bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2021–11–14
thirty-two papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. Front Pharmacol. 2021 ;12 702937
      Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a serious public health problem that has become a global threat. Special attention should be given to polymyxins (polymyxin B and colistin) which, since their reintroduction into clinical practice, are considered "last resort" drugs. The objective of this study is to perform a bibliometric analysis of scientific research on polymyxin resistance. Methods: Scopus was used to retrieve documents relevant to polymyxin resistance from 2010 to 2019. Data was exported to Microsoft Excel for table presentation. SciVal was used for volume and citation analysis as well as collaboration patterns. Also, we extracted data regarding the top documents, authors, countries, institutions, and the metrics of journals. VantagePoint and VOSviewer were used for geographical distribution of worldwide research and keyword co-occurrence analysis, respectively. Results: A total of 1,409 documents were retrieved. The retrieved documents received 25.0 citations per document. Articles (73.88%) and letters (18.09%) were the most frequent types of documents. During 2010-2019, there was a significant growth in publications (p-value < 0.001). The received citations were 35,209 with a peak in 2016 (11,250 citations). China and the United States led the scientific production with 299 (21.2%) and 238 (16.9%) publications, respectively. Little or no contribution came from central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Chinese institutions have caused the greatest impact, with University of Zhejiang (China) being the most prolific institution on the subject (88 documents). In terms of the most productive journals, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy ranked first with 196 (13.9%) documents. Most of the documents were published in quartile one journals and only had national collaboration (43.2%). Analysis of keyword co-occurrence revealed that research on polymyxin resistance during the last decade has focused on its relationship with public health, pharmacology, and genetics. Conclusion: The number of documents on polymyxin resistance has increased significantly in the recent years, with a steep growth from 2016 onwards. China and the United States led the scientific production. Most of the documents were published in high-quality journals. Greater joint efforts and more contribution from central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America are still needed to tackle this global problem.
    Keywords:  antimicrobial resistance; bibliometric; colistin resistance; polymyxin resistance; scopus
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.702937
  2. Curr Med Chem. 2021 Nov 07.
       BACKGROUND: Rapid advancement in computing technology and digital information leads to the possible use of machine learning on breast cancer.
    OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the research output of the top 100 publications and further identify a research theme of breast cancer and machine-learning studies.
    METHODS: Databases of Scopus and Web of Science were used to extract the top 100 publications. These publications were filtered based on the total citation of each paper. Additionally, a bibliometric analysis was applied to the top 100 publications.
    RESULTS: The top 100 publications were published between 1993 and 2019. The most productive author was Giger ML, and the top two institutions were the University of Chicago and the National University of Singapore. The most active countries were the USA, Germany and China. Ten clusters were identified as both basic and specialised themes of breast cancer and machine learning.
    CONCLUSION: Various countries demonstrated comparable interest in breast cancer and machine-learning research. A few Asian countries, such as China, India and Singapore, were listed in the top 10 countries based on the total citation. Additionally, the use of deep learning and breast imaging data was trending in the past 10 years in the field of breast cancer and machine-learning research.
    Keywords:  bibliometrics; breast cancer; machine learning; research output; research productivity; research trend
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2174/0929867328666211108110731
  3. World Neurosurg. 2021 Nov 02. pii: S1878-8750(21)01588-6. [Epub ahead of print]157 125-134
       INTRODUCTION: Scientometrics is a subfield of bibliometrics that statistically analyzes publications trends. The aim of this initial study was to investigate trends in the 6 major neurosurgical journals from the last 10 years.
    METHODS: We searched Web of Science and Scopus for articles published in Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, Operative Neurosurgery, and World Neurosurgery from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2020. Statistically analyzed parameters included national and continental distribution of articles, population density, density of neurosurgeons per 100,000 inhabitants, national per capita GDP, and national literacy rates. Bibliometric parameters assessed included total number of articles, H-indices, absolute/average number of citations per article, and article types.
    RESULTS: A total of 39,239 articles were published in the 6 journals. Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery had the strongest source impact. The most productive year was 2019 with 6811 published articles. Corresponding authors from the USA, China, Japan, Western Europe, and Turkey were the most productive. Articles published by authors from the USA received the majority of citations. Publication numbers increased in proportion with increases in country population, literacy rate, per capita GDP, and neurosurgeon density. The highest number of articles were published in 2016, and the fewest were published in 2020.
    CONCLUSIONS: Geographic trends in the diversity of neurosurgical publications sustained its steady increase in most developed counties. Simultaneously, the publication gap between developed and developing countries has remained stagnant.
    Keywords:  Article types; Bibliometrics; Neurosurgical journals; Publication trends; Scientometrics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2021.10.091
  4. Biomed Res Int. 2021 ;2021 6657167
       Background: Citation analysis has emerged to play a significant role in recognition of the most useful areas of research. Endodontic microbiology has been a topic of interest for endodontists as well as periodontists and oral surgeons. This bibliometric analysis is aimed at identifying and reporting the characteristics of the top 50 cited articles on endodontic microbiology.
    Methods: The articles were identified through a search on Web of Science (WoS), property of Clarivate Analytics database published on endodontic microbiology. The citation information of the selected articles was recorded. The Journal of Endodontics, International Endodontic Journal, Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology Oral Radiology and Endodontology, Dental Traumatology, and Australian Endodontic Journal were searched in the search title. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed using a statistical software package SPSS. Statistical analysis was performed using Shapiro-Wilk, Kruskal-Wallis, Post hoc, Mann-Kendall trend, and Spearman-rank tests.
