bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2021‒06‒13
thirty-five papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society


  1. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Jun 10.
      This study aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge map of tourism and environmental degradation literature review based on scientific articles published between 1999 and 2020. The study provides an overview of research, influential authors, and journals. The PR China has maintained the lead in academic research with the most contribution in academic research in recent years. Sustainability, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Katircioglu are the most productive journal, academic institution, and author in the field of tourism and environmental degradation, respectively. The degree of research contribution among researchers, institutional and national level, has an upward trend in recent years, but the research contribution among author level is higher than the institutional and national level. Furthermore, co-citation analysis suggests that research articles in the field are closely related. "Investigating the influence of tourism on economic growth and carbon emissions: Evidence from panel analysis of the European Union" authored by Lee is the most cited article. Our analysis of abstracts and keywords shows that climate change, ecotourism, carbon emissions, economic growth, and energy consumption are the hot spots of academic literature. We suggest that research collaboration between developed and developing nations should be promoted in creating sustainable tourism reforms.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; Frequency and co-occurrence analysis; Massive literature data; Research trends; Tourism
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14798-2
  2. J Pain Res. 2021 ;14 1611-1626
      Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the global research trends of herbal medicine for pain from 1990 to 2019, using bibliometric methods, and explore international collaborations, intellectual structure, the evolution of active topics, emerging trends, and research frontiers.Methods: Articles on herbal medicine for pain were retrieved from WoSCC. Two information visualization softwares including CiteSpace and HistCite were used to process bibliographic catalogs. Identification of international collaborations, intellectual structure, the evolution of active topics, emerging trends, and research frontiers were performed based on results from bibliometric analysis.
    Results: A total of 2986 original articles published between 1990 and 2019 were identified based on the inclusion criteria. The number of publications on herbal medicine for pain in WoSCC significantly increased. China ranked highest in the number of scientific outputs; however, articles with the highest citation rates were found to be from the United States. China-Japan reported the most active collaborations, whereas Kyung Hee University from South Korea was the most productive institution. Zhang Y was the most productive author, whereas research by Sherman KJ and Vane JR had the highest influence. Journal of Ethnopharmacology was the most active journal, whereas Integrative and Complementary Medicine was the most active research area. History of herbal medicine for pain research comprises three major phases of activities. The main points of focus of bibliometric analysis of herbal medicine for pain include "knee osteoarthritis", "cancer", "low back pain", etc.. Moreover, research on mechanisms of action of herbal medicine for pain remains at the forefront of this field.
    Conclusion: This paper provides a basis for future development of research on herbal medicine for pain, which may help researchers explore new directions for future research and identify new perspectives on potential collaborations in this field.
    Keywords:  CiteSpace; HistCite; bibliometric analysis; herbal medicine; international collaborations; pain; traditional medicine
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S311311
  3. Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 ;8 675703
      Background: Retinoblastoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy of childhood. Despite high survival and eye salvage as the result of various types of therapies, retinoblastoma remains a disease that places a considerable burden on developing countries. Our study attempted to analyse the research trends in retinoblastoma research and compare contributions from different countries, institutions, journals, and authors. Methods: We extracted all publications concerning retinoblastoma from 2001 to 2021 from the Web of Science database. Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer were employed to collect publication data, analyse publication trends, and visualize relevant results. Results: A total of 1,675 publications with 30,148 citations were identified. The United States contributed the most publications (643) and citations (16,931 times) with the highest H-index value (67) as of February 4, 2021. China ranked second in the number of publications (259), while ranking fourth in both citations (2,632 times) and the H-index (26) ranked fourth. The British Journal of Ophthalmology was the most productive journal concerning retinoblastoma, and Abramson DH had published the most papers in the field. Keywords were categorized into three clusters; tumor-related research, clinical research, and management-related research. The keywords "intravitreal," "intraarterial," and "intravenous" appeared the most frequently, with the average appearing year being 2018.1, 2017.7, and 2017.1, respectively. Management-related research has been recognized as a heavily researched topic in the field. Conclusion: We conclude that the United States, China, and India made the most exceptional contributions in the field of retinoblastoma research, while China still has a disparity between the quantity and quality of publications. Management-related research, including intravitreal, intraarterial, and intravenous chemotherapy was considered as a potential focus for future research.
    Keywords:  bibliometric analysis; chemotherapy; citations; publication trends; retinoblastoma
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.675703
  4. Dis Colon Rectum. 2021 Jun 08.
      BACKGROUND: A new bibliometric index called the disruption score was recently proposed to identify innovative and paradigm-changing publications.OBJECTIVE: The goal was to apply the disruption score to the colorectal surgery literature to provide the community with a repository of important research papers.
    DESIGN: A bibliometric analysis.
    SETTINGS: The 100 most disruptive and developmental publications in Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, Colorectal Disease, International Journal of Colorectal Disease, and Techniques in Coloproctology were identified from a validated dataset of disruption scores and linked with the iCite NIH tool to obtain citation counts.
    MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Disruption score and citation count.
    RESULTS: We identified 12,127 articles published in Diseases of the Colon and Rectum (n=8,109), International Journal of Colorectal Disease (n=1,912), Colorectal Disease (n=1,751), and Techniques in Coloproctology (n=355) between 1954-2014. Diseases of the Colon and Rectum had the most papers in the top 100 most disruptive and developmental lists. The disruptive papers were in the top 1% of the disruption score distribution in PubMed and were cited between 1 and 671 times. Being highly cited was weakly correlated with high disruption scores (r=0.09). Developmental papers had disruption scores that were more strongly correlated with citation count (r=0.18).
