bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2019–04–14
twenty-two papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2019 Apr 11. 1-6
       OBJECTIVE: Radiology has traditionally been a male-dominated medical specialty, and this is also reflected in the authorship of radiology publications and the composition of radiology journal editorial boards. The purpose of this study was to quantify the extent of the gender disparities reflected within the journal editorial boards of the largest international radiologic societies.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Methods were crafted to generate a geographically based gender analysis of the editorial boards of the largest general radiologic societies globally. All editorial board members of journals that were published by societies included in the study and that had an impact factor of 1 or greater were assessed to determine the gender composition of the board and the research productivity and career advancement of its members. Analyzed metrics included gender, academic rank, departmental leadership positions, subspecialty, total number of peer-reviewed publications, total number of citations, the h-index, and total number of years of active research.
    RESULTS: Significant gender disparity was noted across the six journal editorial boards included. Overall, 80.87% of editorial board members were men and 19.13% were women. Men were more prevalent than women across all academic ranks. Male editorial board members had longer publishing careers (22.5 vs 18 years; p = 0.015), a higher total number of publications (110 vs 65 publications; p < 0.001), and a higher h-index (25 vs 19; p < 0.001) than their female counterparts. Female editorial board members at higher academic ranks were less represented on editorial boards and were also less likely to have formal departmental leadership titles.
    CONCLUSION: Editorial boards have significant gender disparities, with no specific geographic regional variation noted. Male editorial board members published more, had higher h-indexes, and held more departmental leadership positions than their female counterparts.
    Keywords:  editorial boards; gender disparity; gender map; h-index; radiologic societies
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2214/AJR.18.20965
  2. Braz Dent J. 2019 Mar-Apr;30(2):pii: S0103-64402019000200096. [Epub ahead of print]30(2): 96-105
      This study analyzes the characteristics of the top-100 most cited articles published in international dental journals with at least one coauthor affiliated to Brazil. A search in Scopus database for articles published between 1996 and 2017 was carried out in the 178 journals belonging to the category "Dentistry" identified in SCImago Journals & Country Rank. From the top-100 most cited articles, variables related to the journal, article, and authors were collected. Annual citation averages (ACA) and relative citation ratios (RCR) were calculated. Data were analyzed descriptively. There were 75 original reports and 25 reviews in the sample. The number of citations ranged between 124 and 657 (mean=202, median=168). The papers were published in 31 different journals (46% in only four journals), none based in Brazil. The most frequent subjects (61%) were Dental Materials, Endodontics, and Periodontology, which accounted for 63.6% of the total citations. The subject with the highest ACA was Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the subject with the highest RCR was Oral Radiology. Only 12 articles were cited more than 300 times. International collaboration was present in 61 articles and funding was reported in 49 articles. The first author was from Brazil in 70% and corresponding author in 55% of the papers. Southeast (83%) and South (20%) were the regions of Brazil with most presence of coauthors. This top-100 list is presented to provide an overview of the most cited articles and aid in supporting further analyses regarding publication and citation behaviors of Brazilian dentistry.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-6440201902529
  3. J Hepatobiliary Pancreat Sci. 2019 Apr 12.
      Biliary atresia (BA) is a rare cholangiopathy of largely unknown etiology and unpredictable outcome. There has been an increasing number of BA-related publications, which may challenge researchers to determine their actual scientific value. This study aimed to evaluate the global research activity and developments relating to BA using a combination of scientometric methodologies and visualization tools. A comprehensive search strategy for the Web of Science™ database was designed to obtain bibliographic data on scientific BA publications for the timespan 1900-2018. Research output of countries, institutions, individual authors and collaborative networks was analyzed. Semi-qualitative research measures including citation rate and h-index were assessed. Choropleth mapping and network diagrams were employed to visualize results. In total, 4,459 publications on BA were identified (88.5% in English), originating from 63 countries. The largest number was published by the USA (n=991; 22.2%), Japan (n=667; 15.0%) and the UK (n=294; 6.6%). The USA combined the highest number of cooperation articles (n=140). The most productive collaborative network was established between the USA and Canada (n=17). Scientific papers from the UK received the highest average citation rate (16.7), whereas the USA had the highest country-specific h-index (59). Eighty-eight (2.0%) items were published under the auspices of multicenter consortiums or registries. The most productive institutions and authors were based in the USA, the UK, Japan, France, Canada and Taiwan. BA-related research has constantly been progressing, becoming more multidisciplinary but with main research endeavors concentrated in a few high-income countries. Studies into pathogenesis of BA remain uncommon, but are sorely needed to foster true scientific progress with this rare disease. Hence, international collaborative and translational research should be strengthened to allow further evolution in this field. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
    Keywords:  Bile duct; Biliary atresia; Cholangitis; Cholestasis; Kasai portoenterostomy
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbp.628
  4. Zhong Nan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban. 2019 Mar 28. 44(3): 233-243
       OBJECTIVE: To illustrate the literature distribution, research power distribution, and research hotspots in the radiomics research by using knowledge mapping analysis, and to provide reference for relevant researchers.
