage of OA journals has increased from 19.6% to 23.9%. Although non-OA journals have significantly higher scholarly output (P=0.001), percent cited and source normalized impact per paper (SNIP) were higher for OA journals.
Conclusions: Publishing in oncology OA journals will yield more impact, in term of citations, and will reach boarder audience.

Keywords:  Oncology; bibliometry; cancer; journals; open access (OA)

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21037/jgo.2019.02.13
Indian J Anaesth. 2019 Jul;63(7): 571-584

Retraction of papers authored by Yuhji Saitoh - Beyond the Fujii phenomenon.

Priyam Saikia, Bandana Thakuria.

   Background and Aims: Various aspects of retracted articles authored by Yoshitaka Fujii and their retraction notices have been examined. Yuhji Saitoh has coauthored many articles with Yoshitaka Fujii which were subsequently retracted. Japanese Society of Anesthesiology (JSA) recommends retraction of various articles by Yuhji Saitoh, but various attributes of those and their retraction notices have not been examined.
Methods: A list of retracted articles was retrieved from PubMed, Retraction Watch Database and relevant journals. Their retraction notices were obtained from the journal's webpage. Predefined characteristics of the retracted articles and their retraction notices were evaluated against those proposed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Results: Fifteen such articles were retracted. Two of them were not identified as retracted in the journal webpage. Half of the papers mentioned by JSA are yet to be retracted. Among those retracted, only 13.3% retraction notices were in line with the guidelines published by the COPE. Two retracted articles are yet to be flagged as retracted in PubMed. The median (interquartile range) time required for retraction from the date of declaration of being eligible for retraction is 14 (3) months. Data were analysed with Microsoft Excel™ (2007).
Conclusion: Even after more than 1 year of recommendation, many articles containing evidence of scientific misconduct are yet to be retracted. Among those retracted, the relevant authority failed to follow the prevalent and well-regarded standards of ethics in scholarly publication.

Keywords:  Committee on Publication Ethics; research misconduct; retracted publication; retraction notice

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4103/ija.IJA_267_19
Conserv Biol. 2019 Aug 05.

Sentiment analysis as a measure of conservation culture in scientific literature.

Robert J Lennox, Diogo Veríssimo, William M Twardek, Colin R Davis, Ivan Jarić.

  Culturomics is emerging as an important field within science, a way to measure attitudes and beliefs and their dynamics across time and space via quantitative analysis of digitized data from literature, news, film, social media, and more. Sentiment analysis is an emerging tool for culturomics that, within the last decade, has provided a means to quantify the polarity of attitudes expressed within various media. Conservation science is a crisis discipline and one in which accurate and effective communication are paramount to success. We investigated how conservation scientists communicate their findings through one of their primary media: scientific journal articles. We analysed 15,001 abstracts from papers published in conservation-focused journals published in the last 20 years, 1998-2017. Papers were categorized by year, focal taxa, and their conservation status; the mean sentiment scores were then extracted from the abstract using four lexicons (Jockers-Rinker, NRC, Bing et al., and AFINN). We found no annual trend in the sentiment scores of papers across conservation literature but analysis of absolute values suggested increasing polarization of language over time (i.e. less neutral). We also observed a trend towards increasing negativity along the spectrum of IUCN Red List categories (i.e. from Least Concern to Critically Endangered to Extinct), though this relationship was not significant. There were some clear differences in the sentiments with which research on different taxa were reported, however. For example, abstracts mentioning lobe finned fishes tended to have high sentiment scores, which we hypothesize may be related to the rediscovery of the coelacanth driving a positive narrative. Contrastingly, abstracts mentioning elasmobranchs had low scores, reflecting the negative sentiment score associated with the word "sharks". Sentiment analysis is an exciting frontier with applications in science and we suggest a new science-based lexicon be developed for applying this tool to conservation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Keywords:  biodiversity; conservation psychology; culturomics; language; species at risk; threatened taxa; web scraping

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13404
Sex Med. 2019 Aug 05. pii: S2050-1161(19)30085-6. [Epub ahead of print]

The Sentiment Analysis of Tweets as a New Tool to Measure Public Perception of Male Erectile and Ejaculatory Dysfunctions.

