bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2020–04–05
twenty-two papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. Iran J Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2019 Nov 05. 18(6): 688-700
      The objective of this study was to identify the characteristics of the top 100 cited studies in main allergy journals. The 100 top-cited studies in allergy journals from the Web of Science were enrolled. The key characteristics included citation, year, authors, country, institution and journal were analyzed. The number of citations of the 100 top-cited studies ranged from 409 to 2313. They were published between 1972 and 2014. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology published the largest number of top-cited studies (n=74), followed by Allergy (n=13) and Clinical and Experimental Allergy (n=9). The greatest number of studies were USA (n=45), followed by England (n=10), Canada (n=7), and Sweden (n=7). The institution with the largest number of studies was the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the USA (n=8). The country with the largest number of top institutions was the USA (n=8). The reviews had higher average citation times than articles. Our study can give a historical perspective on the scientific progress of allergy, as well as provide important insights into priorities and trends of allergy and could serve as sources for future studies.
    Keywords:  Allergy; Bibliometric analysis; Citation; Citation analysis; Top-cited
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.18502/ijaai.v18i6.2182
  2. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2020 Mar 28.
       BACKGROUND: Bibliometric analysis aids to quantify the research prolificacy. The citation count acquired by a scientific article is one of the measures of its influence within a field.
    AIM: To employ bibliometrics to offer a quantitative-qualitative analysis of publications on Early Childhood Caries (ECC) published between 1950 and 2019 DESIGN: Two researchers independently read all the titles and abstracts of articles retrieved from Scopus database on October 16, 2019. The articles were categorized according to citation and study characteristics. Collaboration network among authors, countries, and keywords was generated using VOSviewer software.
    RESULTS: Among a total of 10578 articles published on ECC, 100 most cited articles were sorted. The top-cited articles appeared in 34 journals, with Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology journal (n=18) contributing maximum number of articles. The papers originated from 25 countries, with the United States (n=54) accounting for largest number. Amid the papers with high levels of evidence, 11 were systematic reviews and 8 were randomized clinical trials. The topic most commonly addressed was etiology/associated factors (63%). Amongst a total of 990 keywords, "dental caries" appeared 89 times.
    CONCLUSION: The findings of this paper will help researchers, academicians, and students for appropriate article referrals for evidence-based clinical decision making.
    Keywords:  bibliometric analysis; early childhood caries; most cited
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/ipd.12641
  3. Front Immunol. 2020 ;11 259
      Dendritic epidermal T cells (DETC) are a group of immune cells expressing canonical γδ TCR in the murine epidermis. Similar to γδ T cells in the human epidermis, DETC serve an important barrier cell in the skin and participate in skin immune surveillance, immune regulation, skin homeostasis, tissue protection, and other activities. Since its discovery in 1983, research on DETC has grown rapidly and unevenly. To evaluate DETC research trends and map the DETC knowledge structure, we have applied bibliometric methods and techniques. A total of 384 DETC-related articles obtained from the Scopus database published between 1983 and 2019 were analyzed using indicators of publication and citation metrics, country and international cooperation, author and co-authorship, and keyword co-occurrence cluster. The present research status, the emerging global trends and the future development direction are also visualized and discussed. In summary, this study provides novel and useful data for the DETC research scientific community, and will help researchers explore DETC more intuitively and effectively.
    Keywords:  DETC; Scopus; VOSviewer; bibliometrics; gamma delta T cells
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.00259
  4. Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020 Mar 30. pii: S0210-5705(20)30070-4. [Epub ahead of print]
       OBJECTIVE: Bibliometric search of citation classics can function as a tool to identify extraordinary landmark articles and advanced research studies. We aimed to examine and characterize the 100 most-cited published articles in the field of hepatology.
    PATIENTS AND METHODS: A comprehensive list of the 100 most-cited articles published from 1950 to 2017 in the field of hepatology was compiled after searching the Web of Science with relevant terms, including "liver," "hepatitis," "hepatic," "hepatocellular," "hepatology," "cirrhosis," and "steatohepatitis." The articles were ranked according to their citation counts and were evaluated for characteristics including country, institution, authorship, publication year, subspecialty and others.
