bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2020–04–19
thirty-two papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. SAGE Open Med. 2020 ;8 2050312120915399
       Objectives: The aims of this study were to investigate authorship trends among publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed specialty journals published within the last decade and to assess how publication practices differ among medical specialties.
    Methods: The National Institutes of Health's Portfolio Analysis platform, iCite, was queried for PubMed-indexed case reports, review articles, and original research articles published between 2005 and 2017 in 69 high-impact, clinical journals encompassing 23 medical specialties. Overall, 121,397 peer-reviewed publications were evaluated-of which, 45.1% were original research, 28.7% were review articles, and 26.3% were case reports. Multivariable regression was used to evaluate the magnitude of association of publication year on the number of authors per article by specialty and article type.
    Results: Original research articles have the greatest increase in authorship (0.23 more authors per article per year), as compared with review articles (0.18 authors per article per year) and case reports (0.01 authors per article per year). Twenty-two of the 23 specialties evaluated had increase in authorship in high-impact specialty journals. Specialty growth rates ranged from 0.42 authors/year (Neurology), Psychiatry (0.35 authors/year), General Surgery (0.29 authors/year), Urology (0.27 authors/year), and Pathology (0.27 authors/year). Specialties with a greater percentage of graduates entering academics had more authors per article; surgical specialties and length of residency were not found to be predictive factors.
    Conclusion: There has been substantial growth in the authorship bylines of contemporary medical literature, much of which cannot be explained by increased complexity or collaboration alone.
    Keywords:  Citations; academic medicine; impact factor; medical publishing; medical specialties
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312120915399
  2. Psychol Health Med. 2020 Apr 14. 1-10
      This paper aimed to explore the characteristics of the top-100 cited articles on the biomarkers in the depression field and strive to find the future trend. The top-100 cited articles were selected from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Excel 2016 and VOSviewer 1.6.9 were used to analyze the information. Forty-six journals contributed to these 100 articles, and Biological Psychiatry published the largest number of articles (n = 18). Holsboer F (n = 4) contributed the most, and Maes M (n = 118) was the most co-cited author. Twenty-six countries and 220 organizations contributed to the top-100 articles, respectively. The USA (n = 48) was the main contributor. NIMH and Kings Coll London both participated in seven articles. Major depression (n = 62), depression (n = 38) and biomarker (n = 31) were the top three keywords. These results indicated that articles published in journals with higher impact factors are more likely to spread. Compared with developing countries, developed countries have contributed more to these articles. It is suggested that cooperation should be strengthened between developed countries and developing counties in the future. More research on biomarkers in the depression field may still mainly focus on major depression.Abbreviation: WoS = Web of Science; JCR = Journal Citation Reports; UK = United Kingdom; NIMH = The National Institute of Mental Health; UCL = University College London; IF = Impact factor; BDNF = brain-derived neurotrophic factor; USA = United States.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; biomarkers; depression
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2020.1752924
  3. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr 11. pii: E2625. [Epub ahead of print]17(8):
      In the last few years, the occupational health (OH) of healthcare workers (HCWs) has been shown increasing concern by both health departments and researchers. This study aims to provide academics with quantitative and qualitative analysis of healthcare workers' occupational health (HCWs+OH) field in a joint way. Based on 402 papers published from 1992 to 2019, we adopted the approaches of bibliometric and social network analysis (SNA) to map and quantify publication years, research area distribution, international collaboration, keyword co-occurrence frequency, hierarchical clustering, highly cited articles and cluster timeline visualization. In view of the results, several hotspot clusters were identified, namely: physical injuries, workplace, mental health; occupational hazards and diseases, infectious factors; community health workers and occupational exposure. As for citations, we employed document co-citation analysis to detect trends and identify seven clusters, namely tuberculosis (TB), strength training, influenza, healthcare worker (HCW), occupational exposure, epidemiology and psychological. With the visualization of cluster timeline, we detected that the earliest research cluster was occupational exposure, then followed by epidemiology and psychological; however, TB, strength training and influenza appeared to gain more attention in recent years. These findings are presumed to offer researchers, public health practitioners a comprehensive understanding of HCWs+OH research.
    Keywords:  SNA; bibliometric; healthcare workers; infectious diseases; occupational exposure; occupational health; physical injuries
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082625
  4. J Surg Res. 2020 Apr 09. pii: S0022-4804(20)30096-2. [Epub ahead of print]
       BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of research comparing journal articles that accrue numerous citations with those that accrue few citations over time. Understanding differences between journal articles can help direct investigators in designing and conducting their research.
    METHODS: Using advanced bibliometric tools, we queried four plastic surgery journals (Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery, Annals of Plastic Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Microsurgery) for primary research articles published between 1998 and 2008 accruing zero or one citations with at least a 10-y lag time. Forty-seven articles were identified as low citation and were compared with an equal number of articles in the same journals that accrued the highest number of citations in the same period as high citation (HC). The data were analyzed using Student t-tests, Wilcoxon rank sum tests, chi-square tests, and Fisher exact tests. The level of significance was established at P < 0.05.