Andrea Sansone, Angelo Cignarelli, Giacomo Ciocca, Carlotta Pozza, Francesco Giorgino, Francesco Romanelli, Emmanuele A Jannini.

   INTRODUCTION: Twitter is a social network based on "tweets," short messages of up to 280 characters. Social media has been investigated in health care research to ascertain positive or negative feelings associated with several conditions but never in sexual medicine.
AIM: To assess perceptions related to erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation (PE) among Twitter users.
METHODS: Data collection was performed on a daily basis between May 24-October 9, 2018 (138 days) via an automated script. Data collection was then performed after data cleaning. The statistical software R and the rtweet packages were used in both phases.
RESULTS: We collected 11,000 unique tweets for PE and 30,546 unique tweets for ED. After data cleaning, we analyzed 7,020 tweets on PE and 22,648 tweets on ED by analyzing the most recurring words and the clusters describing word associations. The most popular words for ED were "Treatment," "Health," and "Viagra," whereas "Sex," "Sexual," and "Cure" were the top 3 for PE. Word clusters suggest the presence of some recurring themes, such as medical terms being grouped together. Additionally, tweets reflect the general feelings triggered by specific events, such as pieces of news pertaining to sexual dysfunctions.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Tweets on sexual dysfunctions are posted every day, with more tweets on ED than on PE. Treatment is among the chief topics discussed for both conditions, although health concerns differ between PE and DE tweets.
STRENGTH AND LIMITATIONS: This is the first analysis conducted on Tweets in the field of andrology and sexual medicine. A significant number of tweets were collected and analyzed. However, quantitative assessment of the sentiment was not feasible.
CONCLUSION: Sexual dysfunctions are openly discussed on social media, and Twitter analysis could help understand the needs and interests of the general population on these themes. Sansone A, Cignarelli A, Ciocca G, et al. The Sentiment Analysis of Tweets as a New Tool to Measure Public Perception of Male Erectile and Ejaculatory Dysfunctions. Sex Med 2019;XX:XXX-XXX.

Keywords:  Erectile Dysfunction; Premature Ejaculation; Public Perception; Sentiment Analysis; Sexual Dysfunction; Twitter

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esxm.2019.07.001
BMJ Evid Based Med. 2019 Aug 05. pii: bmjebm-2019-111176. [Epub ahead of print]

Evaluation of spin in abstracts of papers in psychiatry and psychology journals.

Samuel Jellison, Will Roberts, Aaron Bowers, Tyler Combs, Jason Beaman, Cole Wayant, Matt Vassar.

  We have identified 'spin' in abstracts of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with nonsignificant primary endpoints in psychiatry and psychology journals. This is a cross-sectional review of clinical trials with nonsignificant primary endpoints published in psychiatry and psychology journals from January 2012 to December 2017. The main outcome was the frequency and manifestation of spin in the abstracts. We define spin as the 'use of specific reporting strategies, from whatever motive, to highlight that the experimental treatment is beneficial, despite a statistically nonsignificant difference for the primary outcome, or to distract the reader from statistically nonsignificant results'. We have also assessed the relationship between industry funding and spin. Of the 486 RCTs examined, 116 were included in our analysis of spin. Spin was identified in 56% (n=65) of those included. Spin was found in 2 (2%) titles, 24 (21%) abstract results sections and 57 (49.1%) abstract conclusion sections. Evidence of spin was simultaneously identified in both results and conclusions sections in 15% of RCTs (n=17). Twelve articles reported industry funding (10%). Industry funding was not associated with increased odds of spin in the abstract (unadjusted OR: 1.0; 95% CI: 0.3 to 3.2). We found no relationship between industry funding and spin in abstracts. These findings raise concerns about the effects spin may have on clinicians. Further steps could be taken to address spin, including inviting reviewers to comment on the presence of spin and updating Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials guidelines to contain language discouraging spin.

