bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2019‒03‒17
fifteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society
  1. Knowledge Domain and Emerging Trends on Echinococcosis Research: A Scientometric Analysis.
  2. Analysis of Publication Trends in Childhood Obesity Research in PubMed Since 1945.
  3. State of Children Environmental Health Research in Latin America.
  4. The impact of Verbal Behavior on the scholarly literature from 2005 to 2016.
  5. Global Contributions to Aesthetic Surgery Journal Over the Past Decade.
  6. "The impact of European Neuromuscular Centre (ENMC) workshops on the neuromuscular field; 25 years on …".
  7. Fifty top-cited classic papers in orthopaedic oncology: a bibliometric analysis.
  8. Global Evolution of Research in Artificial Intelligence in Health and Medicine: A Bibliometric Study.
  9. Bibliometric analysis of the top-cited articles on idiopathic intracranial hypertension.
  10. Fifteen years of emergency medicine literature in Africa: A scoping review.
  11. Open Access Publishing and Subsequent Citations Among Articles in Major Cardiovascular Journals.
  12. Puberty in the Last 25 Years: A Retrospective Bibliometric Analysis.
  13. Trends in women's authorship in pharmacy literature.
  14. Authorship Trends in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: 1982-2016.
  15. Global Evolution of Obesity Research in Children and Youths: Setting Priorities for Interventions and Policies.
  1. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Mar 08. pii: E842. [Epub ahead of print]16(5):
    Knowledge Domain and Emerging Trends on Echinococcosis Research: A Scientometric Analysis.
    Xingming Ma, Lifeng Zhang, Jingqiu Wang, Yanping Luo.
      The echinococcosis of humans and animals is a chronic helminthic disease caused by the larva of genus Echinococcus tapeworms. It is a globally distributed disease which is an important socioeconomic and public health problem in many low and middle-income countries. This research aimed to firstly quantitatively analyze the publications with bibliometrics software and evaluated the hot topics and emerging trends of echinococcosis research from 1980 to 2017. A total of 7688 references on echinococcosis research were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Then the reference was analyzed with CiteSpace software to make the knowledge network maps. The largest cluster (#0) with 83 members was cystic echinococcosis, and cystic echinococcosis, mebendazole, antibody and transmission were the four keywords with the strongest citation bursts in the echinococcosis research field. Furthermore, cystic echinococcosis, chemotherapy and immunodiagnosis, management of definitive and intermediate host are the top four research hot topics and emerging trends in the echinococcosis field. This research presents an insight into the echinococcosis field and valuable visualizing information for echinococcosis researchers to detect new viewpoints on cooperative countries/institutions, potential co-workers and research frontiers.
    Keywords:  CiteSpace; echinococcosis; emerging trends; scientometrics; visualization analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050842
  2. Child Obes. 2019 Mar 11.
    Analysis of Publication Trends in Childhood Obesity Research in PubMed Since 1945.
    Jean-Francois Gehanno, Bogna Gehanno, Mathieu Schuers, Julien Grosjean, Laetitia Rollin.
      BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity (CO) has become a true epidemic and a subject of increasing publications. The aim of this study was to assess if the number of publications in that field increases over time in proportion to the epidemic, and also according to socioeconomic factors.METHODS: A PubMed search was carried out to extract articles related to CO published between 1945 and 2017. Data were downloaded from PubMed and processed through a dedicated parser. Socioeconomic data were collected from international organizations.
    RESULTS: Overall, 36,554 articles were retrieved among 3329 journals, one-third of them being concentrated in 44 journals. The annual growth rate of publications on CO was on average 11.6% per year between 1990 and 2016, whereas the growth rate of articles on pediatrics or of the total articles indexed in MEDLINE was 2.6% and 4.4%, respectively. The most productive countries were the United States (37.80%), the United Kingdom (6.24%), and Italy (4.56%). There was a significant relationship between publications on CO in a country and prevalence of CO in that country (p = 0.002) and between evolution of the number of publications and evolution of the Human Development Index (p = 0.01). Following exponential growth, CO publications reached a plateau in 2013, whereas publications targeted on obesity in infants continue to increase.
