bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2020–10–11
thirty-one papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. Turk J Surg. 2020 Jun;36(2): 180-191
       Objectives: The aim of the present study was to search the most-cited articles from Turkey on abdominal wall hernias and analyze their characteristics with several parameters.
    Material and Methods: In March 2019, a search was conducted through all databases in the Web of Science (WoS) to determine the most-cited articles on abdominal wall hernias. Each article was evaluated in regard to host journal, year of publication, the complete list of authors, the type of article, main subject of the study, institution of the study group. Citation counts in Google Scholar (GSch) were also obtained.
    Results: Mean number of citations of the top 100 articles in herniology was 30.50. Articles were published in 38 journals; Hernia is the leading host. No correlation was observed between the journal impact factors and the number of the citations. Two thirds of the articles were clinical studies. Article types had no significant effect on the citation counts. Inguinal hernia was the most frequent topic by taking place in 58 papers. Articles related to incisional hernias had a higher mean number of citations in comparison with other topics. Ankara University School of Medicine had most cited articles, the highest number of total citations, and the highest citation per articles. Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital and Istanbul University School of Medicine had the highest number of the articles in the list.
    Conclusion: Citation counts of hernia related articles from Turkey are relatively low. Hernia is the leading journal for Turkish studies. Inguinal hernia is the most frequent topic whereas papers about incisional hernias receive more citations than others.
    Keywords:  Hernia; abdominal wall; bibliometric; citation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5578/turkjsurg.4536
  2. Molecules. 2020 Oct 01. pii: E4508. [Epub ahead of print]25(19):
      This bibliometric review aimed to identify and analyze the top 100 most-cited publications on the systemic manifestations of periodontal disease (PD). A literature search was performed using the Web of Science (WoS) 'All Databases', without any restriction of language, publication year, or study design. Of 4418 articles, the top 100 were included based on their citation count. After downloading the full texts, their bibliometric information was extracted and analyzed. The citation counts for the top 100 articles ranged from 156 to 4191 (median 217). The most productive years were 2003 and 2005, with 20 articles on the list. Majority of the articles were published in the Journal of Periodontology (n = 25). The top 100 articles were generated primarily from the USA (n = 61). Most of the publications were clinical trials (n = 27) and focused on the cardiovascular manifestations of PD (n = 31). Most of the articles were within the evidence level V (n = 41). A total of 58 studies received funding and the most frequently used keyword in the top articles was "periodontal disease" (n = 39). The current citation analysis presents insights into the current trends in the systemic manifestations of periodontal disease.
    Keywords:  bibliometric analysis; citation analysis; periodontitis; systemic complications; top cited
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25194508
  3. J Orthop Surg Res. 2020 Oct 08. 15(1): 463
       BACKGROUND: Bone defects can be seen everywhere in the clinic, but it is still a challenge for clinicians. Bibliometrics tool CiteSpace is based on the principle of "co-citation analysis theory" to reveal new technologies, hotspots, and trends in the medical field. In this study, CiteSpace was used to perform co-citation analysis on authors, countries (regions) and institutions, journals and cited journals, authors and cited literature, as well as keywords to reveal leaders, cooperative institutions, and research hotspots of bone defects and predict development trends.
    METHOD: Data related to bone defect from 1994 to 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science core collection; then, we use Excel to construct an exponential function to predict the number of annual publications; conduct a descriptive analysis on the top 10 journals with the largest number of publications; and perform co-citation analysis on authors, countries (regions) and institutions, journals and cited journals, authors and cited reference, and keywords using CiteSpace V5.5 and use the Burst Detection Algorithm to perform analysis on the countries (regions) and institutions and keywords, as well as cluster the keywords using log-likelihood ratio.
    RESULTS: A total of 5193 studies were retrieved, and the number of annual publications of bone defects showed an exponential function Y = 1×10- 70e0.0829x (R2 = 0.9778). The high-yield author was Choi Seong-Ho at Yonsei University in South Korea. The high-yielding countries were the USA and Germany, and the high-yielding institutions were the Sao Paulo University and China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences which were the emerging research countries and institutions. The research results were mainly published in the fields of dentistry, bone, and metabolism. Among them, the Journal of Dental Research and Journal of Bone and Mineral Research were high-quality journals that report bone defect research, but the most cited journal was the Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. Hot keywords were regeneration, repair, in vitro, bone regeneration, reconstruction, and graft. The keywords that were strongly cited in 2010-2019 were transportation, osteogenic differentiation, proliferation, and biomaterials. After 2018, proliferation, osteogenic differentiation, stromal cells, transmission, and mechanical properties have become new vocabulary. The drug delivery, vascularization, osteogenic differentiation and biomaterial properties of bone defects were expected to be further studied.