    RESULTS: The database search returned 323,291 articles associated with liver disease published between 1950 and 2017. The 100 most-cited articles were from 21 major journals, with the highest number of articles being published in Hepatology (n=20). The average number of citations of the 100 most-cited articles was 1946.8; among these articles, the most frequently cited article received 5515 citations, and the least frequently cited article received 1155 citations. In total, 60 were original articles among the 100 most-cited articles. The most frequently represented specialties were hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which accounted for 53.3%, 23.3%, and 11.7% of these articles, respectively.
    DISCUSSION: Our study identified citation classics and provided a review of the most advanced studies in the field of hepatology. This can help to guide clinical treatment and future academic research resulting in advancements in hepatology.
    Keywords:  Análisis de citaciones; Bibliometrics; Bibliométrica; Citation analysis; Hepatology; Hepatología
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gastrohep.2019.11.015
  5. Front Pharmacol. 2020 ;11 294
       Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely accepted and applied worldwide, and many publications related to Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels (AS, Chinese name is "Danggui") have been published. However, to date, there has not been a scientometric study to systematically analyze the intellectual landscape and emerging research trends regarding AS. Therefore, we performed a scientometric study to address this gap.
    Methods: Publications related to AS published from 2009 to 2018 were identified and selected from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection on May 30, 2019 using relevant keywords. HistCite, CiteSpace, and Excel 2016 software tools were used to conduct this scientometric study.
    Results: Seven hundred and sixty-seven articles (including 717 primary articles and 60 review articles) and their cited references were included and analyzed. The majority of publications (N = 565, 73.7%) were published in mainland China, with Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine contributing the most publications (N = 42, 5.5%). The first core journal was Journal of Ethnopharmacology (N = 58, 7.6%; impact factor = 3.414). The identification and assessment of active components (like ferulic acid) of AS and their pharmacological actions (such as immunomodulatory effects) are the current research foci for AS research.
    Conclusion: The present scientometric study provides an overview of the development of AS research over the previous decade using quantitative and qualitative methods, and this overview can provide references for researchers focusing on AS.
    Keywords:  Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels; CiteSpace; HistCite; scientometric; traditional Chinese medicine
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.00294
  6. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2020 Apr 02.
      In 2005 the scientific misconduct case of a noted researcher concluded with, among other things, the retraction of 10 papers. However, these articles continue to be cited at relatively high rates. The objectives of this paper are: (1) to track the retraction process of these papers, (2) to assess the impact of retraction on subsequent citation rates of these papers, and (3) to compare the citation history of these retracted articles and five other high-profile retraction cases. For Objective #1, all 5 articles to be Retracted were retracted and of the 4 to be Corrected, 2 were Retracted and 2 were Corrected. Eight PubMed and journal sites were identified where retraction messages could be conveyed; the number of retraction messages averaged 3.4+2.5 for these 9 articles. For Objective #2, an absolute "cleansing" did not occur. While it initially appears there was a relative "cleansing", as citation rates for these articles did decrease after retraction, the reductions in citation rates for these articles (-28%) were the same as those for matched non-retracted publications both by the same author (-28%) and by another investigator (-29%) over the same time frame. Relative to Objective #3, the results for this case are quite different from the 5 other cases assessing this issue, perhaps because of this investigator's "citation inertia" as a result of the small percentage of hisr papers that were retracted and the large number of citations to the articles prior to their retraction and to all of his published articles.
    Keywords:  citation histories; fraud; retractions; scientific misconduct
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00003.2020
  7. J Dermatolog Treat. 2020 Apr 02. 1-8
      Objectives: Determine the correlation between Altmetric score and citation number for publications in high-impact dermatology journals and examine the characteristics of these articles.Materials and Methods: Four high-impact dermatology journals were examined for the top 10% of articles as ranked by Altmetric score. Spearman's Rank correlation coefficient was performed on log-transformed Altmetric scores and citation numbers. Dimensions and Altmetric were used to determine journal characteristics.Results: Among the 165 articles analyzed, Altmetric score does not correlate with citation number (rs = 0.0047 and ρ = 0.953) or type of observational study. The highest performing journal articles represented a variety of journal types and topics.Conclusions: Online attention does not necessarily correspond with dissemination through traditional citation. While Altmetric scores convey much information about online dissemination, both Altmetric scores and citation numbers should be taken into account when evaluating a publication's impact.
    Keywords:  Altmetric; citation number; publication
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/09546634.2020.1750555
  8. Clin Exp Dent Res. 2020 Mar 31.
       OBJECTIVES: The present systematic review aimed to perform an in-depth analysis of the different features of retracted publications in the dental field.