    CONCLUSIONS: Research on CO has risen markedly in the last two decades, with a higher growth rate than biomedical research overall, as a result of the worldwide obesity epidemic and also due to specific socioeconomic factors.
    Keywords:  PubMed; bibliometrics; biomedical research/trends; childhood obesity; publications/trends
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2018.0276
  3. Ann Glob Health. 2018 Jul 27. 84(2): 204-211
    State of Children Environmental Health Research in Latin America.
    Lizbeth López-Carrillo, Leonel González-González, Maricela Piña-Pozas, Ángel Mérida-Ortega, Brenda Gamboa-Loira, Julia Blanco-Muñoz, Luisa E Torres-Sánchez, Magali Hurtado-Díaz, Marlene Cortez-Lugo, Germán Guerra, Nelly Salgado de Snyder, Mariano E Cebrian.
      BACKGROUND: Promotion of biomedical research along with the development of evidence-based prevention policies have been suggested as an effective way to reduce environmental risks for children's health in Latin America. However, there is little information on the current state of childhood environmental health research, which might help identify its strengths and limitations, as well as to design a strategy to improve the future of child environmental health research in the region.OBJECTIVE: To describe the current state of environmental health research on children exposed to environmental pollutants in Latin America.
    METHODOLOGY: We performed a comprehensive search of published peer-reviewed environmental health articles (1994-2014), dealing with the exposure of Latin American children to chemical compounds. We described the type of studies and their research topics, and identified networks of co-authors. We also analyzed the relationship between research funding sources and the impact factor (IF) of the journal where research was published.
    RESULTS: The average number of publications was about 20 per year. Mexico and Brazil produced almost 70% of the 409 identified papers. The most studied contaminant was lead, but research on this element has declined since 2005. Retrospective studies were the most frequent, and also showed a decreasing trend. Most studies did not assess health effects. Four groups of leading investigators and two collaboration models for scientific production were identified. Except for Mexico, there was very little collaboration with North American and European countries. Compared to articles that did not report financial support, those that received international funding had on average an IF around 7, and those with national funding reached a mean IF near 3.
    CONCLUSION: There is a limited number of publications and insufficient collaboration between Latin-American scientists. It is necessary to identify strategies to stimulate South-South-North alliances and strengthen the scarce research on the environmental health of children in the region.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.29024/aogh.908
  4. Anal Verbal Behav. 2017 Oct;33(2): 212-228
    The impact of Verbal Behavior on the scholarly literature from 2005 to 2016.
    Anna Ingeborg Petursdottir, Bailey Devine.
      B. F. Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior had a limited influence on empirical research in the first few decades following its publication, but an increase in empirical activity has been evident in recent years. The purpose of this article is to update previous analyses that have quantified the influence of Verbal Behavior on the scholarly literature, with an emphasis on its impact on empirical research. Study 1 was a citation analysis that showed an increase in citations to Verbal Behavior from 2005 to 2016 relative to earlier time periods. In particular, there was a large increase in citations from empirical articles. Study 2 identified empirical studies in which a verbal operant was manipulated or measured, regardless of whether or not Verbal Behavior was cited, and demonstrated a large increase in publication rate, with an increasing trend in the publication of both basic and applied experimental analyses throughout the review period. A majority of the studies were concerned with teaching verbal behavior to children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities, but a variety of other basic and applied research topics were also represented. The results suggest a clearly increasing impact of Verbal Behavior on the experimental analysis of behavior on the 60th anniversary of the book's publication.
    Keywords:  B. F. Skinner; Citation analysis; Scientometrics; Verbal behavior
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-017-0089-3
  5. Aesthet Surg J. 2019 Mar 14. pii: sjz068. [Epub ahead of print]
    Global Contributions to Aesthetic Surgery Journal Over the Past Decade.
    Meredith Grogan Moore, Christopher van Belle, Fernando Ovalle, William John Kitzmiller, Ryan Gobble.
      BACKGROUND: The Aesthetic Surgery Journal (ASJ) is a world-renowned publication with valuable contributions from around the globe.OBJECTIVES: To better characterize the journal's evolving representation of global contributions to aesthetic surgery, we have examined the author affiliations of all journal articles published in this journal over the last decade.