 Methods: Bibliographies from literature regarding radiomics in Web of Science database were downloaded. BICOM 2.0.1 and SATI 3.2 were used to clean and caculate the frequency of publication year, journal, author, key word, and research institution. CiteSpace V4.4.R1 was used to build the knowledge map of scientific research collaboration network between countries/regions.Ucinet 6 was used to build the knowledge map of scientific research collaboration network between core authors and institutions. gCLUTO 1.0 was applied to construct high-frequency keywords bi-clustering map.
 Results: A total of 700 literature was screened. Since 2012 the number of publications has been growing rapidly year by year. The United States, China, and Netherlands were leaders in this field. There were 5 major scientific research institution cooperative groups and 10 major author cooperative groups. Eight research hotspots were clustered by using high-frequency key word bi-clustering analysis.
 Conclusion: Radiomics is a new field and develops very fast. More and more countries, research institutions, and researchers with multidisciplinary background are going to participate in this filed. New terminology and new methods are going to appear in the field.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.11817/j.issn.1672-7347.2019.03.002
  5. Res Integr Peer Rev. 2019 ;4 6
       Introduction: Bisphenol A is highly debated and studied in relation to a variety of health outcomes. This large variation in the literature makes BPA a topic that is prone to selective use of literature, in order to underpin one's own findings and opinion. Over time, selective use of literature, by means of citations, can lead to a skewed knowledge development and a biased scientific consensus. In this study, we assess which factors drive citation and whether this results in the overrepresentation of harmful health effects of BPA.
    Methods: A citation network analysis was performed to test various determinants of citation. A systematic search identified all relevant publications on the human health effect of BPA. Data were extracted on potential determinants of selective citation, such as study outcome, study design, sample size, journal impact factor, authority of the author, self-citation, and funding source. We applied random effect logistic regression to assess whether these determinants influence the likelihood of citation.
    Results: One hundred sixty-nine publications on BPA were identified, with 12,432 potential citation pathways of which 808 citations occurred. The network consisted of 63 cross-sectional studies, 34 cohort studies, 29 case-control studies, 35 narrative reviews, and 8 systematic reviews. Positive studies have a 1.5 times greater chance of being cited compared to negative studies. Additionally, the authority of the author and self-citation are consistently found to be positively associated with the likelihood of being cited. Overall, the network seems to be highly influenced by two highly cited publications, whereas 60 out of 169 publications received no citations.
    Conclusion: In the literature on BPA, citation is mostly driven by positive study outcome and author-related factors, such as high authority within the network. Interpreting the impact of these factors and the big influence of a few highly cited publications, it can be questioned to which extent the knowledge development in human literature on BPA is actually evidence-based.
    Keywords:  Bisphenol A; Citation analysis; Methodology; Questionable research practice; Selective citation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0065-7
  6. Scand J Public Health. 2019 Apr 11. 1403494819834099
       AIM: The aim of this study is to analyse the development of Scandinavian research on complementary and alternative medicine in terms of publication pattern and general content. Furthermore we will map research networks.
    METHODS AND DATA: This study is based on bibliometric methods. The dataset consists of 1441 publications with at least one author with a Scandinavian address and/or organisational affiliation, from 2005-2017, in Medline and Web of Science.
    RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Complementary and alternative medicine is a small and moderately growing research field in Scandinavia, with an average of 120 publications per year. The largest sub-term is integrative and complementary medicine, but the majority of documents are classified as other medical sub-fields. A similar pattern is found regarding the sources. The Medical Subject Heading classifications of the documents and the author keywords indicate that much of the relevant research takes a general focus on complementary and alternative medicine. Regarding specific therapies, mind-body and sensory art therapies are particularly prominent in the material. Various aspects of pain, mental health and gynaecology are recurrent health issues. In total, 31.5% of the publications are classified as clinical trials. The organisations referenced most frequently in the material are Karolinska Institutet and UiT Tromsö and it is clear the research is based at large universities and university hospitals. The research networks have relatively different profiles and collaborate with both Scandinavian and international organisations.