    RESULTS: When compared with the HC cohort, the low citation articles were more likely to be nonclinical (P < 0.001), have no plastic surgery authors (P = 0.0026), and focus on the field of microsurgery (P = 0.003). The HC cohort was more likely to have higher sample sizes (P = 0.0339), focus on aesthetic/cosmetic surgery (P = 0.003), have a higher number of other disciplines included on authorship (P < 0.001), references (P = 0.0451), manuscript pages (P < 0.001), and words in the abstract (P < 0.001).
    CONCLUSIONS: A small number of articles published in four plastic surgery journals were uncited during a 10-y period. There are qualitative and quantitative differences between highly and lowly cited articles in the plastic surgery literature. Investigators should consider these differences when designing and conducting studies.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric; Citations; Literature analysis; Plastic surgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.02.009
  5. Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2020 ;34 1
      Background: Of scientometric goals are to explore scientific productivity and trend, elicit scientific collaborations and inter/intra and cross disciplinary relations within a realm of study. This is a descriptive scientometric analysis of Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran (MJIRI) from 1987 to 2018. Methods: The data were collected from 1987 to 2018 including the MJIRI annual publication number, annual growth rate (AGR), annual citation indicators, annual degree of collaboration (DC), the most active universities, and the most co-occurred keywords being used in MJIRI articles. Results: MJIRI has published 2166 articles in the field of health and medicine between 1987 and 2018, over a third of which have been published during the last five years (2014-2018). The highest and lowest AGR were recorded in 2014 (AGR=276.190%) and 2001(AGR=-28.75%), respectively. The journal CiteScore has increased from 0.26 in 2013 to 0.94 in 2018; the SCImago Journal Rank has promoted from 0.123 in 2013 to 0.320 in 2018. The Source Normalized Impact per Paper has enhanced from 0.398 in 2013 to 0.552 in 2018. The overall degree of collaboration of MJIRI articles was 0.89. Also, the most co-occurred keywords pertaining to the specific field of medicine were "Breast cancer", "Pregnancy", "Tuberculosis", and "Hypertension". Conclusion: The current quantitative evaluation of MJIRI provides a holistic landscape of journal performance for 32 years.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Productivity; Scientometrics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.34171/mjiri.34.1
  6. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2020 Apr 16.
       BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Scientific collaboration is traditionally acknowledged through coauthorship. Studies on this topic are few in the neuroimaging literature. This study is a bibliometric analysis of the American Journal of Neuroradiology (AJNR) between 1980 and 2018, with the primary aim of evaluating changes in article collaboration.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Full bibliographic records from 1980 to 2018 were retrieved. Yearly metrics calculated included the number of articles published, the average number of authors, and the average number of affiliations per article. The levels of evidence of 160 random articles were determined. Geographic characteristics of author affiliations were analyzed. Changes across time were evaluated using linear regression, while Spearman rank-order correlation was used to determine relationships between level of evidence and time, number of authors, and number of affiliations.
    RESULTS: There was a steady linear growth in the number of articles (R 2 = 0.70, P < 1e-10) from 1980 to 2018. There were clear linear increases in the average number of authors (R 2 = 0.91, P < 1e-15) and affiliations (R 2 = 0.90, P < 1e-15) per article. There was a significant correlation between level of evidence and time period (Spearman ρ = -0.42, P < 1e-7), indicating that articles trended toward better methodologic quality or strength of results over time. A significant correlation existed between the level of evidence and the number of authors (Spearman ρ = -0.39, P < 1e-6). There were linear increases in the average number of different geographic locales of authors per article by country/region (R 2 = 0.80, P < 1e-13), state/province (R 2 = 0.88, P < 1e-15), and locality/city/town (R 2 = 0.86, P < 1e-15).
    CONCLUSIONS: From 1980 to 2018, as the quantity of articles published in the AJNR increased, their level of evidence improved, while an increasing number of authors with different affiliations and from different geographic locales collaborated on these articles.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.A6523
  7. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Apr 16.
      Ecosystems play critically important roles in supporting human society, while human activities seriously disturb their initial balance. Lots of researches on ecosystem services are conducted due to the increasing concern on ecological security worldwide. In order to provide valuable insights for understanding the primary performance of ecosystem services-related studies, a qualitative and quantitative analysis by using a bibliometric tool is performed in this study. Journal impact factor, CiteScore, and h-index are used for identifying influential journals, while h-index is used for recognizing productive countries/territories and institutions. Social network analysis of countries/territories and institutions is visualized, respectively, so that relationships among them can be uncovered. Citation analysis of publications and co-occurrence analysis of high-frequency keywords are also performed to explore hotspots and popular methods in this field. This study uncovers a holistic picture on the primary performance of ecosystem services-related literatures published from 1997 to 2016, including journals, countries/territories, and institutions. Results find that forest, agriculture, and wetland ecosystems attract lots of attention. Finally, major methods used for ecosystem services evaluation are identified and discussed. Research outcomes will provide valuable insights to stakeholders interested in ecosystem services.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric; Ecosystem services; Hotspots; Social network analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08760-x
  8. Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 2020 Apr 10. pii: S0301-0546(20)30022-7. [Epub ahead of print]
       BACKGROUND: The global prevalence of allergic diseases has increased dramatically in recent years and are now recognized as significant chronic diseases worldwide. One of the most important allergens that causes allergic diseases is house dust mites.