    LIMITATIONS: Subject to limitations of bibliometric indices, which change over time.
    DISCUSSION: The disruption score identified insightful and paradigm-changing studies in colorectal surgery. Interestingly, they include a wide range of topics and consistently identified editorials and case reports/case series as important research. This bibliometric analysis provides colorectal surgeons with a unique archive of research that can often be overlooked, but that may have scholarly significance. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/B639 .
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/DCR.0000000000002118
  5. Cell J. 2021 Jul;23(2): 238-246
      Objective: Circular RNA (circRNA) is of significant interest in genetic research. The aim of this study was to assess global trends in circRNA research production in order to shed new light on future research frontiers.Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, we conducted a literature search using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database on March 21, 2019 to retrieve publications from 2007 to 2018. Excel 2013, CiteSpace V, and VOSviewer were used to evaluate bibliometric features that included publication output, countries/regions, institutions, journals, citation frequency, H-index, and research hotspots.
    Results: Global cumulative publication output on circRNA consisted of 998 papers with a total citation of 28 595 during 2007-2018. China, the US, and Germany were the most prolific countries. China ranked first in H-index (60 times) and citations (13 333 times). The most productive institution was Nanjing Medical University with 73 papers. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (impact factor [IF]2017:2.559) ranked first among journals in the number of publications (64 papers). The keywords shifted from "sequence", "intron", and "splice-site" to "transcriptome", "microRNA sponge", "exon circularization", and "circRNA biogenesis" overtime. The burst keywords "transcriptome", "microRNA sponge", "exon circularization", and "circRNA biogenesis" were the latest frontiers by 2018.
    Conclusion: This is a relatively novel bibliometric analysis to inspect research related to circRNA. The results show that publications have continuously increased in the past decade. China, the US, and Germany were the leading countries/regions in terms of quantity. Recent studies on topics related to circRNA biogenesis and function should be closely followed in this field.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric; Circular RNA; Citation; CiteSpace; VOSviewer
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.22074/cellj.2021.7143
  6. Turk Gogus Kalp Damar Cerrahisi Derg. 2021 Apr;29(2): 223-232
      Background: In this study, we aimed to examine the development of knowledge on pectus deformities through a meticulous analysis of the 100 most-cited articles published on this topic.Methods: Publications related to pectus deformities from January 1975 to April 2020 were scanned using the Web of Science Core Collection database. The publications were ranked from maximum to minimum according to the number of citations and were examined in detail.
    Results: The 100 articles were published in 27 different journals and received a total of 8,290 citations. The average of the impact factors of journals in 2018 was 4.441. The mean citation density of all articles was 5.1±3.8. In the past years, a surgical technique definition and experience transfer were more frequently used, while complications and technical details were started to be presented in recent years.
    Conclusion: Our study results suggest that the studies of pectus deformities would continue and, from now on, issues such as complications and technical details would come to the forefront in the articles.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; citation; pectus deformities; surgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2021.20295
  7. Front Immunol. 2021 ;12 669539
      Acute lung injury (ALI) is an intractable disorder associated with macrophages. This bibliometric analysis was applied to identify the characteristics of global scientific output, the hotspots, and frontiers about macrophages in ALI over the past 10 years. We retrieved publications published from 2011 to 2020 and their recorded information from Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-expanded) of Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Bibliometrix package was used to analyze bibliometric indicators, and the VOSviewer was used to visualize the trend and hotspots of researches on macrophages in ALI. Altogether, 2,632 original articles were reviewed, and the results showed that the annual number of publications (Np) concerning the role of macrophages in ALI kept increasing over the past 10 years. China produced the most papers, the number of citations (Nc) and H-index of the USA ranked first. Shanghai Jiaotong University and INT IMMUNOPHARMACOL were the most prolific affiliation and journal, respectively. Papers published by Matute-Bello G in 2011 had the highest local citation score (LCS). Recently, the keywords "NLRP3" and "extracellular vesicles" appeared most frequently. Besides, researches on COVID-19-induced ALI related to macrophages seemed to be the hotspot recently. This bibliometric study revealed that publications related to macrophages in ALI tend to increase continuously. China was a big producer and the USA was an influential country in this field. Most studies were mainly centered on basic researches in the past decade, and pathways associated with the regulatory role of macrophages in inhibiting and attenuating ALI have become the focus of attention in more recent studies. What is more, our bibliometric analysis showed that macrophages play an important role in COVID-19-induced ALI and may be a target for the treatment of COVID-19.