    METHODS: A PubMed search was performed for all journal articles published in ASJ from January 2008 to the August 2018. For each article, first author's primary affiliation as indexed in MEDLINE was recorded as the source country. Data were tabulated by source country and year. The authorless errata, corrigenda, and Cosmetic Surgery National Data Bank Statistics were excluded from analysis.
    RESULTS: A total of 1,746 articles were published during this period, contributed from 49 distinct countries. All continents other than Antarctica were represented. Higher income countries where aesthetic surgery is more prevalent produced 87% of published articles. The total number of published journal articles in ASJ has climbed from 77 annually in 2008 to 318 in 2018 thus far. In 2008, 27.3% of articles were from non-US countries, whereas in 2018 this increased to 43.7%. In particular, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, and Italy demonstrate steady increases in contributions over the 10-year period.
    CONCLUSIONS: Publications in ASJ have increased in number over the past decade and the journal has become increasingly global in its network of contributing authors. We believe this increased global contribution to the ASJ will only enhance readers' experience both in the United States and in the world beyond.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/asj/sjz068
  6. Neuromuscul Disord. 2019 Feb 07. pii: S0960-8966(18)31374-9. [Epub ahead of print]
    "The impact of European Neuromuscular Centre (ENMC) workshops on the neuromuscular field; 25 years on …".
    Alexandra Breukel, Raffaella Willmann, George Padberg, Ellen Sterrenburg, Ingeborg Meijer.
      Since 1992, the European Neuromuscular Centre facilitated workshops to bring experts in the field of neuromuscular disorders together. After organising more than 235 workshops, it is time to evaluate what impact these 25 years of ENMC workshops have had on the neuromuscular research field and on people affected by a neuromuscular condition. To measure this, workshop topics were retrospectively evaluated and bibliometric analyses on the citation scores of ENMC-derived publications were performed. In addition, a personalized survey was used to investigate the actual achievement and implementation of workshop deliverables. The evaluation of 25 years' workshop topics revealed a strong representation of muscular dystrophies, congenital and mitochondrial myopathies. The publications derived from ENMC workshops scored "high impact" as illustrated by the Mean Normalized Citation Score of 1.24. Also 16% of the ENMC papers belong to the top 10% best cited articles in the neuromuscular field. The main outcome of the personalised survey was that 90% of all workshop deliverables were started and either ongoing or completed. Of these deliverables, 78% were implemented in the field; bringing state-of-the-art knowledge and new collaborations to researchers and clinicians, improving designs of clinical trials and innovating tools to make accurate diagnoses.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; Citations; ENMC workshops; Impact; Survey
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nmd.2019.01.008
  7. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg. 2019 Mar 12.
    Fifty top-cited classic papers in orthopaedic oncology: a bibliometric analysis.
    Hüseyin Bilgehan Çevik, Seyit Ali Gümüştaş.
      INTRODUCTION: Citation analysis has been used to evaluate the impact of papers in medicine. There has been multitude of orthopaedic oncology-related papers in literature, to our knowledge no citation analysis of orthopaedic oncology papers has been performed. We identified the 50 most-cited orthopaedic oncology papers and evaluated these papers in terms of their time of publication, source journals, countries, institutions, authors, and main topics.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Science citation index expanded was searched in April 2018 for citations of papers published in 77 selected journals since the beginning of the database. The 50 most-cited orthopaedic oncology papers were identified and evaluated.
    RESULTS: The number of citations for the top 50 papers ranged from 168 to 1162 (mean 308). These papers were published between 1957 and 2010. 1990s was the most productive decade, with 19 papers of the list. All papers were written in English and they were published in a total of 6 journals. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery-Am published the largest number of papers with 31, followed by Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research with 8. The top 50 papers were created mainly from US and Japan, respectively, with 33 and 5.
    CONCLUSIONS: It is difficult to define the exact impact of a single paper in the literature. In doing citation analysis, it provides us perspective in the history and progress of orthopaedic oncology.
    Keywords:  Classics; History; Orthopaedic oncology; Top papers
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-019-03165-z
  8. J Clin Med. 2019 Mar 14. pii: E360. [Epub ahead of print]8(3):
    Global Evolution of Research in Artificial Intelligence in Health and Medicine: A Bibliometric Study.