Keywords:  bias; data reporting; psychiatry; psychiatry in literature; research methodology

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2019-111176
Nature. 2019 Aug;572(7768): 178

Denmark's exemplary gender balance trips up in science.

Mette Bendixen, Claire Meehan, Vanessa Jane Hall, Ida Vogel.



Keywords:  Careers; Research management

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02369-y
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Aug;98(32): e16782

Mapping the knowledge structure and trends of epilepsy genetics over the past decade: A co-word analysis based on medical subject headings terms.

Jing Gan, Qianyun Cai, Peter Galer, Dan Ma, Xiaolu Chen, Jichong Huang, Shan Bao, Rong Luo.

INTRODUCTION: Over the past 10 years, epilepsy genetics has made dramatic progress. This study aimed to analyze the knowledge structure and the advancement of epilepsy genetics over the past decade based on co-word analysis of medical subject headings (MeSH) terms.
METHODS: Scientific publications focusing on epilepsy genetics from the PubMed database (January 2009-December 2018) were retrieved. Bibliometric information was analyzed quantitatively using Bibliographic Item Co-Occurrence Matrix Builder (BICOMB) software. A knowledge social network analysis and publication trend based on the high-frequency MeSH terms was built using VOSviewer.
RESULTS: According to the search strategy, a total of 5185 papers were included. Among all the extracted MeSH terms, 86 high-frequency MeSH terms were identified. Hot spots were clustered into 5 categories including: "ion channel diseases," "beyond ion channel diseases," "experimental research & epigenetics," "single nucleotide polymorphism & pharmacogenetics," and "genetic techniques". "Epilepsy," "mutation," and "seizures," were located at the center of the knowledge network. "Ion channel diseases" are typically in the most prominent position of epilepsy genetics research. "Beyond ion channel diseases" and "genetic techniques," however, have gradually grown into research cores and trends, such as "intellectual disability," "infantile spasms," "phenotype," "exome," " deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) copy number variations," and "application of next-generation sequencing." While ion channel genes such as "SCN1A," "KCNQ2," "SCN2A," "SCN8A" accounted for nearly half of epilepsy genes in MeSH terms, a number of additional beyond ion channel genes like "CDKL5," "STXBP1," "PCDH19," "PRRT2," "LGI1," "ALDH7A1," "MECP2," "EPM2A," "ARX," "SLC2A1," and more were becoming increasingly popular. In contrast, gene therapies, treatment outcome, and genotype-phenotype correlations were still in their early stages of research.
CONCLUSION: This co-word analysis provides an overview of epilepsy genetics research over the past decade. The 5 research categories display publication hot spots and trends in epilepsy genetics research which could consequently supply some direction for geneticists and epileptologists when launching new projects.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000016782
J Gastrointest Surg. 2019 Aug 08.

Analysis of Authorship in Hepatopancreaticobiliary Surgery: Women Remain Underrepresented.

Ayesha Farooq, Kota Sahara, Aeman Muneeb, Khadija Farooq, Diamantis I Tsilimigras, Katiuscha Merath, Rittal Mehta, Anghela Paredes, Lu Wu, J Madison Hyer, Eliza Beal, Timothy M Pawlik, Mary E Dillhoff.