    Keywords:  Complementary medicine; Scandinavia; bibliometric study
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494819834099
  7. J Ophthalmol. 2019 ;2019 6964043
       Introduction: Citation network analysis is a powerful tool that allows for a visual and objective representation of the past, present, and potential future directions of a research field. The objective of this study is using citation analysis network to analyse the evolution of knowledge in the field of orthokeratology.
    Materials and Methods: The database used in this citation networks analysis study was Scopus. The descriptor used was "orthokeratology" limited to three fields: title, keywords, and/or abstract, analysing the five most cited authors. Only articles cited at least twenty times were used. The computer software used was UCINET with two types of analysis, qualitative and quantitative.
    Results: 27 nodes have been included according to the search and inclusion criteria. In qualitative analysis, based on illustrate results, the relationships among nodes and their positions and connections show how the study of Cho et al. in 2005 is clearly positioned as a central cutoff point in the network. Quantitative analysis reveals the normalized value of the sample and shows how the study of Cho et al. in 2005 presents the highest percentage of input connections.
    Conclusions: This study shows the state of the flow of information in the orthokeratology field by providing links in bibliographic citations from a qualitative and quantitative point of view.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6964043
  8. Sci Total Environ. 2019 Apr 04. pii: S0048-9697(19)31547-5. [Epub ahead of print]672 893-905
      As the discussion surrounding sustainable remediation has advanced, numerous tools have been developed to evaluate the sustainability of remediation technologies, including life cycle assessment (LCA). In the present study, a systematic and bibliometric analysis of scientific articles indexed in the databases of Scopus and the Web of Science in the field of LCA was performed, particularly studies relating to the remediation of contaminated sites from a sustainability perspective. We selected a bibliographic portfolio (BP) of papers related to sustainable remediation using LCA. Then, we performed a bibliometric analysis of the selected BP, presenting theoretical development, highlighting the authors, journals, and countries associated with these publications. Finally, we conducted a thematic synthesis and reviewed the prospects for future research. The BP was composed of 44 papers from 2007 to 2018. In 2018 there was the highest number of publications, corresponding to 27% of the total BP. The results showed that developed countries have generated the largest number of publications, whereas developing countries had lower representation in the BP. However, China stands out as the second country with the highest number of publications. The thematic analysis showed that most articles have aimed to assess the environmental impacts of remediation techniques. However, several publications have performed a broader analysis considering the economic and social pillars of sustainability through using LCA in conjunction with other tools. The study also highlights the main application of LCA in decision-making on the remediation processes in the context of sustainable remediation. The present research study makes several new contributions, providing academics and practitioners with an overview of the implementation of LCA in the field of sustainable remediation of contaminated sites through sorting published data according to scientific indexes and bibliometrics, describing the main research approaches, and highlighting prospects for new research.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Environmental analysis; Scientific indexes; Sustainability; Sustainable remediation; Tools
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.034
  9. Am J Pharm Educ. 2019 Mar;83(2): 6513
      Objective. To characterize the publication records and bibliometric indices of current CEO deans at pharmacy schools and colleges in the United States. Methods. Using the Web of Science database, the publication records of all CEO pharmacy deans in the US were collected. Bibliometric indices calculated included: lifetime publications, publications/year, h-index, m-quotient, lifetime citations, citations/year, average citations/paper, productivity, and creativity. The Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance for nonparametric data was used to assess differences between groups. Results. All bibliometric parameters were different between pharmacy schools and colleges that were research-intensive vs teaching-intensive, academic health center-based vs non-academic health center-based, and public vs private. Additionally, the discipline and degree of each dean yielded significant differences. There were no significant differences in bibliometric parameters between male or female deans. Conclusion. Deans of current SCOP display a varied range of publication records and bibliometric indices.