    Bach Xuan Tran, Giang Thu Vu, Giang Hai Ha, Quan-Hoang Vuong, Manh-Tung Ho, Thu-Trang Vuong, Viet-Phuong La, Manh-Toan Ho, Kien-Cuong P Nghiem, Huong Lan Thi Nguyen, Carl A Latkin, Wilson W S Tam, Ngai-Man Cheung, Hong-Kong T Nguyen, Cyrus S H Ho, Roger C M Ho.
      The increasing application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in health and medicine has attracted a great deal of research interest in recent decades. This study aims to provide a global and historical picture of research concerning AI in health and medicine. A total of 27,451 papers that were published between 1977 and 2018 (84.6% were dated 2008⁻2018) were retrieved from the Web of Science platform. The descriptive analysis examined the publication volume, and authors and countries collaboration. A global network of authors' keywords and content analysis of related scientific literature highlighted major techniques, including Robotic, Machine learning, Artificial neural network, Artificial intelligence, Natural language process, and their most frequent applications in Clinical Prediction and Treatment. The number of cancer-related publications was the highest, followed by Heart Diseases and Stroke, Vision impairment, Alzheimer's, and Depression. Moreover, the shortage in the research of AI application to some high burden diseases suggests future directions in AI research. This study offers a first and comprehensive picture of the global efforts directed towards this increasingly important and prolific field of research and suggests the development of global and national protocols and regulations on the justification and adaptation of medical AI products.
    Keywords:  AI ethics; artificial intelligence; bibliometric analysis; global; health; mapping; medicine
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8030360
  9. Neurol India. 2019 Jan-Feb;67(1):67(1): 78-84
    Bibliometric analysis of the top-cited articles on idiopathic intracranial hypertension.
    Yavuz Samanci, Bedia Samanci, Erdi Sahin.
      Objective: To identify and characterize the top-cited articles on idiopathic intracranial hypertension.Methods: We used "Web of Science database" to identify the top-cited articles published between the years of 1975-2017. The articles were evaluated using citation count and other factors that have an effect on the citation count.
    Results: The search yielded a total of 2,141 articles and the most frequently cited articles received between 58-476 citations. Most articles were published between the years 1990-1999. The most popular study design involved natural history studies. USA ranked first in productivity with 72 articles and the leading institution was University of Iowa. The journal "Neurology" published the greatest number of articles. In assessing the specialties, neurology contributed to 32% of top 100 articles. There was no correlation between the citation count and number of references, years since publication, number of authors, authors' H-index, and number of institutions that had collaborated. There were positive correlations between the citation count and journal impact factor, Scimago journal rank and journal source-normalized impact per paper values. While descriptive keywords were more frequent between 1980s and 1990s, keywords describing surgical management options such as "nerve sheath decompression" and "cerebrospinal-fluid diversion" were top-listed keywords after the year 2000.
    Conclusions: Our study can help researchers identify the most significant and impactful articles on idiopathic intracranial hypertension, as well as to provide insight into the most noteworthy scientific trends and to visualize future research needs of the topic.
    Keywords:  Benign intracranial hypertension; bibliometrics; citation analysis; idiopathic intracranial hypertension; pseudotumor cerebri
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4103/0028-3886.253969
  10. Afr J Emerg Med. 2019 Mar;9(1): 45-52
    Fifteen years of emergency medicine literature in Africa: A scoping review.
    Nee-Kofi Mould-Millman, Julia Dixon, Taylor W Burkholder, Nana Sefa, Hiren Patel, Anna Q Yaffee, Amarachukwu Osisanya, Tolulope Oyewumi, Isaac Botchey, Maxwell Osei-Ampofo, Hendry Sawe, Jay Lemery, Tracy Cushing, Lee A Wallis.
      Introduction: Emergency medicine (EM) throughout Africa exists in various stages of development. The number and types of scientific EM literature can serve as a proxy indicator of EM regional development and activity. The goal of this scoping review is a preliminary assessment of potential size and scope of available African EM literature published over 15 years.Methods: We searched five indexed international databases as well as non-indexed grey literature from 1999-2014 using key search terms including "Africa", "emergency medicine", "emergency medical services", and "disaster." Two trained physician reviewers independently assessed whether each article met one or more of five inclusion criteria, and discordant results were adjudicated by a senior reviewer. Articles were categorised by subject and country of origin. Publication number per country was normalised by 1,000,000 population.