    Results: The 50 most cited articles were published from 1965 to 2012 with citation count varying from 1065 to 103 times. The total citation counts of articles recorded were 11,525 (WoS), 12,602 (Elseviers' Scopus), and 28,871 (Google Scholar). The most prolific years in terms of publications were 2001, 2002, and 2003, with five publications each, followed by 2005 with four. The year with most citations was 1998, with 1,330 citations, followed by 1965 and 2001, with 1,065 and 1,015 citations, respectively. A total of 136 authors contributed to the top 50 most cited articles with 27 corresponding institutions from 12 different countries. The most common methodological design was in vitro study, followed by clinic-laboratory study, literature review, systematic review and meta-analysis, and animal study.
    Conclusions: The present study provided a detailed list of the top 50 most cited and classic articles on microbiology in endodontics. This will help researchers, students, and clinicians in the field of endodontics as an impressive source of information.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6657167
  5. Front Surg. 2021 ;8 671403
      Background: Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is a common musculoskeletal disorder in newborns and also one of the most common causes of hip arthritis in women. Many topics concerning DDH still remain controversial, and the global research trend in this field has not been well-studied yet. The aim of the present study was to illustrate the overall knowledge structure, development trends, and research hotspots of DDH. Methods: The publications related to DDH from 1998 to 2020 were identified from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC). Three bibliometric tools were used to conduct visualization and knowledge maps. Annual trends of publications, contributions of countries, institutions, authors, funding agencies and journals, and clustering of keywords were analyzed. Results: A total of 2,691 publications were included. The annual number of DDH publications showed an increasing trend worldwide. The United States has made the greatest contribution, with the largest number of publications and the highest H-index. The most prolific institutions were Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Shriners Hospital for Children. Professors Tönnis D, Harris WH, Crowe JF, Graf R, and Salter RB have made great achievements in this field. However, the collaboration between international institutions or researchers was relatively low and mainly conducted in European and American countries. All the keywords could be divided into five clusters: hip osteoarthritis study, hip replacement study, hip ultrasound study, osteotomy surgery study, and etiology study. A trend of balanced and diversified development existed in these clusters. Keywords with the ongoing bursts, including clinical outcome, risk factor, femoroacetabular impingement, predictor, arthroscopy, morphology, and anteversion may continue to be the research hotspots in the near future. Conclusions: There will be an increasing number of publications on DDH research, and the United States stay ahead in this field. International collaboration needs to be further strengthened. The information can provide helpful references for researchers to explore hot issues or target a specific field of DDH.
    Keywords:  bibliometric analysis; developmental dysplasia of the hip; hotspots; research trends; visualization
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2021.671403
  6. Ann Palliat Med. 2021 Jan;10(10): 10401-10413
       BACKGROUND: Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD (AECOPD) can cause a significant decrease in patient lung function, and are the main reason for hospitalization and death of patients with COPD. This study aims to use bibliometric methods to analyze the characteristics of AECOPD related research in the past 10 years [2010-2020] and provide references for future research.
    METHODS: This study used subject terms to search AECOPD-related documents published in 2010-2020 in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database. The search terms were "AECOPD" or "acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease." We use the CiteSpace software to analyze the target literature records. The analysis includes: the annual distribution of literature publications, the distribution of published literature sources (including countries, institutions, journals, and authors), and using keywords.
    RESULTS: A total of 3,785 articles on AECOPD were published between 2010 and 2020, with 62,162 citations. Both the number of published documents and the number of citations has increased with time. The literature mainly comes from several developed countries, including European and North American countries, and the cooperation between institutions and authors in these countries is relatively close. The main journals are the top journals of respiratory specialty and the top comprehensive journals. The results of the keyword analysis show that the current research is on risk factors, biomarkers, and AECOPD management.
    CONCLUSIONS: AECOPD research tends to focus on a precise diagnosis and treatment, and prevention of AECOPD in patients with COPD should be paid more attention.
    Keywords:  AECOPD; bibliometrics; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); precision medicine; risk factors
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21037/apm-21-2756
  7. Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 ;8 752956
      Objective: To determine the research hotspots and trends in the field of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and to provide a reference for further and wider research in the future. Methods: The literatures on ECMO from January 2011 to July 2021 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database were searched, and Citespace5.8.R1 software was used to conduct bibliographic and visual analysis on the literature by country, institution, author and keywords. Results: A total of 5,986 articles were enrolled. According to an observation, the number of articles published in the past decade has increased, especially from 2019 to 2020. The USA had the largest number of publications, while less ECMO related studies were conducted among non-developed countries. The University of Michigan (Univ Michigan) was the institution that had the largest number of publications and the highest centrality, and Daniel B was the author who had the largest number of publications. However, more inter-institutional cooperation among author teams was needed. The focus of existing ECMO research has primarily been on the treatment of patients suffering from severe cardiopulmonary failure, and the prevention and management of complications during the application ECMO. Conclusion: Inter-regional and inter-institutional cooperation and exchanges should be carried out among ECMO research teams and institutions. The suggested research direction is to further broaden the application scope of ECMO, while determining the ways to reduce the incidence of complications and the cost, cultivate specialized team talents, and promote the application thereof.