    Keywords:  faculty; pharmacy deans; publications; scholarship
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe6513
  10. Sci Total Environ. 2019 May 20. pii: S0048-9697(19)30627-8. [Epub ahead of print]666 1245-1254
      Sustainable city has been a global concern in recent years, involving natural science and social science research. However, few studies have attempted to map the global research of sustainable city. This study aimed to reveal the global performance and development of sustainable city research during 1992 to 2016, using a bibliometric analysis based on Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) on Web of Science. Research performance, research emphases and trends were illustrated by bibliometric indicators and newly developed visualization tools, like Science of Science (Sci2), Gephi, and alluvial diagram. Sustainable city research in natural science and social science were well-matched in quantity, and had similar and different characteristics in terms of different investigated aspects. China ranked first in natural science research, while the USA was the leading country in social science research. More categories and clusters were involved in sustainable city field, indicating more interdisciplinary integration was undergoing. Energy and fuels in natural science field, and interdisciplinary applications mathematics in social science field started to attract more attention. Statistical analysis of words in title, author keywords, and KeyWords Plus has been investigated to monitor the development of sustainable city research. Finally, three critical issues in sustainable city research based on the clues by the analysis of these keywords were reviewed and discussed.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Low carbon city; Sponge city; Topic detection; Visualization
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.139
  11. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health. 2019 ;15 10-14
       Background: The use of bibliometric analysis to assess scientific productivity and impact is particularly relevant for EU funding programs. The objective of the present study is to assess the impact on scientific literature by focusing specifically on the cost-effectiveness of FP7 and NHI projects in the fields of AA and QoL, respectively.
    Methods: Twenty projects were randomly selected from the CORDIS database in accordance with the following criteria: funded by the FP7; accepted from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2012; concluded by 31st August 2017;For each project selected, we determined: number of publications in Scopus and Google databases attributable to the project; number of papers published in Q1 quartile of the SCIMAGO rank; number of citations found in Scopus and Scholar Google; amount of funds allocated.
    Results: The study has confirmed the results of the previous one, namely that the number of publications and the number of citations per project on active ageing are similar in projects funded by the NHI in the United States and those funded by the FP7 in Europe. However, when it comes to cost-effectiveness, it results that European projects have a cost ten times higher than the Americans ones.
    Conclusion: Our study shows lower cost-effectiveness of FP7-European projects than the American-NIH on active aging. The results of this research, albeit with the limits already outlined, will have to be taken into consideration in the evaluative research of the future.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901915010010
  12. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2019 Apr 04. pii: S2213-2198(19)30325-3. [Epub ahead of print]
       BACKGROUND: Disparities in the frequency of publications by gender have been reported in various medical subspecialties.
    OBJECTIVE: Review author gender in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) and Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (Annals) from 1997-2017.
    METHODS: Frequency and patterns of authorship by gender were collected in five year intervals and analyzed by journal, article type, and year of publication. Logistic regression was used to analyze factors associated with a greater likelihood of first authors being women. We compared these patterns with the frequency of women AAAAI (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology) members and AAAAI fellows-in-training.
    RESULTS: Women were first authors in 36.5% of publications, increasing from 26.6% in 1997 to 48.1% in 2017 (p< 0.001). Original articles were highest (42.5%), editorials lowest (17.1%). Women as last authors increased from 18.1% in 1997 to 30.9% in 2017 (p=0.001). Women were less likely to be sole authors: 17.7% (p<0.001). Articles with women as first authors were observed more frequently when women were last authors (OR = 3.14, p<0.0001). This association was more likely in original investigations (OR=2.1, p<0.001) and articles published more recently (2007, 2012, 2017) (OR=1.75, p<0.001). The increasing rate of women first authors correlated with rising proportions of women AAAAI members (Pearson correlation=0.96, p=0.01) and fellows-in-training (Pearson correlation=0.96, p<0.01).
    CONCLUSIONS: Women authorship has become more frequent in JACI and Annals. The probability of women being first authors is more likely in articles with women as last authors- implying that mentorship of women by women may encourage women to become more active in scholarship.
    Keywords:  fellows-in-training; gender; mentorship; publication rates; scholarship
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2019.03.040
  13. Molecules. 2019 Apr 09. pii: E1393. [Epub ahead of print]24(7):
      The current study aimed to provide a comprehensive bibliometric overview of the literature on curcumin, complementing the previous reviews and meta-analyses on its potential health benefits. Bibliometric data for the current analysis were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database, using the search string TOPIC=("curcumin*"), and analyzed by the VOSviewer software. The search yielded 18,036 manuscripts. The ratio of original articles to reviews was 10.4:1. More than half of the papers have been published since 2014. The major contributing countries were the United States, China, India, Japan, and South Korea. These publications were mainly published in journals representing the following scientific disciplines: biochemistry, chemistry, oncology, and pharmacology. There was a significant positive correlation between the total publication count and averaged citations per manuscript for affiliations, but not for countries/regions and journals. Chemicals that were frequently mentioned in the keywords of evaluated curcumin publications included curcuminoids, resveratrol, chitosan, flavonoids, quercetin, and polyphenols. The literature mainly focused on curcumin's effects against cancer, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Cancer types most frequently investigated were breast, colon, colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate cancers.