    CONCLUSION: The application of CiteSpace can reveal the leaders, cooperating institutions and research hotspots of bone defects and provide references for new technologies and further research directions.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Bone defect; CiteSpace; Visual analysis; Web of Science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-020-01973-3
  4. Rheumatol Int. 2020 Oct 08.
      Bibliometric analysis is widely utilized to evaluate global research productivity in different research topics. However, to date, there has been no assessment of worldwide research productivity associated with Sjögren's syndrome. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the global research productivity in the field of Sjögren's syndrome using bibliometric analysis. The Web of Science database was scanned with the search terms 'Sjögren's syndrome' and 'Sjögren syndrome' for publications in the period 2010-2019. Original articles and reviews were selected for analysis. The most active countries were determined, and the number of articles, citations, research productivity adjusted by population and gross domestic product were analyzed. A total of 3856 articles were identified from 65 different countries. A statistically significant trend was observed in the direction of increase (in terms of the number of articles; from 282 to 461) in the 10-year period. A total of 3004 (77.90%) articles were from high-income countries. The five most productive countries were the United States (n = 714, 18.51%), China (n = 428, 11.09%), Japan (n = 308, 7.98%), Italy (n = 299, 7.75%) and France (n = 249, 6.45%). When the number of articles was adjusted according to population, Norway was the most productive country, followed by Greece and the Netherlands. In analysis according to gross domestic product, Greece was the leading country, followed by Norway and the Netherlands. The results of this study demonstrated a remarkable growth in global research productivity on Sjögren's syndrome between 2010 and 2019. More than three quarters of the articles were from high-income countries. When population and gross domestic product were considered, relatively small European countries came to the fore.
    Keywords:  Articles; Bibliometric analysis; Publications; Sjögren’s syndrome; Web of science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-020-04714-1
  5. Knee Surg Relat Res. 2020 Oct 09. 32(1): 54
       PURPOSE: Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is a treatment option for anteromedial osteoarthritis of the knee. The number of UKA has been increasing constantly worldwide in recent decades. The aim of this study was to determine the most frequently cited scientific articles addressing this subject and to establish a ranking of the 50 most influential papers.
    METHODS: The 50 most cited articles related to UKA were searched in Web of Science® (Clarivate Analytics, Penn., USA) by the use of defined search terms. All types of scientific papers with reference to this topic were ranked according to the absolute number of citations and analyzed for the following characteristics: journal title, year of publication, number of citations, citation density, geographic origin, article type, and level of evidence.
    RESULTS: The 50 most cited articles had up to 453 citations. Most papers were published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (British volume). More than half of the articles were published in the 2000s and 2010s (n = 30). Ten countries contributed to the top 50 list, with most contributions from the UK (n = 17). Most articles could be attributed to the category of Clinical Science (n = 33), and most reported level IV studies.
    CONCLUSION: Most of the frequently cited articles in UKA are clinical studies that have a low level of evidence. Few basic scientific studies could be identified, which suggests that most product development is done by commercial companies.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric study; Citation analysis; Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty; Unicondylar knee arthroplasty
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s43019-020-00072-1
  6. Int Endod J. 2020 Oct 04.
       AIM: To present a scientometric analysis of the entire body of scientific publications in the field of vital pulp therapy (VPT) and analyze the research trends and popular topics.
    METHODOLOGY: A comprehensive literature search was conducted in the Web of Science and Scopus databases on August 21, 2020 to identify all articles related to VPT. The publications were reviewed and basic research parameters were collected, including publication year, patterns of authorship, geographical distribution of scientific productions, journals, h-index, study design and keyword analysis. Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were used for the citation analysis of the ten top cited articles. The data were analyzed using VOSviewer and visualized by tables and diagrams.
    RESULTS: In total, 1197 VPT-associated items were identified from 64 countries in 176 journals. The majority of papers were published in the Journal of Endodontics. The United States of America was the leading country for number of publications, citations, h-index and collaborations. The distribution of articles based on study design was as follows: basic science (35%), clinical (27%), observational studies (26%) and review publications (12%). The most frequently occurring keywords were pulpotomy, mineral trioxide aggregate, calcium hydroxide and direct pulp capping.
    CONCLUSIONS: Results obtained from this scientometric analysis outlined the evolution trends and the productivity of researchers and countries in the field of vital pulp therapy. Research output is dominated by basic science articles involving innovative materials published in high impact factor dental journals.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Pulp Capping; Pulpotomy; VOSviewer; Vital Pulp Therapy
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/iej.13422
  7. Medicine (Baltimore). 2020 Oct 02. 99(40): e22623
       PURPOSE: To identify the 100 most cited research articles on cervical cancer radiotherapy.
    METHODS: The Web of Science and Scopus databases were searched to identify the 100 most cited articles on cervical cancer radiotherapy as of September 29, 2019. Articles were ranked based on the total citations received from 2 databases. One hundred articles about radiotherapy for cervical cancer were identified. The following important information was extracted: author, journal, year and month of publication, country or region, and radiotherapy technologies.
    RESULTS: The 100 most cited articles on cervical cancer radiotherapy were published between 1964 and 2016, and the total citations from 2 databases ranged from 3478 to 211, including a total of 49,262 citations as of September 29, 2019. The index of citations per year ranged from 170.4 to 13.1. These articles were from 16 countries or regions, with most publications being from the United States (n = 38), followed by Austria (n = 15), Canada (n = 8), France (n = 8) and the United Kingdom (n = 7). The International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics produced the most articles (n = 42), followed by Radiotherapy and Oncology (n = 13), Cancer (n = 8) and Journal of Clinical Oncology (n = 7). These articles were categorized as original studies (n = 86), recommendations (n = 5), guidelines (n = 5) and reviews (n = 4). Of the 100 most cited articles, intracavitary brachytherapy (n = 50) and 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (n = 34) were the most commonly used treatment techniques.
    CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report and analysis of the most cited articles on cervical cancer radiotherapy. This bibliographic study presents the history of technological development in external radiation therapy and brachytherapy. Brachytherapy is an indispensable part of radiotherapy for cervical cancer. The International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics is the journal with the most publications related to cervical cancer radiotherapy.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000022623
  8. Facial Plast Surg Clin North Am. 2020 Nov;pii: S1064-7406(20)30060-2. [Epub ahead of print]28(4): 477-481
      This article seeks to inform facial plastic surgeons about the evolving issues that affect contemporary medical literature and the publishing landscape. We hope to shed light on the key metrics that influence a journal's decision to accept a particular submission and how these metrics are predicated on a rapidly changing landscape within the academic and public community. The key metrics are: citations, number of views, and social media or public attention. These metrics produce what we call "high impact" articles. This article introduces bibliometric terms and further defines the metrics that are most important to a journal.
    Keywords:  Altmetric score; H-index; High impact article; Impact factor; Mendeley readership score
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsc.2020.06.006
  9. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2020 Oct 08. 20(1): 260
       BACKGROUND: At present, Internet of Things technology has been widely used in various fields, and smart health is also one of its important application areas.
    METHODS: We use the core collection of Web of Science as a data source, using tools such as CiteSpace and bibliometric methods to visually analyze 9561 articles published in the field of smart health research based on the Internet of things (IoT) in 2003-2019, including time distribution, spatial distribution, and literature co-citation analysis and keyword analysis.
    RESULTS: The field of smart health research based on IoT has developed rapidly since 2014, but has not yet formed a stable network of authors and institutions. In addition, the knowledge base in this field has been initially formed, and most of the published literatures are multi-theme research.
    CONCLUSIONS: This study discusses the research status, research hotspots and future development trends in this field, and provides important knowledge support for subsequent research.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Disease; Health; Internet of things; Visual analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01278-9
  10. F1000Res. 2020 ;9 415
      Background: Scopus is a leading bibliometric database. It contains the largest number of articles cited in peer-reviewed publications . The journals included in Scopus are periodically re-evaluated to ensure they meet indexing criteria and some journals might be discontinued for publication concerns. These journals remain indexed and can be cited. Their metrics have yet to be studied. This study aimed  to evaluate the main features and metrics of journals discontinued from Scopus for publication concerns, before and after their discontinuation, and to determine the extent of predatory journals among the discontinued journals. Methods: We surveyed the list of discontinued journals from Scopus (July 2019). Data regarding metrics, citations and indexing were extracted from Scopus or other scientific databases, for the journals discontinued for publication concerns.  Results: A total of 317 journals were evaluated. Ninety-three percent of the journals (294/318) declared they published using an Open Access model. The subject areas with the greatest number of discontinued journals were  Medicine (52/317; 16%),  Agriculture and Biological Science (34/317; 11%), and  Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (31/317; 10%). The mean number of citations per year after discontinuation was significantly higher than before (median of difference 64 citations, p<0.0001), and so was the number of citations per document (median of difference 0.4 citations, p<0.0001). Twenty-two percent (72/317) were included in the Cabell's blacklist. The DOAJ currently included only 9 journals while 61 were previously included and discontinued, most for 'suspected editorial misconduct by the publisher'. Conclusions: The citation count of journals discontinued for publication concerns increases despite discontinuation and predatory behaviors seemed common. This paradoxical trend can inflate scholars' metrics prompting artificial career advancements, bonus systems and promotion. Countermeasures should be taken urgently to ensure the reliability of Scopus metrics both at the journal- and author-level for the purpose of scientific assessment of scholarly publishing.
    Keywords:  Scopus; citation count; indexing; journal; metrics; predatory
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.23847.1
  11. J Surg Res. 2020 Oct 05. pii: S0022-4804(20)30625-9. [Epub ahead of print]258 224-230
       BACKGROUND: Understanding the differences between articles that amass a high number of citations and those that receive very few allows investigators to write journal articles that maximize the impact of their research. There are minimal data regarding these two cohorts in the cardiothoracic surgery literature.
    METHODS: We identified all primary research articles from 1998 to 2008 from The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, The Journal of Cardiac Surgery, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, and The European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (n = 4276). Eighty-seven of these articles accrued 0 or only 1 citation within 10 y of publication. We compared this "low citation" cohort to the "high citation" cohort made up of the 87 highest-cited articles from the same journals over the same time period.