    Keywords:  COVID-19; ECMO; bibliometric study; research trends and hotspots; visualization analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.752956
  8. Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 ;8 740710
      Background: With rapid development in molecular biology techniques and a greater understanding of cancer pathogenesis, the growing attention has been concentrated on cancer gene therapy, with numerous articles on this topic published in recent 5 years. However, there is lacking a bibliometric analysis of research on cancer gene therapy. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis to provide the trends and frontiers of research on cancer gene therapy during 2016-2020. Methods: We utilized CiteSpace 5.7.R5 software to conduct a bibliometric analysis of publications on cancer gene therapy published during 2016-2020. The bibliometric records were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection. Results: A total of 4,392 papers were included in the bibliometric analysis. Materials Science and Nanoscience and Nanotechnology took an increasing part in the field of cancer gene therapy. Additionally, WANG W was the most productive author, while ZHANG Y ranked top in terms of citations. Harvard Medical School and Sichuan University ranked top in the active institutions. P NATL ACAD SCI USA was identified as the core journal in the field of cancer gene therapy. "Ovarian cancer" was found to be the latest keyword with the strongest burst. The keyword analysis suggested that the top three latest clusters were labeled "gene delivery," "drug delivery," and "gene therapy." In the reference analysis, cluster#2 labeled "gene delivery" held a dominant place considering both the node volume and mean year. Conclusion: The academic attention on cancer gene therapy was growing at a dramatically high speed. Materials Science and Nanoscience and Nanotechnology might become promising impetus for the development of this field. "Gene delivery" was thought to best reflect the research frontier on cancer gene therapy. The top-cited articles on gene delivery were focused on several novel non-viral vectors due to their specialty compared with viral vectors. "Ovarian cancer" was likely to be the potential research direction. These findings would help medical workers conduct further investigations on cancer gene therapy.
    Keywords:  CiteSpace; bibliometrics; cancer gene therapy; gene delivery; ovarian cancer
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.740710
  9. MedComm (Beijing). 2020 Dec;1(3): 351-361
      The oral microbiome contains numerous bacteria, which directly or indirectly participate in various human functions and continuously exchange signals and substances with the human body, significantly affecting human life cycle, health, and disease. This study aimed to conduct bibliometric studies on the scientific outputs of global oral microbiome research by Citespace software. The data were obtained from the Thomson Reuters' Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), from the first relevant literature published until December 31st, 2019, and a total of 2225 articles and reviews were identified. The top country and institutions are the United States and Harvard University. Keywords analysis showed that periodontal disease, oral microbes, and dental plaque are research hotspots. The burst word analysis indicates that early childhood caries, squamous cell carcinoma, gut microbiome, Helicobacter pylori, Candida albicans, and dysbiosis are likely to become the research hotspots of the next era. We also recommend the use of knowledge mapping methods to track specific knowledge areas efficiently and objectively regularly, which can accurately identify hotspots and frontiers and provide valuable information for practitioners in the field, including related scientists, students, journals, and editors.
    Keywords:  CiteSpace; WoSCC; bibliometric; knowledge map; oral microbiome
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/mco2.47
  10. Ecol Evol. 2021 Nov;11(21): 14344-14350
      Author-level metrics are a widely used measure of scientific success. The h-index and its variants measure publication output (number of publications) and research impact (number of citations). They are often used to influence decisions, such as allocating funding or jobs. Here, we argue that the emphasis on publication output and impact hinders scientific progress in the fields of ecology and evolution because it disincentivizes two fundamental practices: generating impactful (and therefore often long-term) datasets and sharing data. We describe a new author-level metric, the data-index, which values both dataset output (number of datasets) and impact (number of data-index citations), so promotes generating and sharing data as a result. We discuss how it could be implemented and provide user guidelines. The data-index is designed to complement other metrics of scientific success, as scientific contributions are diverse and our value system should reflect that both for the benefit of scientific progress and to create a value system that is more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. Future work should focus on promoting other scientific contributions, such as communicating science, informing policy, mentoring other scientists, and providing open-access code and tools.
    Keywords:  FAIR research data; author‐level metrics; bibliometrics; data citation; data metrics; data sharing; dataset repositories; h‐index; open science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8126
  11. J Palliat Care. 2021 Nov 08. 8258597211039056
      Background: Mainland China is facing increasing demand for palliative care and has launched related policies after 2010. Research and publications are important for sustainable development of palliative care, and should be encouraged by policy. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the development of palliative care-related publications in Mainland China in various aspects. Design: We searched Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Ovid MEDLINE, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure for publications from Mainland China for 2010-2020, with the topic words "hospice," "palliative care," "end-of-life care," or "terminal care." The publishing year, region, impacts, journals, publication types, and topics were analyzed. Results: A total of 3682 publications were identified, 754 of them (20.5%) published in Chinese core journals or international journals. The annual publication number and impact factor rose rapidly after 2016 and dropped again in 2020. There is no specialized palliative care journal in Mainland China. The publication numbers differed significantly between East and Western China and were closely linked to the economy (R2 = 0.8120, P < .0001). The megacities Beijing and Shanghai comprised 2.6% of the total population of Mainland China but produced 22.6% of the publications. Palliative care in cancer patients was the most common topic (37.7% of the publications). Practical keywords such as "pain management" and "living will" gained popularity recently. Conclusions: Palliative care-related research and publication in Mainland China are growing in recent years. However, the early stage growth is unstable, with a conspicuous regional disparity. Policies should be designed, in an equitable manner, to encourage original research and publication of palliative care.
    Keywords:  China; bibliometrics; equity; hospice; palliative care; policy making; publications; research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/08258597211039056
  12. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2021 Nov;9(11): e3903
      The h-index has been proven in the US and Canada to be a solid tool to assess the quality and impact of individual scientific work in the field of plastic surgery. M-quotient is an additional metric that mitigates the h-index's inherent bias toward more seasoned researchers. The objective of this study was evaluating the relationship between h-index and M-quotient and research productivity among plastic surgeons in the state of Israel.
    Methods: A list of all Israeli board-certified plastic surgeons registered in the Israeli Society of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery was obtained from the organization's website. Relevant demographic and academic factors of each surgeon were retrieved. The Scopus database was queried to determine each surgeon's h-index and M-quotient, among other bibliometric parameters.