    MATERIAL AND METHODS: This review has been recorded in the PROSPERO database (CRD42017075634). Two independent reviewers performed an electronic search (Pubmed, Retraction Watch) for retracted articles in dental literature up to December 31, 2018.
    RESULTS: 180 retracted papers were identified, the first published in 2001. Retractions increased by 47% in the last four-year period (2014-2018), when compared with 2009-2013 (94 and 64 retracted publications, respectively). Author misconduct was the most common reason for retraction (65.0%), followed by honest scientific errors (12.2%) and publisher-related issues (10.6%). The majority of retracted research was conducted in Asia (55.6%), with 49 papers written in India (27.2%). 552 researchers (89%) are listed as authors in only one retracted article, while 10 researchers (1.6%) are present in five or more retracted publications. Retracted articles were cited 530 times after retraction: the great majority of these citations (89.6%) did not consider the existence of the retraction notice and treated data from retracted articles as reliable.
    CONCLUSIONS: Retractions in dental literature have constantly increased in recent years, with the majority of them due to misconduct and fraud. The publication of unreliable research has many negative consequences. Studies derived from such material are designed on potentially incorrect bases, waste funds and resources, and most importantly, increase risk of incorrect treatment for patients. Citation of retracted papers represents a major issue for the scientific community.
    Keywords:  citations; retracted publication; scientific misconduct
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/cre2.292
  9. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2020 Mar 28.
      As a compliment to several other publications that present Rolf Huisgen's research achievements, the first part of this paper reveals the human side of this eminent chemist as he edges closer to his 100th birthday.  From excerpts from many of his personal and professional writings, Huisgen's personality and philosophies of life are revealed.  Also revealed is Huisgen functioning as a historian of chemistry.  The second part of this paper examines the scientometrics of Huisgen's publication history.  In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Huisgen's career experienced a major transition in terms of numbers of publication and the influence these papers had on the organic chemistry community.  This was the result of his research in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions.  Citations to his scientific contributions are well-spread over many of his papers, demonstrating his constant work and the building up of a research topic, which continued after his official retirement in 1988.  In fact, 17% of his more than 600 publications appeared after 1988.  The majority of Huisgen's papers were co-authored with his many graduate and postdoctoral students.  Consistent with the trend of that era, Huisgen was the sole author of most of his review articles, and not just those of his many plenary lectures.  And it is those articles that proved to be his most cited publications.  This demonstrates the power and influence of review articles - secondary sources, in the vocabulary of historians and sociologists of science.  In those review articles, Huisgen principally described the state of the art of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, his golden offspring.
    Keywords:  Rolf Huisgen history of chemistr 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202003034
  10. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2020 Mar;pii: S0740-5472(19)30581-1. [Epub ahead of print]112S 12-17
       INTRODUCTION: The "Women and Trauma" Study (WTS) conducted in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN-0015) resulted in research publications, presentations, and a train-the-trainer workshop to support dissemination efforts for skills-based trauma treatment in substance use community treatment. Twelve years after its completion, this paper aims to examine whether and how the WTS contributed to knowledge in the field of trauma and addictions and inspired community treatment programs (CTPs) to train staff to identify and provide trauma-related services.
    METHOD: We present findings from two different analyses that explored longer term study impacts on treatment and dissemination: (1) a post-study site survey covering 4 domains from 4/7 programs that participated in delivering the WTS to evaluate their perceptions of study impact on their treatment community; and (2) an analysis of citations of its publications to determine impact on the scientific community.
    RESULTS: Surveys from responding sites indicated that participation in the study significantly increased their agencies'' awareness of the need to take a focused approach to treating trauma issues in this population. Specifically, these sites increased their commitment to using skills-based trauma treatment with the study's target population of female patients with SUD and trauma histories, as well as expanding it to other groups affected by trauma. Citation analysis revealed that according to the Web of Science, as of August 2019, the number of citations of 24 CTN-0015 articles, ranged from 1 to 135 (Mean = 20, SD = 33; Median = 6). Four of the most influential are discussed.
    CONCLUSIONS: This manuscript provides original information about the contributions of the WTS study, demonstrating how the study contributed to serving women with trauma in community substance use treatment.