    OBJECTIVE: This study aims to present a bibliometric overview of research published on dust mites between 1980 and 2018.
    METHODS: Articles published from 1980 to 2018 were analyzed using bibliometric methods. The keywords "Dust mite*," and "Dermatophagoides" were used in the Web of Science (WoS). Simple linear regression analysis was used to estimate the number of future publications on this subject.
    RESULTS: A total of 4742 publications were found, 2552 (53.8%) of them were articles. Most of the articles were on subjects related to immunology (1274; 49.9%) and allergy (1229; 48.1%). Clinical and Experimental Allergy (222; 8.7%) was the journal with the most publications. The USA was the country that most contributed to the literature with 461 (18.1%) articles. The countries producing the most publications on this subject were developed countries. The most active author was W.R. Thomas (66; 2.5%). The most productive institution was the University of Western Australia (91; 3.6%). The most cited article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
    CONCLUSION: According to the findings, developed countries were the most productive in publishing on house dust mites. By planning multinational research rather than regional studies, it may be suggested that researchers in underdeveloped or developing countries could also conduct more research on this subject.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; Dermatophagoides; House dust mites
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aller.2020.01.001
  9. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Apr 17. 22(4): e12288
       BACKGROUND: Social media coverage is increasingly used to spread the message of scientific publications. Traditionally, the scientific impact of an article is measured by the number of citations. At a journal level, this conventionally matures over a 2-year period, and it is challenging to gauge impact around the time of publication.
    OBJECTIVE: We, therefore, aimed to assess whether Web-based attention is associated with citations and to develop a predictive model that assigns relative importance to different elements of social media coverage: the #SoME_Impact score.
    METHODS: We included all original articles published in 2015 in a selection of the highest impact journals: The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature, Cell, and Science. We first characterized the change in Altmetric score over time by taking a single month's sample of recently published articles from the same journals and gathered Altmetric data daily from the time of publication to create a mixed effects spline model. We then obtained the overall weighted Altmetric score for all articles from 2015, the unweighted data for each Altmetric component, and the 2-year citation count from Scopus for each of these articles from 2016 to 2017. We created a stepwise multivariable linear regression model to develop a #SoME_Score that was predictive of 2-year citations. The score was validated using a dataset of articles from the same journals published in 2016.
    RESULTS: In our unselected sample of 145 recently published articles, social media coverage appeared to plateau approximately 14 days after publication. A total of 3150 articles with a median citation count of 16 (IQR 5-33) and Altmetric score of 72 (IQR 28-169) were included for analysis. On multivariable regression, compared with articles in the lowest quantile of #SoME_Score, articles in the second, third, and upper quantiles had 0.81, 15.20, and 87.67 more citations, respectively. On the validation dataset, #SoME_Score model outperformed the Altmetric score (adjusted R2 0.19 vs 0.09; P<.001). Articles in the upper quantile of #SoME_Score were more than 5 times more likely to be among the upper quantile of those cites (odds ratio 5.61, 95% CI 4.70-6.73).
    CONCLUSIONS: Social media attention predicts citations and could be used as an early surrogate measure of scientific impact. Owing to the cross-sectional study design, we cannot determine whether correlation relates to causation.
    Keywords:  bibliometrics; online intervention; online social networking; online systems; social media
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/12288
  10. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2020 Apr 14. 1-10
      Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of scholarly work on the depression of caregivers using bibliometrics and text mining. Methods: A total of 426 articles published between 2000 and 2018 were retrieved from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science, and then, computer-aided bibliometric analysis as well as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling were conducted on the collection of the data. Results: Descriptive statistics on the increasing number of publications, network analysis of scientific collaboration between countries, word co-occurrence analysis, conceptual structure, and six latent topics (k = 6) identified are discussed. Conclusions: Preventing or managing depression among caregivers is a growing field with the highest priority for the aging population. In the future, collaborating between countries and reflecting cultural backgrounds in caregiver depression research are needed. This study is expected to contribute to the field of psychological distress of caregivers in looking a big picture of the current position through data-driven analysis and moving forward towards a better direction.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2019.1705944
  11. Medicine (Baltimore). 2020 Apr;99(15): e19760
       BACKGROUND: In recent years, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (MCRPC) and studies related to MCRPC have drawn global attention. The main objective of this bibliometric study was to provide an overview of MCRPC, explore clusters and trends in research and investigate the future direction of MCRPC research.
    METHODS: A total of 4089 publications published between 1979 and 2018 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. Different aspects of MCRPC research, including the countries/territories, institutions, journals, authors, research areas, funding agencies and author keywords, were analyzed.
    RESULTS: The number of annual MCRPC publications increased rapidly after 2010. American researchers played a vital role in this increase, as they published the most publications. The most productive institution was Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. De Bono, JS (the United Kingdom [UK]) and Scher, HI (the United States of America [USA]) were the two most productive authors. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded the largest number of published papers. Analyses of keywords suggested that therapies (abiraterone, enzalutamide, etc.) would attract global attention after US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
    CONCLUSIONS: Developed countries, especially the USA, were the leading nations for MCRPC research because of their abundant funding and frequent international collaborations. Therapy was one of the most vital aspects of MCRPC research. Therapies targeting DNA repair or the androgen receptor (AR) signing pathway and new therapies especially prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-based radioligand therapy (RLT) would be the next focus of MCRPC research.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000019760
  12. J Rehabil Med. 2020 Apr 16.
       OBJECTIVE: To make a bibliometric analysis of global trends in research into exercise interventions for low back pain between 1980 and 2018.