    Keywords:  VOSviewer; acute lung injury; bibliometrics; bibliometrix; macrophages
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.669539
  8. F1000Res. 2021 ;10 174
      Background: Medical negligence is an increasing public health concern among healthcare providers worldwide as it affects patient safety. It poses a significant risk of patient injury, disease, disability, or death. The WHO has recognized deficiencies in patient safety as a global healthcare issue to be addressed. This study aimed to analyze various components of medical negligence research literature. Methods: Bibliographic data visualizations tools like Biblioshiny (RStudio) and VOSviewer were used besides MS Excel to examine the types of documents, annual scientific production, top contributing authors and their impact, authorship patterns and collaboration, top contributing countries and organizations, most significant sources of publication, most cited documents, and most frequently used keywords. Bibliometric methods were used to analyze the bibliographic records of research output on medical negligence downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection. Results: The annual productivity of medical negligence research was increasing gradually. The most productive period for medical negligence research was 2011-2020. Bird contributed the highest number of publications to medical negligence literature while Brennan emerged as the highly cited author. Single-authored publications on medical negligence were not highly cited. The United States was the highest contributing country and the University of South Florida was the highest contributing organization while Harvard University was a highly cited organization. Nine out of the top ten contributing organizations were academic institutions and most of them belonged to the United States. The most important sources of publication on this topic were The Lancet and British Medical Journal. Localio et al. was the most important research article on medical negligence research. Conclusion: Due to increasing attention on this topic, there was a sharp increase in the research output on medical negligence. This is of significance as the WHO set in motion a patient safety program almost two decades ago.
    Keywords:  Medical negligence; bibliometric; medical errors; medical malpractice; patient safety; scientometric
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.37448.1
  9. Respir Med. 2021 May 28. pii: S0954-6111(21)00192-X. [Epub ahead of print]185 106486
      BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an emerging health problem, but information on scientific production in this subject area is scarce. We aim to evaluate the scientific production on OSA from 2009 to 2018 to illustrate its worldwide distribution, topic areas, and ability to secure funding, as well as to describe international collaboration networks in this field.METHODS: Articles published between 2009 and 2018 were extracted from the Science Citation Index Expanded via Web of Science (WoS) using the search term "obstructive sleep apn*". Publication year, number and country of authors, journal, subject category, key words, funding source and number of citations received were recorded. We also conducted network analyses for key words and international collaboration.
    RESULTS: 12,666 articles on OSA were located, which had increased from 895 documents in 2009 to 1592 in 2018. The progressive growth in scientific production on OSA had outpaced the growth rate of total WoS production since 2012.50% of the articles declared some type of funding, with a citation index higher than manuscripts that were not funded. The manuscripts were distributed in journals from 135 subject categories of the WoS, and keyword distribution showed a dispersed pattern with a high number of nodes. The international collaboration rate was 18.2%, and the country network showed the United States as the hegemonic node.
    CONCLUSION: World production on OSA has grown at a higher rate than global production and shows notable thematic dispersion as well as a high ability to secure funding, which increases its impact.
    Keywords:  Activity; Apnea; Authorship; Bibliometric analyses; Collaboration; Production; Research; Sleep
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2021.106486
  10. Arthroscopy. 2021 Jun;pii: S0749-8063(21)00344-3. [Epub ahead of print]37(6): 1798-1799
      Predicting future trends in arthroscopic and related surgery can be a challenging task for researchers, authors, editors, and clinicians alike. Analysis of high-citation articles from the past may guide future research. Cartilage had been the most highly cited topic in the arthroscopic literature, but the last 5 years has been overtaken by shoulder and rotator cuff. Following close behind is the hip arthroscopy literature, which is clearly moving up in the citation rankings. As highly cited "classic" articles become common knowledge, their overwhelming impact on citation will lessen, allowing the next generation of articles and topics to flourish. We may benefit from the analysis of arthroscopic topics in smaller time frames to predict future trends to give us a more up-to-date prediction of the future. The sweet spot may be somewhere between 5 to 10 years rather than since the inception of journal metrics to help predict where the literature is going. This is not to say that the classic articles aren't critically important, but they are just that, classic, and not necessarily predictive of the future.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arthro.2021.02.048
  11. J Neurosurg Spine. 2021 Jun 11. pii: 2020.12.SPINE201771. [Epub ahead of print] 1-8
      OBJECTIVE: Although fellowship training is becoming increasingly common in neurosurgery, it is unclear which factors predict an academic career trajectory among spinal neurosurgeons. In this study, the authors sought to identify predictors associated with academic career placement among fellowship-trained neurological spinal surgeons.METHODS: Demographic data and bibliometric information on neurosurgeons who completed a residency program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education between 1983 and 2019 were gathered, and those who completed a spine fellowship were identified. Employment was denoted as academic if the hospital where a neurosurgeon worked was affiliated with a neurosurgical residency program; all other positions were denoted as nonacademic. A logistic regression model was used for multivariate statistical analysis.
    RESULTS: A total of 376 fellowship-trained spinal neurosurgeons were identified, of whom 140 (37.2%) held academic positions. The top 5 programs that graduated the most fellows in the cohort were Cleveland Clinic, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of Miami, Barrow Neurological Institute, and Northwestern University. On multivariate analysis, increased protected research time during residency (OR 1.03, p = 0.044), a higher h-index during residency (OR 1.12, p < 0.001), completing more than one clinical fellowship (OR 2.16, p = 0.024), and attending any of the top 5 programs that graduated the most fellows (OR 2.01, p = 0.0069) were independently associated with an academic career trajectory.
    CONCLUSIONS: Increased protected research time during residency, a higher h-index during residency, completing more than one clinical fellowship, and attending one of the 5 programs graduating the most fellowship-trained neurosurgical spinal surgeons independently predicted an academic career. These results may be useful in identifying and advising trainees interested in academic spine neurosurgery.