    RESULTS: When compared with the low-citation articles, high-citation articles were significantly more likely to be clinical in nature (P < 0.0001), have observational study design (P < 0.0001), involve multidisciplinary authorship (P < 0.0001), and have more funding reported (P = 0.0039). With regard to technical aspects of the article, the high-citation articles were likely to have longer titles (P = 0.0086), punctuation in the title (P = 0.0027), longer abstracts (P = 0.0007), more words in the manuscript (P < 0.0001), more authors (P < 0.0001), more declared conflict of interests (P = 0.0167), more references (P < 0.0001), more tables (P < 0.0001), more figures (P = 0.0024), and more pages (P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in the year of publication among both cohorts.
    CONCLUSIONS: This review suggests that there are several important distinguishing characteristics that should be considered by investigators when designing and implementing cardiothoracic research studies to maximize the impact of their published research.
    Keywords:  Cardiothoracic; Citation; High; Low; Surgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.08.062
  12. Nat Prod Res. 2020 Oct 07. 1-15
      The current study aimed to identify which natural products and which research directions are related to the major contributors to academic journals for diabetes therapy. Bibliometric data were extracted from the Web of Science online database using the search string TOPIC = (''natural product*' OR ''natural compound*' OR ''natural molecule*' OR 'phytochemical*' OR ''secondary metabolite*') AND TS = ('diabet*') and analysed by a bibliometric software, VOSviewer. The search yielded 3694 publications, which were collectively cited 80,791 times, with an H-index of 117 and 21.9 citations per publication on average. The top-contributing countries were India, the USA, China, South Korea and Brazil. Curcumin, flavanone, resveratrol, carotenoid, polyphenols, flavonol, flavone and berberine were the most frequently cited natural products or compound classes. Our results provide a brief overview of the major directions of natural product research in diabetes up to now and hint on promising avenues for future research.
    Keywords:  Natural product; bibliometric; citation analysis; curcumin; diabetes; phytochemical; resveratrol
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2020.1821019
  13. Front Psychol. 2020 ;11 1941
      This study set out to investigate intellectual domains as well as the use of measurement and validation methods in language assessment research and second language acquisition (SLA) published in English in peer-reviewed journals. Using Scopus, we created two datasets: (i) a dataset of core journals consisting of 1,561 articles published in four language assessment journals, and (ii) a dataset of general journals consisting of 3,175 articles on language assessment published in the top journals of SLA and applied linguistics. We applied document co-citation analysis to detect thematically distinct research clusters. Next, we coded citing papers in each cluster based on an analytical framework for measurement and validation. We found that the focus of the core journals was more exclusively on reading and listening comprehension assessment (primary), facets of speaking and writing performance such as raters and validation (secondary), as well as feedback, corpus linguistics, and washback (tertiary). By contrast, the primary focus of assessment research in the general journals was on vocabulary, oral proficiency, essay writing, grammar, and reading. The secondary focus was on affective schemata, awareness, memory, language proficiency, explicit vs. implicit language knowledge, language or semantic awareness, and semantic complexity. With the exception of language proficiency, this second area of focus was absent in the core journals. It was further found that the majority of citing publications in the two datasets did not carry out inference-based validation on their instruments before using them. More research is needed to determine what motivates authors to select and investigate a topic, how thoroughly they cite past research, and what internal (within a field) and external (between fields) factors lead to the sustainability of a Research Topic in language assessment.
    Keywords:  Scientometrics; Second language acquisition; document co-citation analysis; language assessment; measurement; review; validity; visualization
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01941
  14. Waste Manag Res. 2020 Oct 07. 734242X20962841
      The unprecedented urbanization that is occurring worldwide brings with it a vast amount of solid waste, leading to a rapid increase in study of municipal waste management (MWM) worldwide. This mini-review assessed this body of research both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data for the review were 9711 publications indexed by the Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index for the period 2000-2019. The analysis showed that developed countries, the United States in particular, led trends in research during the first part of the period, and developing countries made substantial contributions to the literature more recently. For all years since 2009 except for 2014, China produced more research than the United States, becoming the most productive country in the study of MWM. Home to five of the ten most productive global research institutes on this subject, China is also a hub for collaboration among countries and institutes, as is the United States. Using content analysis and keyword visualization, this study characterized two decades of study of MWM. This study found that the keywords "sustainability," "waste-to-energy," "life-cycle assessment," and "China" exhibited an upward trend in research. This study seeks the pathway to successful scientific research, helping guide researchers as they innovate in and contribute to the field, and proposes pathways that governments can take to build sustainable MWM systems.