    METHODS: Systematic literature, published from 1980 to 2018, was obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection database. CiteSpace software was used to analyse the relationship between publications and country, institution, journals, authors, references, and key words.
    RESULTS: A total of 1,140 publications were included in the analysis. Over the period studied there was an increase in the number of publications. A total of 276 academic journals focused on the categories Rehabilitation, Orthopedics, and Sports Science. The USA and the University of Sydney were the most productive country and institution, respectively. Spine, which is the main journal for research into exercise for managing low back pain, had the most publications. Burst key words showed that the stability, balance, and gait of individuals with low back pain have become the frontier of research.
    CONCLUSION: Overall, studies on exercise for low back pain have increased in number in the last 4 decades. This historical overview of research into exercise interventions for low back pain will be a useful basis for further research into potential collaborators, focus issues, and research frontiers.
    Keywords:   Web of Science; bibliometric analysis; low back pain; exercise
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2340/16501977-2674
  13. Turk Patoloji Derg. 2020 Apr 13.
       OBJECTIVE: Telepathology is an application of telemedicine providing remote evaluation and consultation of digital pathology images and can be used for educational or experimental purposes. Bibliometrics is a statistical discipline investigating publication patterns and trends in a certain academic field. Although bibliometric and scientometric studies are becoming increasingly popular, the relevant literature contains only one limited article related to telepathology. The aim of our study was to perform a holistic bibliometric analysis of the telepathology literature.
    MATERIAL AND METHOD: Since the first article on telepathology was published in 1986, we included all indexed articles retrieved from Web of Science databases between 1986 and 2017.
    RESULTS: We found that the USA covering 43.01% of all literature was the leading country in the telepathology field and was followed by Germany, Italy and the UK (n=120, 90 and 83, respectively). The countries with the most contributions were located in the continents of Europe and North America. The most productive source titles were Human Pathology, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, and Modern Pathology. Harvard University ranked first with 59 articles. The most commonly used keywords of the telepathology literature were "telepathology", "telemedicine", "digital pathology", "virtual microscopy" and "telecytology". We noted that all of the ten countries with the most contributions were in the developed category of UN classification and all twenty of the most productive institutions were from developed countries.
    CONCLUSION: We suggest that researchers from developing and least developed countries should be encouraged to carry out novel studies since telemedicine is a required and promising technology for rural developing or least developed areas in which access to health care is difficult.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5146/tjpath.2019.01484
  14. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Apr 16.
      The paper represents a scientometric analysis of a documentary array selected form Web of Science database on the issue "Oil and petroleum products in soil and groundwater." The analysis of the array shows its positive dynamics since the mid-1990s and especially active growth recently; names of the countries and organizations most actively working on the aforementioned problem; authors leading by the number of publications; periodicals and serial publications with high publication activity; scientific meetings that discussed the problems of soils and groundwater contamination by oil and oil products; and the most cited publications. The authors carry out visualization of the scientific field "Oil and petroleum products in soil and groundwater" using CiteSpace software. Documents co-citation analysis with the CiteSpace revealed main research fronts: biotransformation, biodegradation of oil and oil products in the studied media, bioremediation of these media, new research trend related to unconventional methods of oil production. The CiteSpace also lets to identify within the document co-citation network prominent cited publications (according co-citation frequency, betweenness centrality, and the strength of citation bursts). The most prominent research direction-bioremediation-is identified.
    Keywords:  CiteSpace; Groundwater; Oil pollution; Scientometric analysis; Soil; Web of science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08717-0
  15. Front Public Health. 2020 ;8 81
      Background: Effective occupational health and safety management (OHSM) is important to employee health, enterprise sustainability, and social stability. However, scientific research into OHSM lags behind practice, and contextualizing OHSM research from the perspective of its historical evolution is urgently required. Methods: The mapping of knowledge domains, based on bibliometric analysis, was adopted to classify 4,852 journal articles related to OHSM listed in the core database of Web of Science and published between 1900 and 2018. Results and Conclusions: Risk assessment/management at the organizational level were found to have always been research hotspots, and the relationship between safety culture/atmosphere, sickness absence, and safety performance, among other factors, have become core research topics in the field in recent years. Research at the individual level has gradually evolved from an early focus on physiological problems such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders and low back pain, further toward issues such as occupational stress, mental health, and quality of life. In addition, the results of clustering analysis based on high-frequency keywords indicated six aspects of OHSM: OHSM mode and method; OHSM systems and standards; OHS risk assessment and management; OHSM and safety culture; mental health and quality of life; and specific disease management. Future development trends in OHSM research are described providing theoretical and practical reference for further study.