    Results: Our study included 173 plastic surgeons, 90% of whom were men. In total, 49.7% were working in academically affiliated hospitals; 14.4% of the surgeons had an academic rank. The mean h-index was 6.13; mean M-quotient was 0.27. Statistical analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between total number of publications (P < 0.0001), total number of citations (P < 0.0001), the surgeon's seniority (P < 0.0001), academic rank (P = 0.007), appointed as past/present plastic surgery department director (P < 0.0001), and working in an academic affiliated hospital (P < 0.025). The same parameters were found to have a positive correlation with M-quotient.
    Conclusions: The h-index is an effective measure to compare plastic surgeons' research productivity in Israel. M-quotient is an ancillary tool for the assessment of research productivity among plastic surgeons, with the advent of neutralizing the surgeon's seniority.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/GOX.0000000000003903
  13. Front Sports Act Living. 2021 ;3 772140
      Introduction: The body of scientific literature on sports and exercise continues to expand. The summer and winter Olympic games will be held over a 7-month period in 2021-2022. Objectives: We took this rare opportunity to quantify and analyze the main bibliometric parameters (i.e., the number of articles and citations) across all Olympic sports to weigh and compare their importance and to assess the structure of the "sport sciences" field. The present review aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of Olympic sports research. We quantified the following topics: (1) the most investigated sports; (2) the main journals in which the studies are published; (3) the main factors explaining sport-specific scientific attractiveness; (4) the influence of being in the Olympic programme, economic weight, and local influences on research output; and (5) which research topic is the most investigated across sports. Methods: We searched 116 sport/exercise journals on PubMed for the 40 summer and 10 winter Olympic sports. A total of 34,038 articles were filtered for a final selection of 25,003 articles (23,334 articles on summer sports and 1,669 on winter sports) and a total of 599,820 citations. Results and Discussion: Nine sports [football (soccer), cycling, athletics, swimming, distance & marathon running, basketball, baseball, tennis, and rowing] were involved in 69% of the articles and 75% of the citations. Football was the most cited sport, with 19.7 and 26.3% of the total number of articles and citations, respectively. All sports yielded some scientific output, but 11 sports (biathlon, mountain biking, archery, diving, trampoline, skateboarding, skeleton, modern pentathlon, luge, bobsleigh, and curling) accumulated a total of fewer than 50 publications. While ice hockey is the most prominently represented winter sport in the scientific literature, winter sports overall have produced minor scientific output. Further analyses show a large scientific literature on team sports, particularly American professional sports (i.e., baseball, basketball, and ice hockey) and the importance of inclusion in the Olympic programme to increasing scientific interest in "recent" sports (i.e., triathlon and rugby sevens). We also found local/cultural influence on the occurrence of a sport in a particular "sport sciences" journal. Finally, the relative distribution of six main research topics (i.e., physiology, performance, training and testing, injuries and medicine, biomechanics, and psychology) was large across sports and reflected the specific performance factors of each sport.
    Keywords:  citations; publication; sport sciences; summer Olympic sports; winter Olympic sports
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.772140
  14. Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Oct 28. pii: S0025-326X(21)01136-X. [Epub ahead of print]173(Pt B): 113102
      Litter reduction in the coastal and marine environment represents a major challenge but must be prioritized to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the goods and services that humans derive from seas and oceans. This paper reviews the available global scientific literature focusing on marine beach litter and tracks its evolution and trends by combining social network analysis and bibliometrics. The relationships and co-occurrences among authors, countries and keywords retrieved from the Scopus abstract and citation database are presented. A total of 1765 publications are analysed: the majority being journal articles. Results reveal the notable worldwide increase in scientific interest in beach litter in the last decade, as well as its multidisciplinary perspectives. This information could be beneficial for the processes that support the improvement of international efforts for beach litter monitoring, removal, and management activities.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; Marine beach litter; Social network analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113102
  15. J Surg Educ. 2021 Oct 28. pii: S1931-7204(21)00267-1. [Epub ahead of print]
       OBJECTIVE: Gender discrepancies exist in academia for leadership positions, advancement opportunities, and research. As of 2019, the ratio of total male-to-female attending plastic and reconstructive surgeons was 4.8:1. However, the ratio of male-to-female residents in integrated plastic surgery programs fell to 1.3:1, indicating rising female representation. With more balanced gender distributions of residents, the authors sought to determine whether this translates to greater equality of opportunities and achievements. Specifically, this study compares the academic productivity of male and female integrated plastic surgery residents.
    METHODS: A list of integrated plastic surgery residency programs was obtained from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education website and ranked by reputation using the Doximity Residency Navigator. Integrated plastic surgery residents from 2019 to 2020 were identified via program websites and social media accounts. Works published during residency were identified through PubMed and Scopus from July 1 of each resident's intern year through August 10, 2020. Demographic variables for residents, including training class and medical school, as well as for programs, including geographic region, Doximity ranking, and medical school affiliation, were collected. Medical schools were ranked according to US News by research. Research productivity was assessed through the number of total research articles with authorship position (first, second, or last), the number of articles published in plastic surgery journals with the highest impact factors (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Aesthetic Surgery Journal), and H-indices. Chi-Squared tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to make comparisons between male and female residents (α = 0.05).
    RESULTS: In total, 931 residents in 81 integrated plastic surgery programs were identified, including 534 (57.4%) male and 397 (42.6%) female residents. There were no differences between male and female residents in terms of training year or program geography. Female residents were more likely to come from a top-50 medical school than males (54.7% vs. 48.1%, p = 0.049). There were no significant differences in gender distribution of residents from top-20 programs or programs affiliated with a top-20 medical school. The median (IQR) number of publications in total, and for each gender, was 3 (1-6). There was no difference in the number of total publications by training year by gender, besides the second-year resident class where male residents had a median (IQR) of 2 (1-4) compared to 1 (0-3) (p = 0.028). Male and female residents did not differ with regards to authorship position or proportion of times publishing in top journals. The distribution of H-indices for male residents was slightly higher than female residents (p = 0.003), but the median (IQR) was the same at 3 (1-5).