   INTRODUCTION: Given the need to increase female representation in hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgery, as well as the need to increase the academic pipeline of women in this subspecialty, we sought to characterize the prevalence of female authorship in the HPB literature. In particular, the objective of the current study was to determine the proportion of women who published HPB research articles as first, second, or last author over the last decade.
METHODS: All articles pertaining to hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) surgery appearing in seven surgical journals (Annals of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery, JAMA Surgery, Annals of Surgical Oncology, HPB (Oxford), Surgery, and Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery) were reviewed for the years 2008 and 2018. Information on sex of author, country of author's institution, and article type was collected and entered into a computerized database.
RESULTS: Among the 1473 index articles included in the final analytic cohort, 414 (28%) publications had a woman as the first or last author, while the vast majority (n = 1,059, 72%) had a man as the first or last author. The number of female first authors increased from 15.6% (n = 92/591) in 2008 to 25.7% (n = 227/882) in 2018 (p < 0.001). There were no differences in the proportion of second (n = 123/536, 23.0% vs n = 214/869, 24.6%, p = 0.47) or last (n = 44/564, 7.8% vs n = 88/875, 10.1%, p = 0.15) authors. Women were more likely to publish papers appearing in medium-impact journals (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.04-1.88) and articles with a female author were more likely to be from a North American institution (referent: North America, Asia OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.31-0.59 vs Europe OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.51-0.87).
CONCLUSION: Women first/last authors in HPB research articles have increased over the past 10 years from 22 to 32%. Women as last authors remain low, however, as only 1 in 10 papers had a senior woman author. These data should prompt HPB leaders to find solutions to the gap in female authorship including mentorship of young female researchers and surgeons.

Keywords:  Authorship; Mentorship; Women surgeons

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-019-04340-8
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Aug 03.

Mapping the research of energy subsidies: a bibliometric analysis.

Zhen Wang, Yanwen Wang, Sha Peng, Beibei Niu, Can Cui, Junyi Wu.

  A review of energy subsidy research from a bibliometric perspective was conducted. Based on the bibliometric method, a statistical analysis of energy subsidy-related publications from 1997 to 2016 was undertaken using the Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) databases. A total of 1182 publications were retrieved, with a significant increase in the number of publications observed after 2006. The majority of these publications were within the disciplines of Energy & Fuels and Environmental Science & Ecology. Although the USA and China contributed the most papers, authors from 96 countries were involved in the various studies. The USA was the center of global collaborations, while other countries/territories mainly conducted bilateral or regional collaborations in their research activities. Five of the top 11 most productive institutes were from China, followed by the USA. The frequency of collaborations among institutes was relatively low. However, the institute-keyword 2-mode network showed that institutes had great potential to cooperate on a number of common topics. Five major themes were identified from the co-keywords analysis: general renewable energy research, bio-energies, sustainability, subsidies, and welfare. The findings, as a complement to previous conventional reviews, will be useful in future energy subsidy research.

Keywords:  2-mode network; Bibliometrics; Energy subsidies; Network analysis

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06025-w
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Aug 04. pii: E2788. [Epub ahead of print]16(15):

Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Environmental Science: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis.

Hongyun Si, Jian-Gang Shi, Daizhong Tang, Shiping Wen, Wei Miao, Kaifeng Duan.

  Since the theory of planned behavior (TPB) was proposed by Ajzen in 1985, it has attracted extensive interest and been widely applied worldwide. Although an increasing number of studies have employed the TPB in the domain of environmental science, there have been no attempts to retrospectively analyze existing articles. The current study aimed to holistically understand the application status of the TPB in environmental science from a knowledge domain visualization perspective. A total of 531 journal articles were obtained through the Scopus database to perform a bibliometric analysis and content analysis. The results showed that waste management, green consumption, climate and environment, saving and conservation, and sustainable transportation are the primary research topics; the United States (U.S.), Mainland China, the United Kingdom (UK), and Malaysia are the most productive countries/regions. Moreover, the cross-disciplinary situations, main source journals, and key articles were revealed. Furthermore, the extended factors, integrated theories, major methods, specific groups, and control variables of environmental science research using the TPB were elaborated and integrated into a comprehensive application framework. Constructive criticisms were ultimately discussed. The findings contribute in several ways to help relevant researchers learn about the application of TPB to environmental science and provide new insights and holistic references for further research on environment-related behavior.