    Keywords:  Addiction; Community treatment programs; Seeking safety; Substance use; Trauma; Women
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2020.02.003
  11. Arch Suicide Res. 2020 Apr 01. 1-14
      A quantitative assessment of publications in suicidology has not been conducted yet. Web of Science was used to identify publications on suicidal behavior between 1989 and 2018. 41,276 items were retrieved. Over 30 years, the number of annual publications has been multiplied by 6. Psychiatry and psychology were the dominant research areas. Three-quarters of all publications were produced by high-income countries. A significant gap between male and female researchers persisted over time. Reported funding was largely public with a significant share from the private sector. Overall, suicidology appears as a dynamic field of research. This study also underlines two priorities: bridging the gender gap and encourage research in low- and middle-income countries where 80% of suicides occur.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; self-harm; suicide; suicide attempt; web of science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2020.1746944
  12. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(4): e0230043
      Subtle gender dynamics in the publishing process involving collaboration, peer-review, readership, citation, and media coverage disadvantage women in academia. In this study we consider whether commenting on published work is also gendered. Using all the comments published over a 16-year period in PNAS (N = 869) and Science (N = 481), we find that there is a gender gap in the authorship of comment letters: women are less likely than men to comment on published academic research. This disparity is greater than gender differences in the publication of research articles. There is also a gendered pattern in commenting: women comment writers are relatively less likely to engage with men's research. If left unaddressed, these patterns in academic commenting could impede scholarly exchange between men and women and further marginalize women within the scientific community.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230043
  13. J Glaucoma. 2020 Mar 27.
      PRéCIS:: Publications in glaucoma have seen an increase in the number of authors and disclosures per article, authors with dual degrees, and international authors, but contributions of women to articles published remains low.
    PURPOSE: Authorship trends have been studied across many medical specialties and in ophthalmology as a whole, but not specifically in glaucoma. We explored the authorship trends of original scientific articles in the Journal of Glaucoma.
    METHODS: We recorded the number of authors and disclosures per article, degree type of first and last authors, geographical origin of corresponding author, and gender of first and last authors of original content from the Journal of Glaucoma published in 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017.
    RESULTS: A total of 642 articles were analyzed. From 1992 to 2017, annual published articles increased from 38 to 242 (P=0.02), the mean number of authors per article increased from 3.2 to 5.2 (P<0.01), the mean number of disclosures per article increased from 0.3 to 1.0 (P=0.04), the proportion of first and last authors with dual degrees (medical plus an advanced degrees) also increased (both P<0.03), while the proportion with a sole medical degree decreased (both P<0.05). There was a proportional decrease in articles from North America (P=0.03), and proportional increase from the "Far East" (P=0.04) and "Other" regions (P=0.04). No significant changes in proportions of female first and last authors were found (both P>0.28).
    CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with authorship trends across various other medical specialties, glaucoma has seen an increase in the number of authors and disclosures per article, authors with dual degrees, and authors from the "Far East" and "Other" regions. However, contributions of women to articles published in Journal of Glaucoma remains low.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/IJG.0000000000001503
  14. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2020 Apr;145(4): 814e-817e
       BACKGROUND: The authors conducted this study to assess the impact that Drs. Joseph Gruss and Paul Manson have had on craniofacial surgery through their individual contributions and through their trainees.
    METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of fellows trained by either Dr. Gruss or Dr. Manson. Demographic and bibliometric measures were recorded for each fellow. Demographic factors included years since completion of fellowship training, current practice of craniomaxillofacial surgery, academic practice, and academic leadership roles. Bibliometric measures included number of publications, number of citations, and h-index. To adjust for scholarly activity before fellowship training, only contributions published after fellowship training were included.
    RESULTS: Over a 39-year period, a total of 86 surgeons completed fellowship training with either of the two principal surgeons. The mean time since completion of training was 18.7 ± 11.4 years. Seventy-nine percent of surgeons had active practices in craniomaxillofacial surgery; 54 percent had academic practices. The mean number of publications was 26.4 ± 69.3, the mean number of citations was 582 ± 2406, and the average h-index was 6.7 ± 10.6. Among academic surgeons, the average h-index was 10.7 ± 13.1, 89 percent practiced in North America, 89 percent had active practices in craniomaxillofacial surgery, and nearly 50 percent had achieved a leadership role.