    Keywords:  Municipal waste management; bibliometric analysis; research trends; sustainable development; text mining; waste-to-energy
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X20962841
  15. Front Neurol. 2020 ;11 955
      Objective: Brain imaging is important in diagnosing children with cerebral palsy (CP) and in identifying its etiology. To provide study navigation in this field, a bibliometric analysis was conducted by analyzing the most highly cited articles. Methods: The Web of Science All Databases were used for literature search in this study. All original articles on imaging in children with CP were searched. Two reviewers screened the search results independently and eliminated articles based on exclusion criteria such as participants over 20 years old, topics referring to images outside of the brain, or trauma. According to descending order of yearly citation counts, the top 25% of all included articles were considered as highly cited articles. Information such as yearly citations, research purposes, imaging modalities, CP types, and study designs were recorded and analyzed. Results: A total of 50 highly cited articles ranked by yearly citations (from 23.85 to 3.33, 1991-2018) were included in this study. Considering different research purposes, these studies were classified into three categories: diagnosis studies (n = 25; 1991-2017, median: 2011), mechanism studies (n = 15; 1999-2018; median: 2014), and prognosis and therapeutic effect studies (n = 10; 2008-2017; median: 2014.5). First, for diagnosis studies, 22 studies used single modality and three used multi-modalities; the majority of these studies focused on diagnostic value evaluation (n = 10) and image performance (n = 12) of a single type of CP (n = 15) by using descriptive (n = 14) or cross-sectional approaches (n = 10). Second, for mechanism studies, the ratio between single and multi-modality was 8:7; most of these studies concentrated on a single subtype of spastic CP (hemiplegia = 10, quadriplegia = 2) with a cross-sectional study design (n = 10). Third, regarding the prognosis and therapeutic effect studies, the single vs. multi-modality ratio was 5:5, and these studies were dedicated to the efficiency of constraint-induced movement therapy in children with hemiplegia; paired design trials (n = 6) and randomized controlled trials (n = 2) were used more frequently. Conclusion: Studies using multi-modality and high-level evidence-based design to provide information regarding mechanism, prognosis, and therapeutic efficacy may be the potential future research direction in the field of CP research.
    Keywords:  bibliometric analysis; brain imaging; cerebral palsy; children; citation analysis; neuroimaging
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2020.00955
  16. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Sep 14.
       BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has spread with alarming speed and an effective treatment for the disease is still lacking. The body of evidence on COVID-19 increases at an impressive pace, calling for a method to rapidly assess the current knowledge and identify key information. Gold standard methods, such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses are unsuitable due to their narrow scope and high time-consumption.
    OBJECTIVE: To explore the published scientific literature on COVID-19 and map the research evolution during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    METHODS: We analyzed the titles, keywords, and abstracts of articles on COVID-19 from PubMed. We used latent Dirichlet allocation modeling to extract topics and conducted trend analysis to explore the temporal changes of research for each topic, journal impact factor (JIF), and geographical origin.
    RESULTS: Our search identified 16 670 relevant articles dated between February 14, 2020, and June 1, 2020. Of these articles, six were reports from peer-reviewed randomized trials on COVID-19 patients. We identified 14 main research topics. The most common topics were healthcare response, and clinical manifestations with 2 812/16 670 (16.9%) and 1 828/16 670 (11.0%) publications, respectively. We found a growing trend of publications on clinical manifestations, and protective measures, and a decrease in research on disease transmission, epidemiology, healthcare response, and radiology. Publications on protective measures, immunology, and clinical manifestations were associated with the highest JIF. We calculated an overall median JIF of 3.7 (IQR 2.6-5.9) and found that the publications' JIF declined over time. The top countries of research origin were the USA, China, Italy, and the UK.
    CONCLUSIONS: In less than six months since the detection of the novel coronavirus, a remarkably high number of articles on COVID-19 have been published. We present the temporal changes of the available COVID-19 research during the early phase of the pandemic. Our findings may aid researchers and policy makers to form a structured view of the current COVID-19 evidence base and provide further research directions.
    CLINICALTRIAL:
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/21559
  17. Heliyon. 2020 Oct;6(10): e05141
       Introduction: Population surveillance provides data on the health status of the population through continuous scrutiny of different indicators. Identifying risk factors is essential for the quickly detecting and controlling of epidemic outbreaks and reducing the incidence of cross-infections and non-communicable diseases. The objective of the present study is to analyze research on population surveillance, identifying the main topics of interest for investigators in the area.
    Methodology: We included documents indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection in the period from 2000 to 2019 and assigned with the generic Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) "population surveillance" or its related terms ("public health surveillance," "sentinel surveillance" or "biosurveillance"). A co-occurrence analysis was undertaken to identify the document clusters comprising the main research topics. Scientific production, collaboration, and citation patterns in each of the clusters were characterized bibliometrically. We also analyzed research on coronaviruses, relating the results obtained to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Results: We included 39,184 documents, which reflected a steady growth in scientific output driven by papers on "Public, Environmental & Occupational Health" (21.62% of the documents) and "Infectious Diseases" (10.49%). Research activity was concentrated in North America (36.41%) and Europe (32.09%). The USA led research in the area (40.14% of documents). Ten topic clusters were identified, including "Disease Outbreaks," which is closely related to two other clusters ("Genetics" and "Influenza"). Other clusters of note were "Cross Infections" as well as one that brought together general public health concepts and topics related to non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular and coronary diseases, mental diseases, diabetes, wound and injuries, stroke, and asthma). The rest of the clusters addressed "Neoplasms," "HIV," "Pregnancy," "Substance Abuse/Obesity," and "Tuberculosis." Although research on coronavirus has focused on population surveillance only occasionally, some papers have analyzed and collated guidelines whose relevance to the dissemination and management of the COVID-19 pandemic has become obvious. Topics include tracing the spread of the virus, limiting mass gatherings that would facilitate its propagation, and the imposition of quarantines. There were important differences in the scientific production and citation of different clusters: the documents on mental illnesses, stroke, substance abuse/obesity, and cross-infections had much higher citations than the clusters on disease outbreaks, tuberculosis, and especially coronavirus, where these values are substantially lower.