    CONCLUSIONS: Currently, male and female integrated plastic surgery residents have similar levels of academic productivity. This suggests that female representation is slowly increasing along the pipeline in academia, representing a paradigm shift from previous trends of gender inequality in plastic surgery.
    Keywords:  Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; Professionalism; Systems-Based Practice; academia; equity; female; gender; pipeline; plastic surgery; research; residency
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2021.09.021
  16. Ann Palliat Med. 2021 Jan;10(10): 10515-10526
       BACKGROUND: Pressure ulcers (PU) refer to local tissue ulceration and necrosis caused by long-term compression and friction brought on by tissue ischemia and hypoxia. Diabetic wounds do not easily heal, and once a pressure ulceration occurs, it is difficult to deal with. The purpose of this study was to analyze the current research status of PUs in diabetic patients.
    METHODS: The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database was searched with terms of "Pressure Ulcer" and "Diabetes". Citespace software was used to analyze the annual distribution of the number of target documents and the distribution of countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords used in these works.
    RESULTS: In all, 1271 documents were retrieved, with a total citation frequency of 47,081, and an h-index of 101. The top 5 countries in terms of the number of publications were the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, and the Netherlands; the top 5 countries in centrality were the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Japan, and France. The institutions with the greatest number of publications were the University of Amsterdam, Cardiff University, The University of Washington, and the University of Manchester. The institutions with the highest centrality were the University of Amsterdam, the University of Groningen, the University of Washington, the University of Adelaide, Baylor College of Medicine, and Queensland University of Technology. The authors with a highest number of publications were Bus SA, Apelqvist J, and the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot, and Hinchliffe RJ. Only 2 authors had a centrality score above 0.01. Journals such as Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews, Diabetes Care, and Journal of Wound Care showed considerable influence in this field. Keyword analysis indicated that the use of keywords in this field is not uniform, and the focus of research on PUs in diabetic patients lies the risk and management of foot ulcers.
    CONCLUSIONS: There are few studies concerning PUs in patients with diabetes and little collaboration between authors. The current focus in this field is on the risk and management of foot ulcers.
    Keywords:  Pressure ulcer (PU); bibliometrics; diabetes; management; risk
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21037/apm-21-2757
  17. Heliyon. 2021 Nov;7(11): e08219
      This article presents and discusses the scientific publication record from 1910 to 2020 on two topics: "climate" (CL) and "climate change/global warming/climate emergency" (CC/GW/CE). The goal is to comparatively visualize how these two distinct publication records have evolved over time, from different classification perspectives, using publication ratios as the key indicator. It is found that research output related to the Earth's contemporary changing climate overtook that of general climate research in 2010, and the publication ratio (CC/GW/CE)/(CL) has been expanding in the last decade. There are significant differences in the publication countries and sources between the two topics. Differentiation factors that affect the level of research output and engagement on the climate challenge include island versus landlocked nations, specialized versus general scientific journals, academic versus institutional organizations. The future of the publication records is discussed, such as the emergence of new terms to refer to the climate challenge, such as "climate emergency".
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; CO2; Climate models; Climate variability; Human influence on climate; Improving climate monitoring; Natural control of climate; Scientometrics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08219
  18. Curr Trop Med Rep. 2021 Nov 01. 1-8
       Purpose of Review: There has been a high influx of publications on the SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 worldwide in the recent few months as very little was known about them. Nepal too had a substantial number of publications on the same, and there was a need to track the most relevant and impactful to the scientific community through bibliometric analysis.
    Recent Findings: A total of 72 publications were analyzed. Bagmati Pradesh (88%) and its district, Kathmandu (77%), was with the most publications. There were no publications from Gandaki and Karnali Province. Most of the publications were in the international medical journals (82%), 53% chose European journals to publish, and 15.27% were related to and published in psychology journals. The majority were original articles (39%) and mostly related to public health (20.83%). 59.7% of the papers had Nepalese as the first author. Most of them were affiliated with Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital and Patan Academy of Health Sciences.
    Summary: Our analysis suggests a need to shift the type of studies from observational studies to studies oriented more towards the therapeutic and clinical trials of available medicines and patient care management. Similarly, the bibliometric analysis gives an overall picture of Nepali medical research's publication status around the globe.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Pandemic; SARS-CoV-2
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s40475-021-00247-0
  19. Medicine (Baltimore). 2021 Nov 12. 100(45): e27716
       ABSTRACT: We have analyzed and compared the publication trends in 4 representative spinal journals [Spine, European Spinal Journal (EUS), The Spine Journal (TSJ), and the Journal of Neurosurgery - Spine (JNS spine)] from 2016 to 2018.A total of 3784 articles were published in the 4 representative journals: 1358, 1128, 685, and 613 articles in Spine, EUS, TSJ, and JNS spine, respectively. We compared and analyzed each periodical for the time taken (days) for the publication process, the distribution of specialties of the corresponding author, multicity of the investigative institutions, main disease entity, study type, and design.The period from submission to online publication was 133, 216, 181, and 318 days in Spine, EUS, TSJ, and JNS spine, respectively. Corresponding authors with orthopedic specialties were more common in Spine, EUS, and TSJ than in JNS spine. Of particular note, corresponding authors who were neurosurgeons were the majority (55.8%) only in JNS spine. Single institution articles were by far the most common (average 92.8%) in all 4 journals. In all of the analyzed journals, the proportion of degenerative diseases was dominant with an average of 44.9%. The most frequent study type in all 4 journals was a clinical article (79.6, 72.1, 63.3, and 63.1%, respectively). In general, meta-analyses (average 4%) and randomized controlled comparative studies (average 5.2%) accounted for a very low percentage of the study types.We believe that periodic analyses and comparisons of the characteristics of representative spine journals will help to shape the direction of future improvements.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000027716
  20. Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil. 2021 Oct;3(5): e1449-e1455
       Purpose: To determine the objective characteristics of fellowship directors (FDs) in orthopaedic sports medicine by focusing on the demographics, academic background, institutional history, research experience, and professional affiliations of FDs in this field.