Keywords:  TPB; bibliometric analysis; environmental behavior; intention; theory of planned behavior

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152788
JDR Clin Trans Res. 2019 Aug 03. 2380084419868183

Trends in Academic Dentistry and Oral Health Research Funding by Gender.

M N Garcia, J P Tiano, O Contreras, C F Hildebolt, J Horsford, D Stewart.

   INTRODUCTION: Dental and oral health researchers compose a small share of the research workforce, and within this group female researchers form a much smaller share than male researchers. Additionally, a majority of full-time faculty appointments at dental schools are held by men, with women making up only 39% of full-time appointments. These factors suggest that there could be disparities between men and women in obtaining research funding.
OBJECTIVE: The focus of our study was to determine whether there are gender differences in award funding obtained from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research or the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
METHODS: NIH administrative data were analyzed by focusing on Research Project Grants (RPGs), the primary and most commonly used mechanism to support investigator-initiated research projects. Analyses involved 1 or 2 of the following variables: number of unique applicants or awardees, fiscal years 2007 to 2016, average age of unique applicants, awardee's degrees, awardee's age at first R01, and award rates.
RESULTS: About two-thirds of RPG applicants and awardees were men. Although there were significantly more male applicants and awardees, there was no significant difference in award rate by gender, and there was no significant award rate variation through time or by degrees. The average ages of RPG applicants were similar for genders for all degrees, except that male dentists and PhD-dentists applying to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research were older and male MDs and PhD-dentists from dental schools applying to the NIH were older.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that men in the dental/oral health workforce submit more applications and receive more NIH awards than do women; however, there was no difference in award rates between women and men and no difference in ages by gender at which the first R01 awards are received.
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER STATEMENT: Analyses of the implications of this study by the academic dentistry and oral health community could lead to establishing opportunities to expand the representation of women in dental and oral health research. Increasing the number of applications submitted by women may help achieve an equitable balance of grantees in the workforce.

Keywords:  National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; awards; dental education; dental research; dental schools; research personnel

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/2380084419868183
Public Health. 2019 Aug 01. pii: S0033-3506(19)30197-0. [Epub ahead of print]175 36-42

Cardiovascular disease research in the Arab world: a scoping review from seven Arab countries (2000-2018).

R Ghandour, A Husseini, A M Sibai, N M E Abu-Rmeileh.

   OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to map cardiovascular disease (CVD) research productivity in Arab countries and identify gaps and opportunities that would inform future research agenda.
STUDY DESIGN: This is a scoping review.
METHODS: A review of research output between January 2000 and December 2018 in seven Arab countries, selected to represent various economies and epidemiological transitions, was conducted. Data on quantity and quality, study design, setting and focus were extracted and analysed for trends by time and place.
RESULTS: Over the study period, a total of 794 articles were published, with an average of 7.3 publications per million population. While time trends showed a 6-fold increase in the number of publications over the study period, a decreasing trend in mean journal impact factor was noted (from 2.3 in 2000 to 1.5 in 2018). Most studies (71%) were observational, 56% were conducted in medical facilities (hospitals or clinics) and most of the experimental studies (10%) were based in laboratory settings. Behavioural risk factors were addressed in 52% of the studies, and there was a dearth of studies examining associations with diet, physical inactivity or family history.
CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this review indicate gaps in robust methods and pertinent themes in CVD research in the Arab region. Greater attention should be paid to high-quality evidence and implementation research. Also, there is a need for a more targeted CVD research agenda that is responsive to local and regional health burden and needs.

Keywords:  Arab countries; Cardiovascular disease; Research output; Scoping review

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2019.06.007
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Jul-Sep;38(3):38(3): 260-270

Research Impact Core: A Research Impact Initiative at the University of Michigan.

A Tyler Nix, Judith E Smith.