    Conclusions: The role of population surveillance should be strengthened, promoting research and the development of public health surveillance systems in countries whose contribution to the area is limited.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Content analysis; Data mining; Disease outbreaks; Information science; Knowledge representation; Network analysis; Public health; Public health surveillance; Research gaps; Subject areas
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05141
  18. Int J Womens Dermatol. 2020 Sep;6(4): 283-285
       Background: Despite growth in the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities in the dermatology workforce, gender and racial differences persist.
    Objective: This study sought to analyze the differences in academic rank between genders and races while controlling for achievement indicators.
    Methods: Data from 15 institutions, selected based on residency program rankings, were analyzed.
    Results: Women were well-represented as assistant professors (60.7% vs. 37.6% of men; p < .001) and underrepresented as full professors (17.0% vs. 37.6%; p < .001). However, in a multivariable analysis controlling for career duration, publications per year, National Institutes of Health funding, and PhD degrees, neither gender (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.01; confidence interval [CI], 0.55-2.73) nor race (aOR: 1.24; CI, 0.53-2.92) was associated with a higher academic rank. Career duration (aOR: 1.24; CI, 1.18-1.30), publications per year (aOR: 1.48; CI, 1.28-1.74), and National Institutes of Health research funding (aOR: 4.29; CI, 1.53-12.88) were predictive of higher academic rank.
    Conclusion: Our findings confirm that for equal levels of achievement, men and women are promoted similarly in dermatology, yet reasons for disparity in research output and funding for women and minority dermatologists need further study.
    Keywords:  Academic medicine; Female physicians; Sex differences; Sex parity; Underrepresented minorities in medicine; Women in dermatology
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijwd.2020.04.010
  19. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(10): e0240123
      The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a deluge of publications. For this cross-sectional study we compared the amount and reporting characteristics of COVID-19-related academic articles and preprints and the number of ongoing clinical trials and systematic reviews. To do this, we searched the PubMed database of citations and abstracts for published life science journals by using appropriate combinations of medical subject headings (MeSH terms), and the COVID-19 section of the MedRxiv and BioRxiv archives up to 20 May 2020 (21 weeks). In addition, we searched Clinicaltrial.gov, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, EU Clinical Trials Register, and 15 other trial registers, as well as PROSPERO, the international prospective register of systematic reviews. The characteristics of each publication were extracted. Regression analyses and Z tests were used to detect publication trends and their relative proportions. A total of 3635 academic publications and 3805 preprints were retrieved. Only 8.6% (n = 329) of the preprints were already published in indexed journals. The number of academic and preprint publications increased significantly over time (p<0.001). Case reports (6% academic vs 0.9% preprints; p<0.001) and letters (17.4% academic vs 0.5% preprints; p<0.001) accounted for a greater share of academic compared to preprint publications. Differently, randomized controlled trials (0.22% vs 0.63%; p<0.001) and systematic reviews (0.08% vs 5%) made up a greater share of the preprints. The relative proportion of clinical studies registered at Clinicaltrials.gov, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, and EU Clinical Trials Register was 57.9%, 49.5%, and 98.9%, respectively, most of which were still "recruiting". PROSPERO listed 962 systematic review protocols. Preprints were slightly more prevalent than academic articles but both were increasing in number. The void left by the lack of primary studies was filled by an outpour of immediate opinions (i.e., letters to the editor) published in PubMed-indexed journals. Summarizing, preprints have gained traction as a publishing response to the demand for prompt access to empirical, albeit not peer-reviewed, findings during the present pandemic.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240123
  20. Endocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets. 2020 Oct 07.
      Over the past 20 years, Endocrine Metabolic Immune Disorders-Drug Targets (EMIDDT) journal has been covering a broad field of intertwined topics related to pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy of endocrine, metabolic and immune diseases. At first, the journal publications were restricted to reviews only and, then, original article submissions have also been accepted. Nowadays, EMIDDT represents a successful journal in continuous expansion with 10 issues in 2020 and a current impact factor (IF) equal to 1.973. Moreover, since 2019 EMIDDT is the official journal of the Italian AME (Associazione Medici Endocrinologi) also linked to the American Association of Endocrinologists. Such a connection has given more impetus to the journal in terms of additional higher quality submissions. In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of EMIDDT, the content of some representative original articles published by the journal in the past and current years will be illustrated with special emphasis on cellular and molecular bases of drug targeting.
    Keywords:  Endocrinology; drug targeting.; immunology; metabolism; nutrition; therapy
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2174/1871530320666201007152628
  21. Future Med Chem. 2020 Oct 09.
      The natural tridecapeptide neurotensin has been emerged as a promising therapeutic scaffold for the treatment of neurological diseases and cancer. In this work, we aimed to identify the top 100 most cited original research papers as well as recent key studies related to neurotensins. The Web of Science Core Collection database was searched and the retrieved research articles were analyzed by using the VOSviewer software. The most cited original articles were published between 1973 and 2013. The top-cited article was by Carraway and Leeman reporting the discovery of neurotensin in 1973. The highly cited terms were associated with hypotension and angiotensin-converting-enzyme. The conducted analysis reveals the therapeutic potentials of neurotensin, and further impactful research toward its clinical development is warrantied.