    Keywords:  academic career; graduate medical education; neurosurgery; residency
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3171/2020.12.SPINE201771
  12. Front Psychol. 2021 ;12 665181
      The purpose of this study was to evaluate the international scientific output on postpartum depression (PPD) research during 2000-2020 through a bibliometric analysis and to explore research hotspots, frontiers, and trends in the field of postpartum depression. We searched the Web of Science Core Collection for publications on postpartum depression published between 2000 and 2020. CiteSpace, gCluto, and other software applications were used to analyze the data by year, journal, and country. A total of 2,963 publications were retrieved and 96 countries or regions published related papers. The United States had the largest number of published papers and the highest betweenness centrality, which is the dominant position in the field of postpartum depression. A total of 717 journals published papers, with the Archives of Womens Mental Health ranked first in terms of volume and betweenness centrality. In this study, 31 high-frequency main MeSH terms/subheadings were selected. The high-frequency MeSH terms were clustered into six categories: an overview of depression-related research, diagnostic and screening scales for postpartum depression, epidemiological investigation into postpartum depression, treatment and drug selection for postpartum depression, psychological research on postpartum depression, and etiology, physiopathology, complications, genetics of postpartum depression. Finally, we used strategic diagram to analyze research trends in postpartum depression. This study has identified a continuous significant increase in the publication of PPD articles. Currently, the etiology, physiological pathology, intervention and treatment of complications on PPD are immature, which provides reference for the trend of obstetric psychology.
    Keywords:  PPD; bibliometrics; knowledge map; postpartum depression; visualization analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.665181
  13. J Educ Perioper Med. 2021 Apr-Jun;23(2):23(2): E662
      Background: Program directors (PDs) play a crucial role in the competitiveness of the residency selection process and in mentoring the next generation of physicians. With this mandate comes the need to evaluate PDs on their own academic performance. We aimed to evaluate the distinguishing characteristics of anesthesiology residency programs with a focus on academic productivity of PDs and to investigate how these characteristics affect the Doximity program rank.Methods: We identified anesthesiology program rankings from 2019 Doximity standings and divided them into quartiles (Q1-Q4). PD academic history and bibliometric indices (H-index, number of publications and citations) were collected through program websites, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) websites.
    Results: A total of 152 active anesthesiology programs and PDs were identified across the United States. Among the 152 PDs, 32% (n = 49) were women and 68% (n = 103) were men. There were differences between the Q1 versus Q2 programs in all of the variables other than PDs' number of fellowships. However, Q2 versus Q3 and Q3 versus Q4 programs had fewer identified differences. Each of the assessed PDs' bibliometric indices showed weak correlation with the program rank; however, there were stronger correlated factors of program rank, such as the program's original ACGME accreditation date (rs = 0.5, P < .0001) and female resident percentage (rs = 0.36, P < .0001) with moderate positive correlation. Additionally, the program size (rs = 0.77, P < .0001) and the number of ACGME-approved fellowships provided by the program (rs = 0.75, P < .0001) had a very strong positive correlation.
    Conclusion: This study shows that program rank in the growing field of anesthesiology correlates with program size, female residents' percentage, ACGME approval date, number of ACGME-approved fellowships, as well as PDs' research productivity.
    Keywords:  Anesthesiology; academic performance; fellowship; publications; residency
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.46374/volxxiii_issue2_knezevic
  14. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2021 Jun 06. 21(1): 119
      BACKGROUND: Data-sharing policies in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) should have an evaluation component. The main objective of this case-control study was to assess the impact of published re-uses of RCT data in terms of media attention (Altmetric) and citation rates.METHODS: Re-uses of RCT data published up to December 2019 (cases) were searched for by two reviewers on 3 repositories (CSDR, YODA project, and Vivli) and matched to control papers published in the same journal. The Altmetric Attention Score (primary outcome), components of this score (e.g. mention of policy sources, media attention) and the total number of citations were compared between these two groups.
    RESULTS: 89 re-uses were identified: 48 (53.9%) secondary analyses, 34 (38.2%) meta-analyses, 4 (4.5%) methodological analyses and 3 (3.4%) re-analyses. The median (interquartile range) Altmetric Attention Scores were 5.9 (1.3-22.2) for re-use and 2.8 (0.3-12.3) for controls (p = 0.14). No statistical difference was found on any of the components of in the Altmetric Attention Score. The median (interquartile range) numbers of citations were 3 (1-8) for reuses and 4 (1 - 11.5) for controls (p = 0.30). Only 6/89 re-uses (6.7%) were cited in a policy source.
    CONCLUSIONS: Using all available re-uses of RCT data to date from major data repositories, we were not able to demonstrate that re-uses attracted more attention than a matched sample of studies published in the same journals. Small average differences are still possible, as the sample size was limited. However matching choices have some limitations so results should be interpreted very cautiously. Also, citations by policy sources for re-uses were rare.
    TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registration: osf.io/fp62e.
    Keywords:  Altmetric; Attention score; Clinical trial; Data reuse; Data-sharing; Individual Participant Data; Reproducibility; Research impact; Scientific transparency
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-021-01311-z
  15. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2021 Jun 08. 1-24
      BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has spread quickly all over the world. The number of studies in this field is increasing day by day and being cited.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze the publications in the field of COVID-19 with the help of bibliometric methods. After bibliometric analysis,the second aim is to investigate the relationship between the number of publications in countries and the number of total cases.
    METHODS: The data in the study were taken from the Web of Science(WOS) site. Analyzes and mapping processes were performed using VOSviewer and SPSS package program. The words "COVID-19", "Novel Coronavirus", "2019-nCoV", "SARS-CoV-2" were used as key words for analysis. The data includes publications from 2019 and up to 2021(January 10).