    Keywords:  bibliometric analysis; mapping knowledge domains analysis; occupational health and safety management; review; theme evolution
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00081
  16. Hu Li Za Zhi. 2020 Apr;pii: JN.202004_67(2).03. [Epub ahead of print]67(2): 13-21
      Research is an indispensable element that shapes every profession and discipline. "Employ evidence-based research into practice" is one of the five core competences highlighted by the American Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2001 that all healthcare professionals should possess. With the development of evidence-based medicine, "Nursing research competence" has gradually become a core competence that all nurses must have. In light of the major demographic changes and multicultural social revolution underway worldwide, nursing research trends must be adapted to meet new, global challenges rooted in changing environmental, populational, geographical, and ethnic conditions. This paper analyzed the Web of Science database using VOSviewer and inputting the names of schools and departments as key words in consideration of QS rankings among European, American, and Asia regions for the years 2014 - 2018. Analyses of keywords, themes, and countries of international cooperation were conducted on 6333 original nursing articles published in journals indexed on the Science Citation Index (SCI) and/or Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The results indicate that the cooperation between scholars from Taiwan and scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, and China is relatively common. With regard to both global and Asia-specific research study trends, the top-five key words used to describe nursing research papers were health, care, depression, prevalence, and quality of life. The differences between Europe and the United States and Taiwan were the "risk, intervention, experience, adolescent" and "risk and impact" depicted by visual analysis. In addition, this research examined the themes of academic nursing conferences announced online for 2020, and found that a majority highlighted "nursing and healthcare" as a major theme. In twenty-two Chinese nursing journals indexed on the Huayi Online Database (2017-2020), geriatric nursing, long-term care and improvement in nursing care quality were the most commonly used research topics. In general, the aims of nursing research are to enhance the professional image and status of global nurses and to achieve the goals of global health. To create a better nursing research environment in Taiwan, nurses should improve their research abilities and cultivate cultural nursing sensitivity with the goals of maximizing the quality and quantity of research and of strengthening international cooperation, with the ultimate aim of enhancing the health and well-being of all. The international visibility of nursing in Taiwan must be increased to improve our international profile.
    Keywords:  global health; health issues; nursing practice; nursing research; trend
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.6224/JN.202004_67(2).03
  17. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(4): e0227593
      Genomic editing technologies are developing rapidly, promising significant developments for biomedicine, agriculture and other fields. In the present investigation, we analyzed and compared the process of innovation for six genomic technologies: viral vectors, RNAi, TALENs, meganucleases, ZFNs and CRISPR/Cas including the profile of the main research institutions and their funders, to understand how innovation evolved and what institutions influenced research trajectories. A Web of Science search of papers on viral vectors RNAi, CRISPR/Cas, TALENs, ZFNs and meganucleases was used to build a citation network of 16,746 papers. An analysis of network clustering combined with text mining was performed. For viral vectors, a long-term process of incremental innovation was identified, which was largely publicly funded in the United States and the European Union. The trajectory of RNAi research included clusters related to the study of RNAi as a biological phenomenon and its use in functional genomics, biomedicine and pest control. A British philanthropic organization and a US pharmaceutical company played a key role in the development of basic RNAi research and clinical application respectively, in addition to government and academic institutions. In the case of CRISPR/Cas research, basic science discoveries led to the technical improvements, and these two in turn provided the information required for the development of biomedical, agricultural, livestock and industrial applications. The trajectory of CRISPR/Cas research exhibits a geopolitical division of the investigation efforts between the US, as the main producer and funder of basic research and technical improvements, and Chinese research institutions increasingly leading applied research. Our results reflect a change in the model for financing science, with reduced public financing for basic science and applied research on publicly funded technological developments in the US, and the emergence of China as a scientific superpower, with implications for the development of applications of genomic technologies.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227593
  18. J Craniofac Surg. 2020 Apr 07.
      The aim of this study is to analyze the medical illustrations that appeared in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery (JCFS) during the last 3 years (2016-2018).All illustrations in 2676 articles from 24 issues were analyzed.In total, 363 articles (13.6%) contained illustrations (for total of 589 illustrations), and 38 articles (1.4%) cited illustrations from other articles. The number of illustrations increased over time (152 in 2016, 181 in 2017, and 256 in 2018; P = 0.007). The signature of the illustrator appeared in 16.5% of the illustrations, and the illustrator's name was acknowledged in 7.6%. The most frequent contents of the 589 illustrations were surgical procedures (55.4%), followed by anatomy (34.1%). Among the 555 illustrations showing regions of the body, the most frequently illustrated region was the oral cavity (41.6%), followed by the eye and periorbital region (18.4%), the nose (12.4%), and the head (11.4%). Of the 555 illustrations showing tissue, the tissue most frequently depicted was bone (52.8%), followed by soft tissue (42.5%). The mean score for clarity of the intended message was 3.5 ± 1.2. The mean score for artistic skill was 3.2 ± 1.0.As the number of illustrations in JCFS increases, it is increasingly important that information on the illustrators be given. The journal editor should recommend that authors provide the illustrators' information. From the author's perspective, the best illustration is one that tells the story the author wants to convey to readers. Therefore, the crucial point is the expression of the author's goal, rather than the esthetics of the illustration.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/SCS.0000000000006371
  19. BMJ. 2020 Apr 14. 369 m982
       OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the compliance with prospective registration and inclusion of the trial registration number (TRN) in published randomised controlled trials (RCTs), and to analyse the rationale behind, and detect selective registration bias in, retrospective trial registration.
    DESIGN: Cross sectional analysis.