    Results: Of 6091 identified articles, 633 (10.4%) were included. African publications increased 10-fold from 1999 to 2013 (9 to 94 articles, respectively). Western Africa had the highest number (212, 33.5%) per region. South Africa had the largest number of articles per country (171, 27.0%) followed by Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. 537 (84.8%) articles pertained to facility-based EM, 188 (29.7%) to out-of-hospital emergency medicine, and 109 (17.2%) to disaster medicine. Predominant content areas were epidemiology (374, 59.1%), EM systems (321, 50.7%) and clinical care (262, 41.4%). The most common study design was observational (479, 75.7%), with only 28 (4.4%) interventional studies. All-comers (382, 59.9%) and children (91, 14.1%) were the most commonly studied patient populations. Undifferentiated (313, 49.4%) and traumatic (180, 28.4%) complaints were most common.
    Conclusion: Our review revealed a considerable increase in the growth of African EM literature from 1999 to 2014. Overwhelmingly, articles were observational, studied all-comers, and focused on undifferentiated complaints. The articles discovered in this scoping review are reflective of the relatively immature and growing state of African EM.
    Keywords:  Africa; EM; EMS; Emergency medical services; Emergency medicine; Literature review; Scoping review
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2019.01.006
  11. Am J Med. 2019 Mar 06. pii: S0002-9343(19)30173-1. [Epub ahead of print]
    Open Access Publishing and Subsequent Citations Among Articles in Major Cardiovascular Journals.
    Ravi B Patel, Muthiah Vaduganathan, Ramya C Mosarla, Ramkumar V Venkateswaran, Deepak L Bhatt, Robert O Bonow.
      BACKGROUND: While open access publishing among cardiovascular journals has increased in scope over the last decade, the relationship between open access and article citation volume remains unclear.METHODS: We evaluated the association between open access publishing and citation number in 2017 among 4 major cardiovascular journals. Articles indexed to PubMed with ≥5 citations were identified among the following journals: Circulation, European Heart Journal, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and JAMA Cardiology. Multivariable Poisson regression models were adjusted for journal and article type.
    RESULTS: Of the 916 articles published in 2017, original investigations accounted for most articles (66.7%), followed by reviews (14.5%), guideline/scientific statements (8.4%), research letters (3.7%), viewpoints (3.7%), and editorials (2.9%). Among all articles, 43% (n=391) were open access. Citation number was higher among open access articles compared with those with subscription access (14 [25th-75th percentile: 9-23] vs. 11 [25th-75th percentile: 7-17]; P<0.001). Open access status was significantly associated with higher number of citations after multivariable adjustment (β coefficient: +0.42, 95% CI: 0.38-0.45, P<0.001). Open access articles had consistently higher citations compared with subscription access articles across the 3 most frequent article types.
    CONCLUSION: Among contemporary articles published in major cardiovascular journals, open access publishing account for over 40% of articles and was significantly associated with increased short-term citations. Further research is required to assess the variation in long-term citation rates based on open access publishing status.
    Keywords:  cardiology; citations; journal; open access; publishing
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2019.02.009
  12. J Res Adolesc. 2019 Mar;29(1): 96-114
    Puberty in the Last 25 Years: A Retrospective Bibliometric Analysis.
    Kristine Marceau, Savannah Hottle, Jane Kinkus Yatcilla.
      Puberty research has been highly productive in the past few decades and is gaining momentum. We conducted an analysis of bibliographic data, including titles, abstracts, keywords, indexing terms, and citation data to assess the sheer numbers, audience and reach, publication types, and impact of puberty-related publications. Findings suggest that puberty-related publications are increasing in sheer numbers, and have reach in many fields as befits an interdisciplinary science. Puberty-related publications typically have higher impact in terms of citations than the journal averages, among the journals that published the most studies on puberty. Limitations of the field and recommendations for researchers to improve the impact and reach of puberty-related publications (e.g., clear conclusions in abstracts, highlighting the importance of puberty) are discussed.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12396
  13. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2019 Mar 07. pii: S1544-3191(19)30071-8. [Epub ahead of print]
    Trends in women's authorship in pharmacy literature.