    RESULTS: As a result of the study, a total of 38080 publications were evaluated. It was determined that the countries with the highest number of publications on COVID-19 were China and USA, and the country with the highest number of citations was China. Most of the studies in the field of COVID-19 have been conducted on General Internal Medicine and Public Enviromental Occupational Health. In addition, statistically significant relationships were observed between the number of publications and the number of total cases in terms of countries(r=0.806, p<0.001).
    CONCLUSION: As a result, bibliometric analysis about COVID-19 can be useful for the future studies. It gives a general perspective of the studies.
    Keywords:  Analysis; Bibliometric; COVID-19
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2021.177
  16. Hinyokika Kiyo. 2021 Apr;67(4): 125-132
      Gender equality is one of the most important issues in the promotion of diversity. The participation status of female urologists in academic activities has not been clarified. In the present study, we analyzed a total of 10,288 articles published by 58,914 authors in Acta Urologica Japonica since the first issue in 1955 to the present. The author's gender was determined by an application program interface for gender estimation in combination with independent manual confirmation by two researchers. The increasing rate (⊿person/⊿year) of female authors was as low as 0.067 in 1955-79, but increased to 0.400 in 1980-2000 and 0.814 in 2001-20. Over the time periods, the annual total numbers of female authors (person/year) showed an increasing trend from 3.2 in 1955-79 to 16.3 in 1980-2000 and 26.0 in 2001-20. The numbers of female author individuals, the ratio of female authors to all authors and the ratio of publications by female first author to all publications also showed similar trends. These results suggest that gender equality is becoming more prevalent in the academic field of urology. The methods and data of this study are considered to be useful for the promotion of gender equality in the academic field of urology for the future.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.14989/ActaUrolJap_67_4_125
  17. Eur J Emerg Med. 2021 Jun 03.
      OBJECTIVE: Despite an established gender gap in academic medicine, evidence on gender diversity in emergency medicine is scarce. In the present study, gender distribution of editorial boards and among editors-in-chief of 31 emergency medicine journals was investigated in 2020/2021 and compared to 2015 and 2010. Additionally, gender distribution in editorial boards of emergency medicine journals was compared to editorial boards in five different medical specialties.METHODS: In this cross-sectional analysis, gender of editorial board members and editors-in-chief of journals ranked in the Clarivate Analytics 'Journal Citation Report' (JCR) of 2019 in the sections 'Emergency Medicine', 'Medicine General and Internal', 'Surgery', 'Obstetrics and Gynecology', 'Pediatrics' and 'Orthopedics' were analyzed.
    RESULTS: In the investigated 31 emergency medicine journals, three out of 35 editors-in-chief (9%) and 299 out of 1810 editorial board members (17%) were women in 2020/2021. In 2015 and 2010, two editors-in-chief were women (13% vs. 15%). In 2015, 19% of editorial board members were women and in 2010 it was 18%, respectively. There was no significant difference in gender distribution among editors-in-chief and editorial board members comparing 2020/2021 with 2015 and 2010 (P = 0.76 vs. P = 0.40, respectively). There was a lower percentage of women in editorial boards of emergency medicine journals compared to the top five JCR-ranked journals in the categories 'Medicine General and Internal', 'Surgery', 'Gynecology and Obstetrics' and 'Pediatrics'.
    CONCLUSION: The gender gap in editorial boards and among editors-in-chief of emergency medicine journals seems to be consistent for the last 10 years. Gender disparity appears to be substantial in academic emergency medicine: The percentage of women in emergency medicine editorial boards was lower compared to editorial boards of four other medical specialties.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MEJ.0000000000000842
  18. Am J Med Qual. 2021 Jun 08.
      Among quality improvement (QI) projects submitted for local presentation, the authors sought to understand how often project results were eventually disseminated through national/international presentation or peer-reviewed journal publication. Projects submitted for local presentation from 2016 to 2019 were linked to resulting publications or national/international conference presentations. Submitting authors were surveyed about their intentions, experience, and satisfaction with the process of disseminating their project results. Of 83 projects, 5 were published and another 10 were presented nationally/internationally. External dissemination was more likely with fewer project cycles and cost-focused outcomes. Survey responses indicated that most project leaders wanted to see their results published but held mixed opinions about resources and encouragement available to reach this goal. Few QI projects submitted for local presentation resulted in wider dissemination of project results. Sharing results and lessons learned beyond the local institution requires long-term planning, education, and support beginning early in the QI process.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/01.JMQ.0000735488.70012.9b
  19. J Genet Couns. 2021 Jun;30(3): 774-784
      Content analyses of published papers in journals inform readers, editors, and members of the profession about historical publication patterns and how the journal has represented the field. This study is a content analysis of original research papers published in the Journal of Genetic Counseling from January 2011 through December 2017. This is the first study of its kind for the flagship journal of the National Society of Genetic Counseling. Of 794 papers published in the 7-year period, 428 were original research included in the analysis. Content analysis yielded categories reflecting the types of data analyses, genetic counseling practice specialties, characteristics of the study sample, and major topics/issues investigated in each study. There was an overall positive linear trend in the number of articles published during this period (p = .002). Approximately equal percentages of studies used qualitative (34%), quantitative (31%), and mixed (35%) analyses, and these proportions did not vary significantly across volumes (p = .73). Cancer (27%), prenatal (13.3%), and general genetics (12.6%) were the most prevalent specialties represented. The number of studies about prenatal and pediatrics was less, and the number of studies about neurogenetics was greater than would be expected based on the clinical workforce (p<.001). Patients were the most common sample (55.6%). While there was a significant increase in the number of articles with diverse samples (p = .001), the proportion of such articles did not increase over time (p = .86). The most common content areas were genetic counseling practice (16.8%); attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about genetics services (16.1%); and decision-making (14.5%). In contrast, relatively few studies focused on laboratory genetic counselor, male, gender non-conforming, and adoptee populations. The trends and gaps highlighted in this content analysis can inform future research endeavors.