    DATA SOURCES: PubMed, the 17 World Health Organization's trial registries, University of Toronto library, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) list of member journals, and the InCites Journal Citation Reports.
    STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: RCTs registered in any WHO trial registry and published in any PubMed indexed journal in 2018.
    RESULTS: This study included 10 500 manuscripts published in 2105 journals. Overall, 71.2% (7473/10500) reported the TRN and 41.7% (3013/7218) complied with prospective trial registration. The univariable and multivariable analyses reported significant relations (P<0.05) between reporting the TRN and the impact factor and ICMJE membership of the publishing journal. A significant relation (P<0.05) was also observed between prospective trial registration and the registry, region, condition, funding, trial size, interval between paper registration and submission dates, impact factor, and ICMJE membership of the publishing journal. A manuscript published in an ICMJE member journal was 5.8 times more likely to include the TRN (odds ratio 5.8, 95% confidence interval 4.0 to 8.2), and a published trial was 1.8 times more likely to be registered prospectively (1.8, 1.5 to 2.2) when published in an ICMJE member journal compared with other journals. This study detected a new form of bias, selective registration bias, with a higher proportion (85.2% (616/723)) of trials registered retrospectively within a year of submission for publication. Higher rates of retrospective registrations were observed within the first three to eight weeks after enrolment of study participants. Within the 286 RCTs registered retrospectively and published in an ICMJE member journal, only 2.8% (8/286) of the authors included a statement justifying the delayed registration. Reasons included lack of awareness, error of omission, and the registration process taking longer than anticipated.
    CONCLUSIONS: This study found a high compliance in reporting of the TRN for trial papers published in ICMJE member journals, but prospective trial registration was low.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m982
  20. Sud Med Ekspert. 2020 ;63(2): 58-63
      The analysis of the publications of the journal "Forensic medical examination" in the field of research «identification» for the period from 1980 to 2018 is carried out. Using the scientometric method, we studied the dynamics of publications on the study of the development of the scientific direction in order to objectively evaluate its relevance and possible prospects. The results of the analytical study demonstrated a wide range of objects and research methods. The leading scientific development trends in the field of forensic medical identification of the person are established.
    Keywords:  forensic medicine; identification; scientometric analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.17116/sudmed20206302158
  21. Scientometrics. 2019 May;119(2): 827-843
      The publishing industry is a vast system whose elements form a metaphorical ecosystem with knowledge flowing through connections between heterogeneous elements. In this paper we seek a more robust understanding of different types of literature, and whether and how they support one another in the diffusion of knowledge. We analyze a corpus comprising professional electronic media in US dentistry and its relation to the peer reviewed journal literature. Our corpus includes full text from magazines, news sites and blogs that provide information to clinicians. We find links to research are made through several mechanisms: articles describing new clinical guidelines, referencing, summaries of recently published journal articles and crossover authoring. There is little to no apparent time lag in the diffusion of information from research literature to professional media.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03072-5
  22. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Mar 18. pii: S0278-2391(20)30237-8. [Epub ahead of print]
       PURPOSE: Academic advancement often depends on publications and reflects the leadership within a profession. The present study compared the number of articles written by women in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (JOMS) versus the number of women in the profession of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS).
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of articles published in JOMS at 3 time points (1995, 2005, and 2015). The primary predictor variables were author gender and the 3 time points (1995, 2005, and 2015). Gender was established by visual inspection. The primary outcome variable was the proportion of articles written by women, defined as number of articles written by a woman divided by the total number of female members in the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS). The inclusion criteria were 1) original, full-length research articles in JOMS, 2) authorship by a woman, and 3) articles reported from a US academic institution. A 2-tailed χ2 test was used. The rate of change in female authorship over time was analyzed using linear regression analysis, followed by the F test (statistical significance was set at P < .05).
    RESULTS: During the years examined, the number of first and last female authors ranged from 3 to 6.3%. Approximately 7% of oral-maxillofacial surgeons registered with AAOMS in 2015 were women. Comparing the expected proportion of female authorship according to the number of female surgeons registered with AAOMS, the proportions of female first authorship were significantly lower than expected in 1995 and 2015. Female authorship was found to be significantly less than expected. Using linear regression analysis, we found no statistically significant changes in the proportion of female first or last authorship in the period examined (P = .69 and P = .99, respectively).
    CONCLUSIONS: During the years examined, we found no significant increase in female authorship in JOMS, demonstrating an area of opportunity to improve gender disparity in OMS.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2020.03.011
  23. Front Public Health. 2020 ;8 75
      Background: Increasing rates of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia contrast global trends, but the scope of HIV/AIDS research originating from Russian Federation and countries of the former Soviet Union has not been quantified. Methods: We searched six major scientific databases in Russian and English languages with medical subject heading terms "HIV" or "AIDS" and "Russia" or "Soviet Union" from 1991 to 2016. Each abstract indexed was reviewed and tagged for 25 HIV/AIDS research themes, location of research focus and first author. Results and Discussion: A total of 2,868 articles were included; 2,156 (75.1%) and 712 (24.8%) described research in the Russian Federation and countries of the former Soviet Union, respectively. There were 15 publications per million population in Russian Federation. Federal districts of the Russian Federation with the highest rates of HIV had the most limited publications. An interactive web-map with time-lapse features and links to primary literature was created using ArcGIS® technology [http://arcg.is/2FUIJ5v]. Conclusion: We found a lower than expected publication rate in the Russian Federation relative to rising HIV prevalence. The greatest deficits were in the most HIV burdened regions in the Russian Federation. Our findings highlight opportunities for new research strategies and public health efforts among key populations and subnational regions.