    Methods: Data was collected for each FD via institutional biographies or publicly available curriculum vitae (CV). The data collected for each FD included age, gender, race/ethnicity, previous training institutions, residency and fellowship graduation years, additional advanced degrees, military affiliation, institutional loyalty, year hired by current institution, career timeline, Scopus H-index, number of publications, and total number of citations.
    Results: Of the 88 FDs, 87 (98.9%) were male and 1 (1.1%) was female. The mean age for all FDs was 54.7 years (± 9.1 standard deviation). The majority of FDs were White (n = 80; 90.9%). The mean Scopus H-index, total number of publications, and total number of citations were 22.5 ± 16.6, 90.0 ± 91.6, and 2773.9 ± 3962.9, respectively. On average, it took 9.5 ± 7.3 years from fellowship graduation until FD appointment. Additionally, the mean number of years of employment or affiliation with the current institution was 17.2 ± 9.4, and the mean number of years in an FD role was 10.9 ± 9.3.
    Conclusion: Orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship directors are largely distinguished by their high level of research productivity and accomplishment. Additionally, orthopaedic training pedigree seems to play a role in FD role attainment, with a handful of orthopaedic residency and sports medicine fellowship programs producing a large percentage of current FDs. Finally, FDs are overwhelmingly white males with little female or minority representation.
    Clinical Relevance: This study outlines some of the most important characteristics among orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship directors and identifies racial and gender disparities within this population of leaders that may have detrimental effects on the field as a whole.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asmr.2021.07.006
  21. East Mediterr Health J. 2021 Oct 27. 27(10): 984-992
       Background: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autoinflammatory, multisystem disease affecting the populations of the Mediterranean basin.
    Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the research input of Arab countries on FMF between 2004 and 2019.
    Methods: The Medline database (PubMed) was accessed for FMF-related publications. The number of publications was normalized to average: population size, GDP and number of physicians for every country. VOSViewer was used to create a co-occurrence bibliographic map.
    Results: Between 2004 and 2019, 69 articles relating to FMF were published in the Arab world, accounting for 0.03% of the total number of publications originating in Arab countries, and 3.60% of all articles relating to FMF worldwide. After normalizing to average population size, GDP and number of physicians, Lebanon ranked first with 4.44, 0.64 and 1.99 publications per million persons respectively. Moderate positive correlations were found between number of publications and average population size (r = 0.385) and average number of physicians (r = 0.513). Half of the articles were published in journals ranked Q1 and Q2. An abundance of keywords relating to genetics hint at a main focus on the genetic aspect of the disease.
    Conclusion: The low number of publications could be a result of the absence of research funding and the political and military instability in the Arab world. Given that many articles were published in high quality journals, Arab countries should focus on providing a clinical aspect to their studies and working on regional and international collaborations.
    Keywords:  Arab world; bibliometric analysis; familial Mediterranean fever; genetics; health economics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.26719/emhj.21.036
  22. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2021 Nov 12. 41(11): 1283-90
      By searching the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture and moxibustion from CNKI since its inception date to december 31 of 2019, the development status and hot trend of RCTs of acupuncture and moxibustion in China were summarized. The CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to perform keyword co-occurrence analysis, clustering analysis, time-zone analysis and citation-burst analysis, and visual map was drawn. As a result, a total of 60 995 articles were included, which were published in 1027 academic journals with 1787 keywords. The publication date was from 1975 to 2019. During the past 45 years, the publications of RCTs on acupuncture and moxibustion had shown an overall growth trend with characteristics of the times. The RCTs of manual acupuncture ranked the top, and its proportion of publications every 5 years was stable in the past 30 years. Since 1994, the hot words such as electroacupuncture, warming needling, auricular point sticking and various acupoint therapies had emerged; meanwhile, the spectrum of diseases had broadened, and an evolutionary trend corresponding to therapies and disease systems had been formed. In recent decade, the RCTs using moxibustion therapy have increased significantly, and the hot words such as "sub-health" "winter diseases being treated in summer" and "acupoint application/ moxibustion during the dog days" had indicated that acupuncture clinical research was further inclined to the field of chronic disease prevention and health services, which was in line with social development and the needs of the times.
    Keywords:  CiteSpace; VOSviewer; acupuncture and moxibustion; knowledge map; randomized controlled trial (RCT); visualization analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.13703/j.0255-2930.20200918-0004
  23. Chin Clin Oncol. 2021 Jan;10(5): 52
       BACKGROUND: The increasing proportion of women in medicine has not been adequately reflected in the gender distribution of radiation oncology residents. The presence of at least one pre-residency peer-reviewed publication (PRP) has been associated with radiation oncology resident choice of academic over private practice career, with no significant gender difference in the likelihood of having a PRP (McClelland et al., 2017). We sought to pursue a gender-based analysis of PRP productivity in a current junior resident class.