    Keywords:  content analysis; genetic counseling; research gaps; research trends; systematic review; underrepresented populations
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/jgc4.1373
  20. Stem Cells Int. 2021 ;2021 6667743
      Over the last few decades, China has greatly expanded its scope of stem cell research, generating various scientific advances and medical applications. However, knowledge of the extent and characteristics of domestic stem cell development, particularly medical workers' opinions, is lacking. This study's purposes were to analyze the growth trends of China's stem cell community and identify the knowledge and attitudes held by Chinese medical workers regarding stem cell research. We found that there are currently 13 high-quality stem cell research centers with more than 400 PhD-level researchers across Mainland China. These centers feature many high-caliber scientists from the stem cell research community. From 1997 through 2019, the National Natural Science Foundation of China allocated roughly $576 million to 8,050 stem cell programs at Chinese universities and research institutions. China's annual publications on stem cells increased from less than 0.6% of the world's total stem cell publications in 1999 to more than 14.1% in 2014. Our survey also revealed that most participants held positive attitudes toward stem cell research, supported further funding, and had high general awareness about stem cells.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6667743
  21. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2021 Jun 09. 16(1): 265
      BACKGROUND: Orphan drug designations are a useful proxy to investigate trends in rare disease drug development. Drug developers must receive a designation before they are eligible for the economic incentives of the Orphan Drug Act in the United States. We created a database of all orphan drugs designated between 1983 and 2019 that included numerous drug characteristics, including therapeutic area. In addition, we constructed a "broad disease" categorization of designations as an alternative to therapeutic area, based on disease etiology and age of onset rather than organ system. By looking at the pattern of orphan drug designations over the past four decades, this analysis studied the impact of the evolving rare disease drug development landscape and considers the future of rare disease therapies over the coming decades.RESULTS: Between 1983 and 2019, a total of 5099 drugs and biologics received orphan drug designation. Designations more than doubled between the 1980s and 1990s, almost doubled between the 1990s and 2000s, and almost tripled in number between the 2000s and 2010s. The top three therapeutic areas represented in the orphan drug designations were: oncology (1910, 37%), neurology (674, 13%), and infectious diseases (436, 9%). The broad disease categorization found that the proportion of designations for pediatric-onset diseases has increased in the most recent decade to 27%.
    CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of the last four decades of orphan drug designation indicates seismic shifts have occurred in the rare disease drug development space. The number of designations granted more than quadrupled between the 1990s and 2010s. While these substantial increases led to growth in the absolute number of designations within all therapeutic areas (bar one) and broad disease categories, the relative proportions have seen considerable change over time. In the most recent decade, there have been notable increases in the proportion of drugs in oncology, pediatric-onset diseases, and neurologic disorders. The dramatic rise in overall orphan designations over the past four decades suggests we may continue to see an upward trajectory in designations leading to an increased number of approvals for drugs and biologics designed specifically for diagnosing, preventing, and treating rare diseases in the coming decades.
    Keywords:  Oncology; Orphan Drug Act; Orphan drug designation; Orphan drugs; Pediatric; Rare disease; US Food and Drug Administration
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s13023-021-01901-6
  22. Environ Res. 2021 Jun 08. pii: S0013-9351(21)00784-2. [Epub ahead of print] 111490
      Sustainable remediation, which promotes the use of more sustainable practices during environmental clean-up activities, is an area of intense international development. While numerous indicators related to sustainable remediation assessment have been utilized and published in related academic literature, they are difficult to unify and vary in emphasis between countries. Following literature retrieval from CNKI, Springer, ScienceDirect, and Wiley Online databases, we present a systematic and bibliometric analysis of relevant national and international literature to define the most frequently considered indicators of sustainability, which play important roles in selecting remediation technologies or site management methods from a sustainability perspective. Following the application of co-occurrence analysis and social network analysis, the results indicate that 1) environmental criteria are most commonly used in evaluating remediation technologies, with significantly less emphasis on social criteria in Chinese publications in particular; 2) with an increasing number of publications in the last 20 years, sustainable remediation has gone through an initial stage, rising stage, and burst or wider adoption stage, characterized by a transformation of the research theme from a predominantly risk-based management approach to a sustainability-based one, with risk management as an underpinning principle; 3) health, resource, cost, and time are the most widely used indicators in terms of social, environmental, economic, and technical criteria, respectively; 4) clear differences exist between China and other nations, particularly in the frequency of usage of each indicator, the application of social criteria, and preferred stakeholders. Nevertheless, China has made significant progress and now makes increasing contributions to sustainable remediation at an international level.