    Keywords:  HIV; Russia; USSR; acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; bibliometrics; intravenous substance abuse; publications; tuberculosis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00075
  24. Postgrad Med J. 2020 Apr 16. pii: postgradmedj-2020-137790. [Epub ahead of print]
      
    Keywords:  complementary medicine; medical education & training; medical journalism; statistics & research methods
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-137790
  25. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol. 2020 Apr 13.
      Arsenic (As) bioaccumulation and biotransformation in marine ecosystems involve a number of fields and disciplines such as Environmental Sciences & Ecology, Marine & Freshwater Biology, and Toxicology. Arsenic research in these areas has been developing rapidly in recent years. It is crucial to keep up with the emerging trends and critical development of the collective knowledge. Therefore, a progressively synthesized network was achieved from 6396 original publications that cited 500 articles obtained from an initial topic search between 2010 and 2019. CiteSpace was used to analyze the progress and emerging trends. Results showed that these publications were divided into 13 different but closely related clusters. A major ongoing trend was identified in Cluster #3 and #5, concerning As and other heavy metals as heterogeneous complexants and assessing their overall impacts on human health. Other new emerging trends include evaluating the As profile in estuarial ecosystems and assessing its bioaccumulation and biotransformation along the food chain. Overall, the scientometric analytics of targeting literature performed in this review has offered a valuable and timely approach to evaluate the new emerging trends, providing researchers with up-to-date and critical information in research areas relevant to the searching topic.
    Keywords:  Arsenic; Bioaccumulation; Biotransformation; Emerging trend; Food chain; Health risk; Heavy metal; Marine ecosystems
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-020-02849-2
  26. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(4): e0231305
      Research article abstracts often convince readers that the article is worth reading. Therefore, they rely not only on the quality of arguments or novelty of findings to persuade readers but also linguistic markers in the form of metadiscourse to assert a position on an issue, increase readability of a text, engage readers, and avoid objection to the writer's interpretations, thereby enhancing the credibility of the text. Given that research article abstracts are often published online and their newsworthiness would affect whether they would be ultimately read, Altmetric.com, which emerged in 2010, can help quantify the popularity of research article abstracts by counting views on social media and other platforms such as news and policy documents. Yet a study on how metadiscoursal devices are used to persuade readers, and how they are correlated with Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) provided by Altmetric.com, merits attention. In our study, we examined 241 abstracts from 50 top journals in 12 disciplines with the highest AAS from 2014-2018 and performed a quantitative analysis of the interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers exhibited in the abstracts. Overall, we found a positive correlation between the use of metadiscourse and AAS. Furthermore, we noticed that each discipline used distinct metadiscourse markers in abstracts with high AAS, which contributed to its respective discipline-specific conventions. It has been previously shown that the use of an array of interactive and interactional metadiscourse renders the abstract more worthy of attention. Being knowledgeable of rhetorical choices in relation to metadiscoursal devices will enable writers to construct more persuasive abstracts by making informed judgments about the appropriate use of metadiscourse to draw the attention of readers in their respective disciplines.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231305
  27. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020 Apr 13. pii: S0895-4356(19)30625-0. [Epub ahead of print]
       BACKGROUND: Objectives were to determine the proportion of eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that contributed data to individual participant data meta-analyses (IPDMAs) and explore associated factors.
    STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: IPDMAs with ≥10 eligible RCTs were identified by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Cochrane May 1, 2015 to February 13, 2017. Mixed effect logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with data contribution.
    RESULTS: Of 774 eligible RCTs from 35 included IPDMAs, 517 (67%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 63-70%) contributed data. Compared to RCTs from journals with low impact factors (0-2.4), RCTs from journals with higher impact factors were more likely to contribute data: impact factor 5.0-9.9, odds ratio [OR] 2.6, 95% CI 1.37-4.86; impact factor 10.0-19.9, OR 5.7, 95% CI 3.0-10.8; impact factor >20.0, OR 4.6, 95% CI 1.9- 11.4. RCTs from the United Kingdom were more likely to contribute data than those from the United States (reference; OR 2.4, 95% CI, 1.3-4.6). There was an increase in OR per publication year (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.02-1.09).
    CONCLUSION: Country where RCTs are conducted, impact factor of the journal where RCTs are published, and RCT publication year were associated with data contribution in IPDMAs with ≥10 eligible RCTs.
    Keywords:  data contribution; data sharing; individual participant data meta-analysis; meta-analysis; randomized controlled trial
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.03.026
  28. Nature. 2019 Apr 17.
      
    Keywords:  Funding; Peer review; Policy
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01198-3
  29. Adv Radiat Oncol. 2020 Mar-Apr;5(2):5(2): 292-296
       Purpose: To generate insights regarding the role of gender in research mentorship, we analyzed characteristics of abstracts selected for oral and poster discussion presentations at the American Society for Radiation Oncology annual meeting and subsequent high-impact publications.