    CONCLUSIONS: Modern craniofacial reconstruction has evolved from principles used in trauma and correction of congenital differences. The extensive impact that Drs. Paul Manson and Joseph Gruss have had on the field, and plastic surgery at large, is evident through their primary contributions and the immense impact their trainees have had on the field.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000006647
  15. Am J Sports Med. 2020 Apr;48(5): 1053-1055
      
    Keywords:  AAS; Altmetric; Mendeley; Twitter; alternative metrics; impact factor
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546520911641
  16. J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2020 Mar 16. pii: S1748-6815(20)30126-1. [Epub ahead of print]
      In the UK the BAPRAS (British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons) meetings have always represented the ideal platform for disseminating new information in the field of plastic surgery. Previous studies have suggested the publication rate for these meetings has been falling. Our aim was to re-assess the conversion rates of presented abstracts to publications. All abstracts from BAPRAS meetings between Winter 2014 and Summer 2016 were included. PubMed and Google Scholar databases were used to search for full publications. A database was collated, this included; time to publication, journal of publication and impact factor of journal. A total of 500 abstracts were presented during the study period for which the publication rate was 28.4%. The average time to publication was 16.8 months. The most common publication journal was the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (JPRAS) (34%). Free papers were published in journals with significantly greater impact factors (p = 0.046). Publication rates were similar to previous literature for BAPRAS meetings and have increased since 2007. A continued downward trend of publication rates for BAPRAS meetings is not seen in our data. A reduction in the number of publications in JPRAS may be explained by a rise in the impact factor of the journal or increasing competitiveness for publications. When variations in methodology are accounted for publication rates are similar to other specialties. In order to continually assess the quality of papers presented at BAPRAS meetings, the conversion to publication should be regularly re-audited.
    Keywords:  Education; Impact factor; Journal; Plastic surgery; Publications
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2020.02.046
  17. J Surg Educ. 2020 Mar 31. pii: S1931-7204(20)30070-2. [Epub ahead of print]
       OBJECTIVE: Many studies have sought to determine predictors of academic career placement in surgical subspecialities. However, previous research has yet to establish whether the ranking of a surgeon's undergraduate institution or medical school is significantly associated with pursuit of an academic career. The purpose of this study was to investigate these novel factors' predictive impact on an academic career in the surgical subspeciality of neurosurgery. Factors investigated included undergraduate university rankings, medical school rankings, and residency program rankings.
    DESIGN: Data were retrospectively collected for 884 alumni of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education neurological surgery residency programs. Bivariate analyses were conducted to determine covariates for a logistic regression model, and multivariate analysis was performed with 13 covariates to determine which factors were independently associated with academic career trajectory.
    RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, factors that were independently associated with an academic career in neurological surgery included having 1 year or more of protected research time during residency (odds ratio [OR] =1.96, p = 0.020), attending a "top" undergraduate university (OR =1.88, p = 0.00033), attending a "top" research medical school (OR = 0.031, p = 0.53) attending a residency program affiliated with a "top" research medical school (OR = 1.78, p = 0.012), possessing a Master of Science (OR = 3.46, p = 0.00097), or Doctor of Philosophy (OR = 2.05, p = 0.0019) degree, and completing a clinical fellowship (OR = 2.56, p = 1.90 × 10-8).
    CONCLUSIONS: Our study establishes 3 novel factors for predicting residents' choice of pursuing an academic career in neurological surgery, namely undergraduate university rank, medical school rank, and completing residency at a program affiliated with a "top" research medical school. Such findings reinforce the notion that educational and training environments are key in shaping the career trajectory of future academic surgical subspecialists.