    Keywords:  Co-occurrence analysis; Contaminated site management; Evaluation indicator; Social network analysis; Sustainable remediation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111490
  23. Eur J Ophthalmol. 2021 Jun 06. 11206721211023725
      PURPOSE: To examine the absolute number and the proportions of articles published in general high-ranked ophthalmology journals for each ophthalmic subspecialty during the last decade, and to examine the publishing trends over the study period.METHODS: All original articles published between January 2010 and December 2019 in the selected general clinical ophthalmic journals were included in the study. All abstracts of original articles were reviewed and deemed to be related to 1 of the 11 ophthalmic subspecialties.
    RESULTS: Six journals and 10,232 abstracts were reviewed. Articles focused on medical retina were the most common in the last decade (35.22%) while articles focused on strabismus were the least common (2.11%). The total number of articles published per year decreased during the last decade (p < 0.01). There was a significant reduction in the number of publications per year focused on anterior-chamber (p = 0.012), cataract and refractive-surgeries (p = 0.014), oculoplastic (p < 0.01), and strabismus (p = 0.011). In each year during the last decade, the highest proportion of publications was focused on medical retina while the lowest proportion of publications in most of the years was focused on strabismus. There was a significant decrease during the years in the proportion of articles focused on oculoplastic (p < 0.01).
    CONCLUSIONS: During the last decade, there have been differences in the proportion of publications of different ophthalmology subspecialties in high impact factor journals. This probably derives from demographic changes and advances in diagnosis and treatment. The proportion of articles focused on medical retina was the highest during all years while the proportion of articles focused on strabismus was consistently the lowest.
    Keywords:  Socioeconomics and education in medicine/ophthalmology; glaucoma; lens/cataract; neuro ophthalmology; oculoplastic eyelid/lacrimal disease; pediatric ophthalmology; refractive surgery; retina; strabismus; tumors
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/11206721211023725
  24. Eur Urol. 2021 Jun 03. pii: S0302-2838(21)01800-5. [Epub ahead of print]
      BACKGROUND: Female representation in urological meetings is important for gender equity.OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to examine the prevalence of "manels" or all-male speaking panels at urological meetings.
    DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Urology meetings organized by major urological associations/societies from December 2019 to November 2020 were reviewed. Meeting information and details of the faculty were retrieved.
    OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Primary outcomes were: (1) the percentage of male faculty in all included sessions and (2) the overall proportion of manels. We made further comparisons between manel and multigender sessions. Male and female faculty were stratified by quartiles of publications, citations, and H-index, and their mean numbers of sessions were compared.
    RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: Among 285 meeting sessions, 181 (63.5%) were manels. The mean percentage of male faculty was 86.9%. Male representation was very high in urology meetings for most disciplines and urological associations/societies, except for female urology meeting sessions and those organized by the International Continence Society. Nonmanel sessions had higher numbers of chairs/moderators (p = 0.027), speakers (p < 0.001), and faculty (p < 0.001) than manel sessions. A total of 1037 faculty members were included, and 900 of them (86.8%) were male. Male faculty had longer mean years of practice (23.8 vs 17.7 yr, p < 0.001) and was more likely to include professors (43.2% vs 17.5%, p < 0.001) than female faculty. Male faculty within the first quartile (ie, lower quartile) of publications and H-index had a significantly higher number of sessions than female faculty within the same quartile.
    CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that manels are prevalent in urology meetings. There is evidence showing that males received more opportunities than females. A huge gender imbalance exists in urology meetings; urological associations and societies should actively strive for greater gender parity.
    PATIENT SUMMARY: Women are under-represented in urology meetings. Urological associations and societies should play an active role to ensure a more balanced gender representation.
    Keywords:  Gender disparity; Gender equality; Gender inequality; Manel; Urology
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2021.05.031
  25. BMC Med Educ. 2021 Jun 05. 21(1): 320
      BACKGROUND: Self-regulated learning (SRL) is an important contributing element to the academic success of students. Literature suggests that the understanding of SRL among medical students is obscure as there is still some uncertainty about whether high performing medical students use SRL. This study explored the characteristics of high performing medical students from the SRL perspective to gain a better understanding of the application of SRL for effective learning.METHODS: Twenty-one students who scored at the 90th percentile in written knowledge-based assessment consented to participate in this study. Each student wrote a guided reflective journal and subsequently attended a semi-structured interview. Students were prompted to explain the rationales for their answers. The data were then analysed using thematic analysis to identify patterns among these students from the SRL perspective. Two coders analysed the data independently and discussed the codes to reach a consensus.
    RESULTS: High performing students set goals, made plans, and motivated themselves to achieve the goals. They put consistent efforts into their studies and applied effective learning strategies. They also employed coping mechanisms to deal with challenges. High performing students regularly evaluated their performance and adopted new strategies.
    CONCLUSIONS: This study reported that high performing students applied SRL and described the rationales of practice. Medical schools could design SRL-driven interventions to enhance the learning experiences of medical students. Recommendations are made for students on how to apply SRL.
    Keywords:  Characteristics; Effective learning; High performing medical students; Pre-clinical; Qualitative research; Self-regulated learning; Undergraduate
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02712-w
  26. Complement Ther Med. 2021 Jun 03. pii: S0965-2299(21)00087-X. [Epub ahead of print] 102746
      OBJECTIVE: To support the research agenda in yoga for health by comprehensively identifying systematic reviews of yoga for health outcomes and conducting a bibliometric analysis to describe their publication characteristics and topic coverage.METHODS: We searched 7 databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, AMED, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and PROSPERO) from their inception to November 2019 and 1 database (INDMED) from inception to January 2017. Two authors independently screened each record for inclusion and one author extracted publication characteristics and topics of included reviews.