    Keywords:  Parkinson´s disease; neurodegenerative diseases; neurotensin; peptidomimetics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4155/fmc-2020-0124
  22. J Crit Care. 2020 Sep 17. pii: S0883-9441(20)30687-0. [Epub ahead of print]
       PURPOSE: Publication bias has a significant impact on the results of systematic reviews. Clinical trial registry searches, which include unpublished research, should be conducted when performing systematic reviews to reduce publication bias. We aimed to analyze the use of clinical trial registry searches in critical care systematic reviews.
    METHODS: Systematic reviews published between 01/01/2010-02/18/2020 from the top 5 critical care journals were extracted from PubMed and screened for trial registry use. Additionally, of the studies not performing registry searches, we assessed ClinicalTrials.gov for potentially relevant trials that were missed by not performing a registry search.
    RESULTS: Three hundred and twenty six systematic reviews were analyzed, of which 37 (11.3%) performed trial registry searches. Of the studies not performing clinical trial registry searches, 56% had at least 1 potentially relevant trial that was missed.
    CONCLUSIONS: The omission of relevant, unpublished clinical trial results may be negatively impacting the accuracy of critical care systematic reviews. We recommend all systematic reviewers conduct clinical trial registry searches to reduce publication bias.
    Keywords:  Clinical trial registry; Critical care medicine; Publication bias; Systematic review
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2020.09.010
  23. Eval Program Plann. 2020 Sep 23. pii: S0149-7189(20)30179-8. [Epub ahead of print]83 101875
      Knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) has become an integral part of organizational practice. Evaluation of KTE, as well as knowledge products generated through this process, is important for understanding the effectiveness of KTE strategies. This scoping review aimed to identify tools and frameworks used to evaluate knowledge uptake and utilization (KUU). The search strategy included review of PubMed and Scopus databases, hand searching of relevant journals, and citation tracing. Over 6500 abstracts were screened; 292 full-text articles were shortlisted by two reviewers. Seventy-two articles described tools for evaluating KUU. A total of 23 tools could be generally applied to knowledge products/processes used in different sectors; 36 evaluation tools were designed for specific knowledge products (i.e., websites); 9 tools were discipline-specific (i.e., medical field), and four articles described evaluations of knowledge products/processes using alternative methods such as Google Analytics or qualitative methods. The majority of tools (n = 40, 56 %) focused on usability of a knowledge product or process. This scoping review identified various tools being used to assess the effectiveness and impact of KTE processes/products, however, the measures were as varied as the projects, and were often not designed to evaluate KTE in particular.
    Keywords:  Evaluation tool; Knowledge transfer and exchange; Knowledge translation; Knowledge uptake
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101875
  24. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(10): e0240288
      Successful publishing of an article depends on several factors, including the structure of the main text, the so-called introduction, methods, results and discussion structure (IMRAD). The first objective of our work is to provide recent results on the number of paragraphs (pars.) per section used in articles published in major medical journals. Our second objective is the investigation of other structural elements, i.e., number of tables, figures and references and the availability of supplementary material. We analyzed data from randomly selected original articles published in years 2005, 2010 and 2015 from the journals The BMJ, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine and PLOS Medicine. Per journal and year 30 articles were investigated. Random effect meta-analyses were performed to provide pooled estimates. The effect of time was analyzed by linear mixed models. All articles followed the IMRAD structure. The number of pars. per section increased for all journals over time with 1.08 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.70-1.46) pars. per every two years. The largest increase was observed for the methods section (0.29 pars. per year; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.19-0.39). PLOS Medicine had the highest number of pars. The number of tables did not change, but number of figures and references increased slightly. Not only the standard IMRAD structure should be used to increase the likelihood for publication of an article but also the general layout of the target journal. Supplementary material has become standard. If no journal-specific information is available, authors should use 3/10/9/8 pars. for the introduction/methods/results/discussion sections.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240288
  25. J Crit Care. 2020 Sep 29. pii: S0883-9441(20)30701-2. [Epub ahead of print]
       PURPOSE: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program director (PD) qualifications includes scholarly activity with demonstrated academic productivity and dissemination. Our hypothesis: academic productivity among adult critical care medicine (CCM) fellowship PDs is affected by gender with women having lower productivity.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: PDs in 39 institutions with CCM fellowships in anesthesiology, surgery, and pulmonary medicine were analyzed using data from ACGME website, PubMed, and NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools. Primary outcomes were total publications and h-index. Secondary outcomes included NIH funding and past five year publications. Independent variables and covariates included gender, academic rank, year appointed as program director, years certified in CCM, and specialty.