    METHODS: A list of radiation oncology residents from the graduating class of 2022 (PGY-2 academic year of 2018-2019) was obtained through internet investigation. Research productivity was calculated using PRP number, defined as the number of a resident's publications listed in PubMed (pubmed.gov) through the calendar year of residency application (2016 for this class).
    RESULTS: Of 195 residents examined from the 2022 class, 61 (31%) were women, representing a nine percent increase from the resident class of 2016. Four-fifths of women had 1+ PRP, 31% had dual degrees, and 18% had a PhD. These percentages were comparable to their male counterparts, 73% with 1+ PRP, 28% with dual degrees, and 15% with a PhD. There were no statistically significant differences by gender in any of these benchmarks.
    CONCLUSIONS: While slower than the overall trend of increased female representation in medicine, the proportion of women in radiation oncology residency has increased by 0.9-1.5% annually over a recent six-year span. There remain no significant differences in PRP productivity, dual degree status, or PhD status by gender.
    Keywords:  Gender equity; pre-residency peer-reviewed publications (PRP); radiation oncology residents; research productivity
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21037/cco-21-95
  24. Theory Biosci. 2021 Nov 12.
      The origins of innovation in science are typically understood using historical narratives that tend to be focused on small sets of influential authors, an approach that is rigorous but limited in scope. Here, we develop a framework for rigorously identifying innovation across an entire scientific field through automated analysis of a corpus of over 6000 documents that includes every paper published in the field of evolutionary medicine. This comprehensive approach allows us to explore statistical properties of innovation, asking where innovative ideas tend to originate within a field's pre-existing conceptual framework. First, we develop a measure of innovation based on novelty and persistence, quantifying the collective acceptance of novel language and ideas. Second, we study the field's conceptual landscape through a bibliographic coupling network. We find that innovations are disproportionately more likely in the periphery of the bibliographic coupling network, suggesting that the relative freedom allowed by remaining unconnected with well-established lines of research could be beneficial to creating novel and lasting change. In this way, the emergence of collective computation in scientific disciplines may have robustness-adaptability trade-offs that are similar to those found in other biosocial complex systems.
    Keywords:  Bibliographic coupling network; Collective computation; Core-periphery structure; Evolutionary medicine; Rich club phenomenon; Robustness and adaptability
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-021-00359-1
  25. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2021 Nov 09. pii: ezab460. [Epub ahead of print]
       OBJECTIVES: The large volume of scientific publications and the increasing emphasis on high-quality evidence for clinical decision-making present daily challenges to all clinicians, including thoracic surgeons. The objective of this study was to evaluate the contemporary trend in the level of evidence (LOE) for thoracic surgery clinical research.
    METHODS: All clinical research articles published between January 2010 and December 2017 in 3 major general thoracic surgery journals were reviewed. Five authors independently reviewed the abstracts of each publication and assigned a LOE to each of them using the 2011 Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine classification scheme. Data extracted from eligible abstracts included study type, study size, country of primary author and type of study designs. Three auditing processes were conducted to establish working definitions and the process was validated with a research methodologist and 2 senior thoracic surgeons. Intra-class correlation coefficient was calculated to assess inter-rater agreement. Chi-square test and Spearman correlation analysis were then used to compare the LOE between journals and by year of publication.
    RESULTS: Of 2028 publications reviewed and scored, 29 (1.4%) were graded level I, 75 (3.7%) were graded level II, 471 (23.2%) were graded level III, 1420 (70.2%) were graded level IV and 33 (1.6%) were graded level V (lowest level). Most publications (94.9%) were of lower-level evidence (III-V). There was an overall increasing trend in the lower LOE (P < 0.001). Inter-rater reliability was substantial with 95.5% (95%, confidence interval: 0.95-0.96) level of agreement between reviewers.
    CONCLUSIONS: General thoracic surgery literature consists mostly of lower LOE studies. The number of lower levels of evidence is dominating the recent publications, potentially indicating a need to increase the commitment to produce and disseminate higher-level evidence in general thoracic surgery.
    Keywords:  Clinical research; Evidence-based medicine; Level of evidence; Thoracic surgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/ejcts/ezab460
  26. Ecol Evol. 2021 Nov;11(21): 15205-15211
      The carbon footprint of flying overseas to conferences, meetings, and workshops to share and build knowledge has been increasingly questioned over the last two decades, especially in environmental and climate sciences, due to the related colossal carbon emissions. Here, we infer the value of scientific meetings through the number of publications produced either directly or indirectly after attending a scientific conference, symposium, or workshop (i.e., the conference-related production) and the number of publications produced per meeting (i.e., the conference-related productivity) as proxies for the academic value of these meetings, and relate them to both the number of meetings attended and the related carbon emissions. We show that conference-related production and productivity, respectively, increase and decay with the number of meetings attended, and noticeably that the less productive people exhibit the largest carbon footprint. Taken together, our results imply that a twofold decrease in the carbon footprint FCO2 of a given scientist would result in a twofold increase in productivity through a fivefold decrease in the number of meeting attended. In light of these figures, we call for both the implementation of objective and quantitative criteria related to the optimum number of conferences to attend in an effort to maximize scientific productivity while minimizing the related carbon footprint, and the development of a rationale to minimize the carbon emission related to scientific activities.