  Informationists at the Taubman Health Sciences Library, University of Michigan, formed a research impact consultation and education initiative in early 2017 to increase engagement with the health sciences community around the informed, responsible use of a range of citation and alternative metrics and associated tools. So far, the Research Impact Core has primarily entailed developing training content and cultivating partnerships related to publication metrics and associated best practices. This article reports on progress from the first two years of the Research Impact Core, including a snapshot of information session registrants, and a broader discussion of collaborative partnerships around research impact in the health sciences and library system.

Keywords:  Alternative metrics; altmetrics; collaboration; research impact

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1623618
World Neurosurg. 2019 Aug 05. pii: S1878-8750(19)32132-1. [Epub ahead of print]

Bibliometric analysis of scientific publications on spinal cord stimulation in the past two decades.

Hengtao Xie, Jing Yin, Yixuan Duan, Huan Wu, Yang Xia, Zhaoqing Zhang.

   BACKGROUND: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS), a common invasive neuromodulation technique, induced pain relief via electrical stimulation of the dorsal column of the spinal cord.
OBJECTIVE: To present an overview of research publications on SCS, a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications from1998 to 2017 was performed.
METHODS: The relevant data were obtained from the Web of Science and PubMed database. These articles were classified into several categories, such as total number, countries, institutions, authors and citations reports. And the analysis of co-occurrence keywords was handled by VOSviewer software.
RESULTS: We found that there existed an increasing trend in the number of publication on SCS between 1998 and 2017. Among these countries, the USA published the largest number of papers in the past 20 years. Case Western Reserve University from USA contributed the most publications. Among all research categories, neuroscience neurology was the most common area. And regarding on article types, basic research occupied a great proportion in total papers on SCS in the PubMed database. The author Edgerton V. Reggie from the USA was the most contributor among the authors. The results showed that "spinal-cord", "stimulation" and "pain" were the most common keywords in the past 20 years.
CONCLUSION: This bibliometric analysis firstly provides a basic overview of research publications on SCS published during the last two decades. Considered that expanded indication of SCS, there are a lot of things to do, various countries should increase support to complete high-quality SCS studies.

Keywords:  VOSviewer software; bibliometric analysis; co-occurrence; keywords; spinal cord stimulation

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2019.07.216
Orthop J Sports Med. 2019 Jul;7(7): 2325967119856883

Trends in Publications on the Anterior Cruciate Ligament Over the Past 40 Years on PubMed.

Srinivas B S Kambhampati, Raju Vaishya.

   Background: The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most commonly operated ligament of the knee. Details on the top journals, universities, and authors on the topic would be helpful to identify the sources of information for clinical and research queries as well as to observe trends for future research and identify universities/authors of particular interest for training or to follow their research.
Purpose: To consolidate information from PubMed on the ACL from 1979 to 2018, spanning 40 years.
Study Design: Cross-sectional study.
Methods: A search of the PubMed database was conducted for the ACL, and 18,696 articles published over the past 40 years were analyzed for further details. These details included the number of publications per year, top 10 journals publishing on the ACL, top 10 first authors publishing articles on the ACL, and number of articles published with specific keywords. Data were also sought from the Scopus database regarding the top universities and countries publishing on the ACL. The coauthorship of articles and co-occurrence of terms in titles were also analyzed using VOSviewer.
Results: There was a steady increase in the yearly average number of publications from 1979 to 2018. The top journal and top author publishing on the ACL were The American Journal of Sports Medicine and Freddie H. Fu, respectively. The most articles published by a first author were by K. Donald Shelbourne. Time-based links of Dr Fu to other authors were represented as VOSviewer output. Most occurrences of specific keywords in the title were also studied and listed. The United States was the most published country, and 8 of the top 10 universities that published were from this country.
Conclusion: There has been a steady increase in the number of articles published in PubMed since 1979. It appears that interest on the topic of the ACL has not decreased or stabilized but rather increased significantly over the past few years. This article quantifies the increased interest and could act as a baseline for future studies to compare.