    RESULTS: PDs who were women had fewer total publications (median: 13 vs: 20, p = 0.030), past 5 years publications (median: 6 vs median: 9; p = 0.025), and less NIH funding (12% vs 32%; p = 0.046) compared to men. In exploratory analyses stratified by rank, assistant professor ranked women had fewer total (p = 0.027) and recent publications (p = 0.031) compared to men.
    CONCLUSIONS: Women who were PDs had fewer publications and less NIH funding compared to men with differences in publications more prominent in early career faculty.
    Keywords:  Critical care; Fellowship and scholarship; Graduate medical education; Human; Publications; Woman
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2020.09.022
  26. J Evid Based Med. 2020 Oct 09.
       OBJECTIVE: We aim to determine the percentage of publication and its associated factors of clinical trials (CTs) registered in Peru.
    METHODS: Using a cross-sectional study design, we assessed CTs registered at the CT's Peruvian Registry (REPEC) during the 2011-2016 period, and evaluated its percentage of publication and associated factors. We used a bibliographic search algorithm to determine if the CTs were published and assessed the associated factors by using a Cox regression to estimate the adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) as the magnitude of association of interest.
    RESULTS: We analyzed 228 CTs, of which 63% were published. The regression analysis identified the year of registration (aHR 2012 = 1.15 [0.58-2.27]; aHR 2013 = 0.45 [0.21-0.95]; aHR 2014 = 0.89 [0.43-1.82]; aHR 2015-2016 = 0.16 [0.05-0.58]), total number of participants (aHR = 1.12; 1.05-1.18), and phase III-IV (aHR = 2.15; 0.1.16-4.03) as factors associated with the publication of the CTs.
    CONCLUSIONS: The percentage of publication of CTs executed in Peru is insufficient, and it increases the older the year of its registration in the REPEC, mayor of the number of participating countries, and if it is a phase III or IV study.
    Keywords:  Peru; biomedical research; clinical trials; publishing; registries
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/jebm.12413
  27. Eur J Dent Educ. 2020 Oct 06.
       AIMS: To assess in each European country the correlation between the number of Network of Erasmus Based European Orthodontic Postgraduate Programmes (NEBEOP) members and orthodontic research activity. Secondary objectives were to describe and quantify Europe's orthodontic research.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Articles published between 2014 and 2018 in 4 major orthodontic journals (American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, European Journal of Orthodontics, The Angle Orthodontist, Orthodontics and Craniofacial Research) and oral presentation abstracts of five European Orthodontic Society (EOS) congresses were analysed. For each European country, the total number of orthodontic programmes and NEBEOP memberships were collected. Descriptive statistics were performed, Spearman correlation coefficients and risk ratios were calculated.
    RESULTS: 2039 articles and 261 oral presentation abstracts were included. Correlation coefficients between national number of publications, oral presentations, sum of these, all adjusted for population, and number of NEBEOP members in each country were 0.64, 0.65 and 0.62 respectively. Risk ratios were all above 1 and statistically significant for number of NEBEOP memberships per country, indicating positive associations with national orthodontic research productivity. Europe accounted for 30.5% of publications and 68.6% of oral presentations at EOS congresses during this period. European orthodontic research was not evenly distributed, since 9 countries were responsible for around 80% of the output.
    CONCLUSIONS: A positive association was found between number of NEBEOP programmes and national research activity. These results could be an additional argument to support similar pan-European initiatives and guidelines for postgraduate education, not only in orthodontics but in all other dental specialties.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Congresses as Topic; Dental; Education; Graduate; NEBEOP; Orthodontics; Periodicals as Topic; Statistics and numerical data
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/eje.12610
  28. Health Inf Sci Syst. 2020 Dec;8(1): 30
      With the rapid global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have contributed several important advances. The WHO and countries with severe outbreaks have developed diagnosis and treatment guidelines. Here, we analyze the current transformation and application of scientific research to global epidemic prevention and control. We described and analyzed current COVID-19 research from the perspectives of international cooperation, interdisciplinary cooperation, and research hotspots using a bibliometric clustering algorithm. Using the diagnosis and treatment guidelines of the WHO and the United States and China as examples, we evaluate the transformation of scientific results from basic research to applications. Scientific research results that have not yet been incorporated into these guidelines are summarized to encourage updates and improvements by applying scientific research to prevention and control. COVID-19 has fostered interdisciplinary cooperative research, and the current results are mainly focused on the origin, epidemiological characteristics, clinical research, and diagnosis and treatment methods for the virus. Due to the ongoing publication of new research, diagnosis and treatment guidelines are constantly improving. However, some research gaps still exist, and some results have not yet been incorporated into the guidelines. The current research is still in the preliminary exploratory stage, and some problems, such as weak international cooperation, unbalanced interdisciplinary cooperation, and the lack of coordination between research and applications, exist. Therefore, countries around the world must improve the International Public Health Emergency Management System and prepare for major public health emergencies in the future.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; COVID-19; Diagnosis and treatment guidelines; Global epidemic
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s13755-020-00120-w
  29. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2020 Sep 30. pii: S0190-9622(20)32667-0. [Epub ahead of print]
      
    Keywords:  Application; Medical students; Quality; Residency program; Volunteer; Work
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2020.09.066