    Rebecca M Hoover, Ademola Aré, Kalon Ludvigson, Elaine Nguyen.
      OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this evaluation was to determine whether the percentage of women as first authors in pharmacy journals has continued to increase over the past decade.METHODS: Key pharmacy practice journals were identified from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Core List of Journals for Pharmacy Education. Articles were analyzed from January 2007 through December 2017. The outcome of interest was the proportion of articles having feminine names as the first author. Femininity was determined for first authors by matching the first name to data from the U.S. Social Security Administration or genderize.io. The Cochran-Armitage trend test was used to determine differences in proportion of women as first authors over time.
    RESULTS: The listed first authors over the past decade were 52.7% female for all studied journals from 2007 through 2017. All but 1 journal demonstrated a significant increase in the proportion of female first authors over the time period studied. Subanalyses of journals (1) containing more than 90% gender-identifiable articles, (2) focused predominantly on contemporary drug therapy or pharmacy practice and not typically including pharmaceutical- or pharmacokinetics-related topics, and (3) that did not focus predominantly on contemporary therapy or practice and included pharmaceutical- or pharmacokinetics-related topics were each significant.
    CONCLUSION: Female first authorship in pharmacy practice journals appears to have increased in the past decade but may potentially be reaching a plateau. The proportion of female first authorship is close to reaching that of women in the U.S. pharmacy workforce when compared over the same time period.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2019.02.001
  14. Anal Verbal Behav. 2017 Jun;33(1): 117-138
    Authorship Trends in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: 1982-2016.
    Rodrigo Dal Ben, Celso Goyos.
      The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) is the only journal focused on theoretical and empirical research in verbal behavior. An assessment of authorship trends can provide a critical perspective on practices in verbal behavior analysis (e.g., participation by non-US institutions, contributions by female authors). The present study examines authorship trends in all articles published in TAVB since its inception (between 1982 and 2016). All authors and their affiliations were listed and the first authors denoted as such. Authors were characterized as follows: prolificacy, new vs. frequent contributor status, number of co-authors, editor status, fellow status in a professional organization, and gender. Institutional affiliations were characterized as follows: academic vs. nonacademic institutions, prolificacy, and location (country). The review included 383 articles by 487 authors from 200 institutions. Our findings revealed areas in which TAVB is reaching maturity (e.g., author gender) and areas in which further action by contributors and editors is needed (e.g., international participation).
    Keywords:  Authorship trends; The Analysis of Verbal Behavior; Verbal behavior
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-017-0076-8
  15. Obes Facts. 2019 Mar 13. 12(2): 137-149
    Global Evolution of Obesity Research in Children and Youths: Setting Priorities for Interventions and Policies.
    Bach Xuan Tran, Kim Anh Dang, Huong Thi Le, Giang Hai Ha, Long Hoang Nguyen, Tu Huu Nguyen, Tung Hoang Tran, Carl A Latkin, Cyrus S H Ho, Roger C M Ho.
      BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity has become a major global epidemic that causes substantial social and health burdens worldwide. The effectiveness of childhood obesity control and prevention depends largely on understanding the issue, including its current development and associated factors in a contextualized perspective.OBJECTIVES: Our study aimed to gauge this kind of understanding.
    METHODS: We systematically searched the Web of Science database for studies concerning child obesity published up to 2017 and analyzed the volume of publications, growth rates, impact scores, collaborations, authors, affiliations, and journals. A total of 57,444 research papers were included.
    RESULTS: The three subject categories with the highest number of papers (over 3,000) were (1) nutrition and dietetics, (2) pediatrics, and (3) public, environmental, and occupational health. We found a dramatic increase in the amount of scientific literature on childhood obesity in the past one or two decades, led by scholars from the USA - ranking at the top regarding the total number of papers (23,965 papers; 30.8%) and total number of citations (859,793 citations) - and multiple Western countries where the obesity epidemic is prevalent.
    CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the need for improving international and local research capacities and collaboration to accelerate knowledge production and translation into contextualized and effective childhood obesity prevention.
    Keywords:  Child obesity; Global evolution; Mapping; Scientometrics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1159/000497121
This page is being maintained by Thomas Krichel. It was last updated on 2021‒07‒23 at 10:19:52.