Keywords:  ACL; PubMed; anterior cruciate ligament; data mining; database search; knee; publication

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/2325967119856883
Echocardiography. 2019 Aug 05.

Top 100 most-cited articles on echocardiography: A bibliometric analysis.

Yongfa Huang, Yifan Liu, Huazhen Liu, Xinyu Hong, Xiaoxiao Guo, Ligang Fang.

  Echocardiography has been widely applied since 1970s, and has developed into a reliable approach to assess the heart in both cardiology and interdisciplinary settings. A bibliometric analysis can reveal its development history, major applications, and trending in the future. Two independent researchers conducted proper literature retrieval in Web of Science database and ranked search results by total citation. The abstracts of articles were carefully reviewed and top 100 most-cited articles were included. Most top-cited studies on echocardiography were performed in USA (66%) by cardiologists (62%) and published in high-impact cardiology specialized journals like Circulation (39%). Most top-cited articles were published in two 5-year intervals of 1995 ~ 1999 and 2000 ~ 2004 which witnessed the invention and promotion of new echocardiographic techniques including Doppler tissue imaging and speckle tracking imaging. Most commonly used technologies to investigate primary study endpoints were two-dimensional echocardiography, M-mode echocardiography, and Doppler flow imaging. Left ventricular structure (25%), function (19%), and valvular heart disease (13%) have remained vital subjects since the birth of echocardiography. Four of top 10 most-cited articles published after 2009 focused on the effectiveness of novel cardiovascular therapies and another four focused on cardiotoxicity of cancer chemotherapies. The majority of top-cited studies on echocardiography were performed in USA and published in cardiology specialized journals by cardiologists. The structure and function of left ventricle and valvular heart disease have remained vital subjects since the birth of echocardiography, which will probably be widely applied to evaluate the effect of various treatments on cardiovascular system.

Keywords:  Web of Science; bibliometrics; echocardiography

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/echo.14440
World J Surg. 2019 Aug 05.

Global Surgery: A 30-Year Bibliometric Analysis (1987-2017).

Alessandro Sgrò, Ibrahim S Al-Busaidi, Cameron I Wells, Dominique Vervoort, Sara Venturini, Valeria Farina, Federica Figà, Francesc Azkarate, Ewen M Harrison, Francesco Pata.

   INTRODUCTION: There has been a growing interest in addressing the surgical disease burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Assessing the current state of global surgery research activity is an important step in identifying gaps in knowledge and directing research efforts towards important unaddressed issues. The aim of this bibliometric analysis was to identify trends in the publication of global surgical research over the last 30 years.
METHODS: Scopus® was searched for global surgical publications (1987-2017). Results were hand-screened, and data were collected for included articles. Bibliometric data were extracted from Scopus® and Journal Citation Reports. Country-level economic and population data were obtained from the World Bank. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise data and identify significant trends.
RESULTS: A total of 1623 articles were identified. The volume of scientific production on global surgery increased from 14 publications in 1987 to 149 in 2017. Similarly, the number of articles published open access increased from four in 1987 to 68 in 2017. Observational studies accounted for 88.7% of the included studies. The three most common specialties were obstetrics and gynaecology 260 (16.0%), general surgery 256 (15.8%), and paediatric surgery 196 (12.1%). Over two times as many authors were affiliated to an LMIC institution than to a high-income country (HIC) institution (6628, 71.5% vs 2481, 28.5%, P < 0.001). A total of 965 studies (59.5%) were conducted entirely by LMIC authors, and 534 (32.9%) by collaborations between HICs and LMICs.
CONCLUSION: The quantity of research in global surgery has substantially increased over the past 30 years. Authors from LMICs seemed the most proactive in addressing the global surgical disease burden. Increasing the funding for interventional studies, and therefore the quality of evidence in surgery, has the potential for greater impact for patients in LMICs.

Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; Biomedical research; Global surgery; Surgical procedures

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-019-05112-w