    Methods and Materials: Clinical radiation oncology abstracts selected for oral and poster discussion presentations at the American Society for Radiation Oncology annual meetings in 2014 and 2015 were reviewed. A multivariable logistic regression model evaluated factors associated with subsequent higher-impact publications among abstracts that led to manuscript publications. The primary independent variable was the presenting-senior (last) author gender dyad (divided into 4 groups based on gender of presenting and senior authors, respectively; eg, "MF" indicates male presenting and female senior). Dyads were classified as MF, FM, MM, or FF.
    Results: Data were derived from 390 oral and 142 poster discussions. Presenting and senior author pairings were MM for 286 (53.8%), FF for 67 (12.6%), MF for 84 (15.8%), and FM for 94 (17.7%) abstracts. Overall, 403 abstracts led to subsequent publications, of which 52.1% (210) were in a higher-impact journal. Eventual publication in a higher-impact journal was significantly associated with senior author H-index (odds ratio [OR] 3.30 for H ≥ 41 vs < 17; group P = .007), grant support for the study (OR 2.09 for funded vs not, P = .0261), and with the presenting and senior author gender pairing (group P = .0107). Specifically, FM pairings (OR 2.48; 95% confidence interval, 1.32-4.66) and MF pairings (OR 2.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.19-4.77) had higher odds of high-impact publication than MM pairings, whereas there was no significant difference in this outcome between FF and MM pairings.
    Conclusions: Although unmeasured confounding remains possible, MF and FM dyads of presenting and senior authors were more likely than MM dyads to obtain journal publication in a higher-impact journal. Institutions and the profession should support the development and maintenance of respectful, collaborative cross-gender mentorship.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adro.2019.10.005
  30. Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2020 Mar;pii: S1472-9792(19)30396-8. [Epub ahead of print]121 101917
      Tuberculosis is the infectious disease that causes the most deaths each year in the world. Around 25% of the population is estimated to be infected with, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that gives rise to the disease, and more than one and a half million people die each year from this cause. A rigorous bibliometric analysis has been developed around tuberculosis disease, and the most remarkable results are presented in this paper. It is observed that interest in tuberculosis is growing, and the control of its spread has become one of the main health priorities in the world, with the United States, the United Kingdom, and India, leading the research in this area. On the other hand, it has been observed that there are two main health concerns around the tuberculosis: drug-resistant tuberculosis and co-infection with HIV. Finally, conclusions are offered, playing a frontline role in science policy decisions and research performance evaluations.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric; Drug-resistant; HIV; Mycobacterium; Tuberculosis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tube.2020.101917
  31. J Hum Lact. 2020 Apr 16. 890334420912210
    JHL Editorial Team
      
    Keywords:  Journal of Human Lactation; breastfeeding; predatory publishing; publishing ethics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0890334420912210
  32. J Neurosurg. 2020 Apr 17. pii: 2020.2.JNS2033. [Epub ahead of print] 1-9
       OBJECTIVE: Although previous studies have explored factors that predict an academic career among neurosurgery residents in general, such predictors have yet to be determined within specific neurosurgical subspecialties. The authors report on predictors they identified as correlating with academic placement among fellowship-trained vascular neurosurgeons.
    METHODS: A database was created that included all physicians who graduated from ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education)-accredited neurosurgery residency programs between 1960 and 2018 using publicly available online data. Neurosurgeons who completed either open vascular or endovascular fellowships were identified. Subsequent employment of vascular or endovascular neurosurgeons in academic centers was determined. A position was considered academic if the hospital of employment was affiliated with a neurosurgery residency program; all other positions were considered non-academic. Bivariate analyses were conducted using Fisher's exact test or the Mann-Whitney U-test, and multivariate analysis was performed using a logistic regression model.
    RESULTS: A total of 83 open vascular neurosurgeons and 115 endovascular neurosurgeons were identified. In both cohorts, the majority of neurosurgeons were employed in academic positions after training. In bivariate analysis, only 2 factors were significantly associated with a career in academic neurosurgery for open vascular neurosurgeons: 1) an h-index of ≥ 2 during residency (OR 3.71, p = 0.016), and 2) attending a top 10 residency program based on U.S. News and World Report rankings (OR 4.35, p = 0.030). In bivariate analysis, among endovascular neurosurgeons, having an h-index of ≥ 2 during residency (OR 4.35, p = 0.0085) and attending a residency program affiliated with a top 10 U.S. News and World Report medical school (OR 2.97, p = 0.029) were significantly associated with an academic career. In multivariate analysis, for both open vascular and endovascular neurosurgeons, an h-index of ≥ 2 during residency was independently predictive of an academic career. Attending a residency program affiliated with a top 10 U.S. News and World Report medical school independently predicted an academic career among endovascular neurosurgeons only.
    CONCLUSIONS: The authors report that an h-index of ≥ 2 during residency predicts pursuit of an academic career among vascular and endovascular neurosurgeons. Additionally, attendance of a residency program affiliated with a top research medical school independently predicts an academic career trajectory among endovascular neurosurgeons. This result may be useful to identify and mentor residents interested in academic vascular neurosurgery.
    Keywords:  ACGME = Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education; academic career; residency; vascular disorders; vascular neurosurgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3171/2020.2.JNS2033