    Keywords:  COVID crisis; carbon footprint; climate change; scientific meetings; scientific production and productivity; virtual conferences
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8201
  27. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2021 Oct 28. pii: S1051-0443(21)01450-0. [Epub ahead of print]
       PURPOSE: To assess the prevalence of positive conflict of interest (COI) disclosures in U.S.-based interventional radiology (IR) research as well as the level of agreement between disclosed financial relationships and open payment data for top-cited image-guided procedure research.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: All publications in volume 30 (2019) of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR) were reviewed to estimate the prevalence of COI disclosures in IR research. Publications were categorized as primary research, systematic review, or other. Prevalence was then compared across JVIR publication subtype, categories, and whether they were device-focused with chi-squared tests. Additionally, the Web of Science database was searched for the top 10 cited studies of 10 common image-guided procedures with available U.S. physician payment data. Payments were categorized as historical (>1 year prior to publication) or active (<1 year prior to publication) and compared to disclosed financial COIs with one-way ANOVA.
    RESULTS: Positive COI disclosures were present in 29% (114 of 397) of publications in JVIR volume 30. Positive COI disclosures were most prevalent in Standards of Practice (50%, p = 0.01) and more prevalent in device-focused publications (54% vs 23%, p < 0.01). Among the 396 authors of 100 U.S.-based top-cited image-guided procedure publications, 383 (97%) failed to disclose at least one active financial relationship, with an average of $57,937 in undisclosed payments per publication.
    CONCLUSION: Conflicts of interest are prevalent in IR, like other areas of healthcare research, and conflicts of interest in top-cited image-guided procedure research are often underreported.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvir.2021.08.026
  28. Materials (Basel). 2021 Nov 02. pii: 6577. [Epub ahead of print]14(21):
      The aeronautical and automotive industries have, as an essential objective, the energy efficiency optimization of aircraft and cars, while maintaining stringent functional requirements. One working line focuses on the use of lightweight structural materials to replace conventional materials. For this reason, it is considered enlightening to carry out an analysis of the literature published over the last 20 years through Open Access literature. For this purpose, a systematic methodology is applied to minimize the possible risks of bias in literature selection and analysis. Web of Science is used as a search engine. The final selection comprises the 30 articles with the highest average numbers of citations per year published from 2015 to 2020 and the 7 articles published from the period of 2000-2014. Overall, the selection is composed of 37 Open Access articles with 2482 total citations and an average of 67.1 citations per article/year published, and includes Q1 (62%) and Q2 (8%) articles and proceeding papers (30%). The study seeks to inform about the current trends in materials and processes in lightweight structural materials for aeronautical and automotive applications with a sustainable perspective. All the information collected is summarized in tables to facilitate searches and interpretation by interested researchers.
    Keywords:  aerospace; automotive; lightweight; multi-material; polymer; sustainable
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14216577
  29. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2021 Nov 08. 21(1): 243
       BACKGROUND: The purpose of a conference abstract is to summarize the main points of a research-related report that will be presented at an academic conference. However, some conferences accept and publish abstracts without results, which is contrary to the basic idea of a conference abstract as a dissemination tool. A conference abstract without results included is called a "promissory abstract". This study aimed to analyze the frequency and characteristics of promissory conference abstracts, i.e. abstracts submitted without results, accepted at Cochrane Colloquia.
    METHODS: We analyzed 8297 conference abstracts accepted at 25 Cochrane Colloquia, organized in 1994-2020, which were publicly available on the website of the Cochrane Library. Two authors screened abstracts to identify promissory abstracts. We extracted characteristics of promissory abstracts.
    RESULTS: Among abstracts accepted for Cochrane Colloquia, 8.7% were promissory; 475 (66%) were accepted as poster presentations, 241 (34%) as oral presentations and 1 as a workshop. The median number of authors in promissory abstracts was 4 (interquartile range: 3 to 6 authors). In 245 (34%) promissory abstracts, affiliations of authors were not reported. The authors were most commonly affiliated with the following countries: UK (472; 36%), Canada (N = 123; 26%), China (N = 76; 16%), United States (N = 66; 14%) and Australia (N = 53; 11%). There were 512 (71%) promissory abstracts in which study design was not reported.
    CONCLUSION: Promissory abstracts were commonly accepted at Cochrane Colloquia. Such abstracts deserve further attention, as they are detrimental in terms of the dissemination of new knowledge presented at a conference. Conference organizers could ask authors to update the abstract results subsequently to enable the dissemination of information presented at a conference.
    Keywords:  Cochrane; Knowledge dissemination; Promissory abstracts; Research conference
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-021-01442-3
  30. BMC Med Educ. 2021 Nov 09. 21(1): 567
       BACKGROUND: Although formal participation in research is an integral and often mandatory component of clinical training programs, resulting productivity is highly variable. The objective of this review was to identify determinants of successful research performance among graduate medical education trainees.
    METHODS: A structured review of the published literature was performed by searching PubMed, CINAHL, and EMBASE from inception through to 7 April, 2021. Articles examining graduate medical education trainee research productivity evidenced by publications in peer-reviewed journals were included.
    RESULTS: Eighty-five articles were included of which most (66; 78%) were reported from the USA or Canada (10; 12%). A wide range of disciplines were represented with the most common being general surgery, internal medicine, orthopedic surgery, and pediatrics. Themes (number of reports) included trainee characteristics (n = 24), project characteristics (n = 8), mentoring/supervision (n = 11), and programmatic aspects (n = 57). Although variable results were observed, research productivity tended to be higher with prior research experience, later years of training, male gender, and pursuit of a postgraduate degree. Few project related aspects of success were identified. Trainee publication was associated with mentors with higher rank, publication productivity, and supportive academic environments. Training programs with organised programs/curricula including protection of time for research were associated with increased productivity as were provision of incentives or rewards but not mandatory requirements.
    CONCLUSION: This review identifies several trainee characteristics, project and mentor aspects, and programmatic aspects associated with increased productivity that may serve as a useful resource for trainees and graduate medical education training programs.
    Keywords:  Medical training; Postgraduate; Research productivity; Trainees
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-03010-1