    Keywords:  VOSviewer; Web of Science; bibliometrics; biochemistry; cancer; citation analysis; curcumin; pharmacology
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24071393
  14. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2019 Apr 12. pii: fnz075. [Epub ahead of print]
      This paper aims to map and identify topics of interest within the field of Microbiology and identify the main sources driving such attention. We combine data from Web of Science and Altmetric.com, a platform which retrieves mentions to scientific literature from social media and other non-academic communication outlets. We focus on the dissemination of microbial publications in Twitter, news media and policy briefs. A two-mode network of social accounts shows distinctive areas of activity. We identify a cluster of papers mentioned solely by regional news media. A central area of the network is formed by papers discussed by the three outlets. A large portion of the network is driven by Twitter activity. When analyzing top actors contributing to such network, we observe that more than half of the Twitter accounts are bots, mentioning 32% of the documents in our dataset. Within news media outlets, there is a predominance of popular science outlets. With regard to policy briefs, both international and national bodies are represented. Finally, our topic analysis shows that the thematic focus of papers mentioned varies by outlet. While news media cover the wider range of topics, policy briefs are focused on translational medicine, and bacterial outbreaks.
    Keywords:  Twitter; altmetrics; microbiology; news media; policy documents; science mapping
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnz075
  15. Nurs Outlook. 2019 Feb 26. pii: S0029-6554(18)30565-7. [Epub ahead of print]
       AIMS: To assess Italian nurse academics' scientific activity by exploring their publications in international journals.
    BACKGROUND: The scientific production of a discipline's academics is a requisite for the university accreditation process and for employment in academic positions. It can also be used as an indicator of the maturity and importance of a given discipline in a country. Italian nurse academics' scientific production has not been analyzed recently.
    DESIGN: Quantitative descriptive study on an observation period of 16years, from 2000 to 2016.
    METHODS: All Italian full-time academics in the sector of General, Clinical, and Pediatric Nursing Sciences were identified, based on selection criteria. All their publications in indexed international journals were systematically collected between November 2016 and February 2017.
    RESULTS: Twenty-five Italian nurse academics were identified, and 450 of their publications met all our inclusion criteria, with a mean of 18 publications per author (range 0-88). There was a steady growth in the number of publications over time. Sixty-five percent of articles were published in nursing journals. Eighty-six percent of the publications were on nursing topics, the most popular being clinical issues (53.8%). Eighty percent of the publications were "applied research articles" and most of them adopted a quantitative approach with a descriptive study design. Hospitals and clinics were the most common settings studied, while patients and caregivers were the participants most often involved. Foreign coauthors contributed to 30% of the articles.
    DISCUSSION: Italian nursing academics contribute adequately to scientific production in the nursing sector.
    Keywords:  Nurses; Nursing; Nursing academics; Nursing science; Publishing; Research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2019.02.011
  16. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2019 Apr 09. 19(Suppl 2): 50
       BACKGROUND: Social media plays a more and more important role in the research of health and healthcare due to the fast development of internet communication and information exchange. This paper conducts a bibliometric analysis to discover the thematic change and evolution of utilizing social media for healthcare research field.
    METHODS: With the basis of 4361 publications from both Web of Science and PubMed during the year 2008-2017, the analysis utilizes methods including topic modelling and science mapping analysis.
    RESULTS: Utilizing social media for healthcare research has attracted increasing attention from scientific communities. Journal of Medical Internet Research is the most prolific journal with the USA dominating in the research. Overly, major research themes such as YouTube analysis and Sex event are revealed. Themes in each time period and how they evolve across time span are also detected.
    CONCLUSIONS: This systematic mapping of the research themes and research areas helps identify research interests and how they evolve across time, as well as providing insight into future research direction.
    Keywords:  Healthcare research; Science mapping; Social media; Thematic detection; Thematic evolution; Topic modelling
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0757-4
  17. J Exp Criminol. 2018 ;14(3): 319-360
       Objectives: Our objectives were (1) to systematically map the contours of the European evidence base on labour trafficking, identifying its key characteristics, coverage, gaps, strengths and weaknesses and (2) to synthesise key scientific research.