    RESULTS: We retrieved 2710 records and included 322 systematic reviews. 157 reviews were exclusively on yoga, and 165 were on yoga as one of a larger class of interventions (e.g., exercise). Most reviews were published in 2012 or later (260/322; 81%). First/corresponding authors were from 32 different countries; three-quarters were from the USA, Germany, China, Australia, the UK or Canada (240/322; 75%). Reviews were most frequently published in speciality journals (161/322; 50%) complementary medicine journals (66/322; 20%) or systematic review journals (59/322; 18%). Almost all were present in MEDLINE (296/322; 92%). Reviews were most often funded by government or non-profits (134/322; 42%), unfunded (74/322; 23%), or not explicit about funding (111/322; 34%). Common health topics were psychiatric/cognitive (n = 56), cancer (n = 39) and musculoskeletal conditions (n = 36). Multiple reviews covered similar topics, particularly depression/anxiety (n = 18), breast cancer (n = 21), and low back pain (n = 16).
    CONCLUSIONS: Further research should explore the overall quality of reporting and conduct of systematic reviews of yoga, the direction and certainty of specific conclusions, and duplication or gaps in review coverage of topics.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Systematic Reviews; Yoga
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2021.102746
  27. Sci Eng Ethics. 2021 Jun 07. 27(3): 39
      One of the core problems of scientific research authorship is honorary authorship. It violates the ethical principle of clear and appropriate assignment of scientific research contributions. The prevalence of honorary authorship worldwide is alarmingly high across various research disciplines. As a result, many academic institutions and publishers were trying to explore ways to overcome this unethical research practice. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommended criteria for authorship as guidance for researchers submitting manuscripts to biomedical Journals. However, despite the ICMJE guidelines, honorary authorship is still significantly present across various health research disciplines. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and knowledge of health care researchers towards honorary authorship according to the ICMJE guidelines across different health care fields in Jordan, which to our knowledge was never explored before. Data from an electronic survey that was distributed among researchers working in different healthcare fields across several major universities in Jordan, revealed that most of the respondents were assistant professors working mainly in the schools of Medicine and Pharmacy. The majority of the respondents (65.5%) were not aware of the ICMJE authorship guidelines. And, around 37% reported the inclusion of an honorary author, in which the most common non-authorship task reported by 73% of the respondents was reviewing the manuscript. Our findings emphasize the need for national academic and research institutions to address the issue of authorship in their educational programs and internal policies.
    Keywords:  Biomedical research; Honorary authorship; ICMJE guidelines; Online survey; Research misconduct
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-021-00317-6
  28. Nat Commun. 2021 06 08. 12(1): 3429
      Neuroscience research in Africa remains sparse. Devising new policies to boost Africa's neuroscience landscape is imperative, but these must be based on accurate data on research outputs which is largely lacking. Such data must reflect the heterogeneity of research environments across the continent's 54 countries. Here, we analyse neuroscience publications affiliated with African institutions between 1996 and 2017. Of 12,326 PubMed indexed publications, 5,219 show clear evidence that the work was performed in Africa and led by African-based researchers - on average ~5 per country and year. From here, we extract information on journals and citations, funding, international coauthorships and techniques used. For reference, we also extract the same metrics from 220 randomly selected publications each from the UK, USA, Australia, Japan and Brazil. Our dataset provides insights into the current state of African neuroscience research in a global context.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23784-8
  29. J Pediatr Orthop. 2021 Jul 01. 41(6): 385-388
      BACKGROUND: Pediatric orthopaedic fellowship directors (FDs) have a valuable impact on the education of trainees and future leaders in the field. There is currently no research on the characteristics of pediatric orthopaedic FDs.METHODS: Programs were identified using the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America fellowship directory. Operative, nonoperative, and specialty programs were included. Data was collected through Qualtrics survey, e-mail, telephone, and online searches. Variables included demographics (age, sex, race/ethnicity), Hirsch index (h-index) as a measure of research productivity, graduate education, residency and fellowship training, years of hire at current institution and as FD, and leadership roles.
    RESULTS: Fifty-five FDs were identified. The majority (49/55, 89%) were male and 77% (27/35) were Caucasian. The mean age at survey was 51.1±8.2 years. The mean h-index was 17.2. Older age correlated with higher h-index (r=0.48, P=0.0002). The average duration from fellowship graduation to FD appointment was 9.6±6.7 and 6.9±6.1 years from institutional hire. Sixteen FDs (29%) had additional graduate level degrees. Almost all (52/55, 95%) FDs completed orthopaedic surgery residencies and all graduated fellowship training. Twenty-nine percent (16/55) completed more than 1 fellowship. Most FDs (51/55, 93%) completed a fellowship in pediatric orthopaedic surgery. Ten FDs (18%) completed pediatric orthopaedic surgery fellowships that included spine-specific training. One-third of all current FDs were fellowship-trained at either Boston Children's Hospital (9/55, 16%) or Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (9/55, 16%).
    CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric orthopaedic FDs are typically early-career to mid-career when appointed, with a strong research background. Nearly a third completed additional graduate degrees or multiple fellowships. Although male dominated, there are more female FDs leading pediatric orthopaedic programs compared with adult reconstruction, trauma, and spine fellowships. As fellowships continue to grow and diversify, this research will provide a baseline to determine changes in FD leadership.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/BPO.0000000000001834