    Keywords:  academic career; graduate medical education; neurosurgery; residency
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.03.004
  18. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(4): e0230325
      Is it possible to tell how interdisciplinary and out-of-the-box scientific papers are, or which papers are mainstream? Here we use the bibliographic coupling network, derived from all physics papers that were published in the Physical Review journals in the past century, to try to identify them as mainstream, out-of-the-box, or interdisciplinary. We show that the network clusters into scientific fields. The position of individual papers with respect to these clusters allows us to estimate their degree of mainstreamness or interdisciplinarity. We show that over the past decades the fraction of mainstream papers increases, the fraction of out-of-the-box decreases, and the fraction of interdisciplinary papers remains constant. Studying the rewards of papers, we find that in terms of absolute citations, both, mainstream and interdisciplinary papers are rewarded. In the long run, mainstream papers perform less than interdisciplinary ones in terms of citation rates. We conclude that to avoid a unilateral trend towards mainstreamness a new incentive scheme is necessary.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230325
  19. J Sleep Res. 2020 Mar 31. e13015
      Impact factors and ranking lists of research journals are very often used to judge our career achievements and progression by employers and granting bodies. However, a comprehensive list for the interdisciplinary field of sleep research does not currently exist because our journals tend to be placed into discipline-specific lists that do not cope well with our historic interdisciplinarity, which embraces many core disciplines. We aimed to build a ranking list specifically for sleep research journals based on the journal impact factor and the google scholar H5 indices. We then searched for all sleep journals given an impact factor by Thomson Reuters from 2005 to 2018 and all journals given a current H5 index by Google Scholar. We provide a ranking list specifically for sleep journals that might be useful for researchers to cite when providing context in their applications for employment, promotion and funding.
    Keywords:  careers; jobs; meta-epidemiology
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13015
  20. J Rheumatol. 2020 Apr 01. pii: jrheum.191306. [Epub ahead of print]
       OBJECTIVE: Well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) mitigate bias and confounding, but prior evaluations of rheumatology trials found high rates of methodological flaws. Outside of rheumatoid arthritis, no studies in the modern era have assessed the quality of rheumatology RCTs over time or with respect to industry funding.
    METHODS: We identified all RCTs published in three high impact rheumatology journals from the years 1998, 2008, and 2018. Quality metrics derived from a modified Jadad scale were analyzed by the year of publication and by funding source.
    RESULTS: Ninety-six publications met inclusion criteria; 82 of these described the primary analysis of an RCT. Over time (1998 - 2008 - 2018), trials were less likely to adequately report dropouts and withdrawals (100% vs. 82% vs. 60%, p < 0.01) or include an active comparator (44% vs. 12% vs. 13%, p = 0.01). Later trials were more likely to evaluate biologic therapy (11% vs. 38% vs. 83%, p < 0.01) and report adequate randomization procedures (39% vs. 29% vs. 60%, p = 0.04). Seventy nine percent of trials received industry funding. Industry funded trials were more likely to report double blinding (86% vs. 53%, p < 0.01), patient reported outcome measures (77% vs. 41%, p < 0.01), and intention to treat analyses (86% vs. 65%, p = 0.04).
    CONCLUSION: Industry funded trials comprise the majority of RCTs published in high impact rheumatology journals and more frequently report metrics associated with RCT quality. RCTs assessing active comparators and non-biologic therapies have become less common in high impact rheumatology journals.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.191306
  21. PeerJ. 2020 ;8 e8014
      What explanation is there when teams of researchers are unable to successfully replicate already established 'canonical' findings? One suggestion that has been put forward, but left largely untested, is that those researchers who fail to replicate prior studies are of low 'expertise and diligence' and lack the skill necessary to successfully replicate the conditions of the original experiment. Here we examine the replication success of 100 scientists of differing 'expertise and diligence' who attempted to replicate five different studies. Using a bibliometric tool (h-index) as our indicator of researcher 'expertise and diligence', we examine whether this was predictive of replication success. Although there was substantial variability in replication success and in the h-factor of the investigators, we find no relationship between these variables. The present results provide no evidence for the hypothesis that systematic replications fail because of low 'expertise and diligence' among replicators.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Expertise; Hypothesis Testing; Laboratories; Metascience; Registered Replication Reports; Replication Crisis; Reproducibility; Scientometrics; h-index
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8014
  22. Ann Saudi Med. 2020 Mar-Apr;40(2):40(2): 147-154
      The purpose of this study was to analyze the published research on health sciences carried out by researchers in Saudi Arabia in the last decade by assessing bibliometric output. Data for 2008 to 2017 was retrieved from Scopus. During this period, there was significant growth, from 1332 publications in 2008 to 5529 in 2017, with an average annual growth rate of 14.1%. King Saud University was the most productive institution. Most of the published research was done in collaboration with Egypt. The subject area of medicine was predominant with the main publication source being the Saudi Medical Journal, Life Science Journal, the Acta Zhengzhou University Oversea Version, and the Annals of Saudi Medicine, primarily in the form of original research articles. The growing trend in publications is a sign of the increasing quality of education and more research and development activities, which are made possible by a sufficient budget allocation to these activities during the last decade.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.2020.147