    Methods: We took a two-phase approach: a systematic map followed by a detailed synthesis of key scientific research evidence. Our search strategy included 15 databases, hand searches of additional journals, backwards searches, snowball searches and expert recommendations. We identified and screened 6106 records, mapped 152 and synthesised eight.
    Results: Overall, the literature was limited and fragmented. Reports produced by official agencies dominated; academic authorship and peer-reviewed outputs were comparatively rare. Few publications met minimum scientific standards. Qualitative designs outweighed quantitative ones. Publications typically described trafficking's problem profile and/or discussed interventions; they rarely assessed trafficking's impacts or evaluated interventions. Even among the key scientific research, the quality of evidence was variable and often low. Particular weaknesses included poor methods reporting, unclear or imprecise results and conclusions not properly grounded in the data. The synthesised studies were all exploratory, also sharing other design features. Common themes identified included: poor treatment of victims; diversity of sectors affected and commonalities among victims; inadequacies of current responses; and barriers to interventions.
    Conclusions: There is a lack of high-quality studies into European labour trafficking. Methodological opacity, insufficient rigour and publication in non-indexed locations impede the identification, assessment and synthesis of evidence. Adherence to higher reporting standards would further the field's development and particular research gaps should be addressed.
    Keywords:  Exploitation; Forced labour; Human trafficking; Immigration; Migration; Modern slavery; Organised crime; Servitude; Systematic map; Systematic review
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-017-9321-3
  18. J Dent Educ. 2019 Apr 08.
      The aims of this systematic review were to collect a list of published articles on dental faculty development and to determine the types and location of programs evaluated and years of publication. A subset of selected articles were then assessed using Kirkpatrick assessment model four levels: learner reaction, participant learning, participant behavioral change, and changes in organizational practice. The search, conducted in 2016, comprised all potentially relevant articles in the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE via Ovid, and ERIC. The study screening was done by three reviewers in multiple stages: by title, abstract, and full text review. Following deduplication, 257 titles were obtained; of those, 102 articles were selected for abstract review. As a result of that review, 32 articles were excluded, leaving 70 for data extraction. The majority of the 70 articles were about programs in the U.S., and two-thirds were studies conducted at individual academic institutions. Most focused on faculty development initiatives (n=49), followed by retention (n=22), recruitment (n=16), and/or promotion/tenure (n=11). The year with the highest number of published articles was 1991 (n=10, 14%), followed by 2007 and 2011 (n=6, 8.6% each). Among the 12 articles evaluated with the Kirkpatrick model, most assessed Levels 1, 2, and 3, but very few addressed Level 4. Research in those 12 articles was conducted primarily at two dental schools: New York University College of Dentistry (n=5) and University of Florida College of Dentistry (n=4). This study generated a varied list of published articles on faculty development, but the results point to the need for research at more institutions and using additional methodologies.
    Keywords:  dental education; dental faculty; faculty development; systematic review
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21815/JDE.019.096
  19. World Neurosurg. 2019 Apr 06. pii: S1878-8750(19)30998-2. [Epub ahead of print]
       BACKGROUND: Neurosurgery is a unique field, which would benefit greatly from increased global collaboration furthering research efforts. ResearchGate is a social media platform geared towards scientists and researchers.
    OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the utilization of ResearchGate for neurosurgical research collaboration and compared the ResearchGate score with more classical bibliometrics. ResearchGate as a unifying social platform that can strengthen global research collaboration (e.g. data sharing) in the neurosurgery community.
    METHODS: Publicly available metrics on a total of 3718 neurosurgery clinical faculty and residents in Canada and United States was obtained from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) website. The following metrics were collected: program name, clinician name, sex, attending (yes or no), resident (yes or no), post-graduate year (if resident), ResearchGate profile (yes or no). ResearchGate score and its components and h-index excluding self-citations were collected. Fellows were not included.
    RESULTS: Of the 3718 total individuals included, 1338 (36.0%) were present on ResearchGate, comprised of 181 (13.5%) females and 1157 (86.5%) males. Females and males were present in similar proportions (33.8% of females and 36.3% of males) χ2 (1, N=3718)=1.26, p = 0.26. A greater amount of faculty were present on ResearchGate than residents (62.4%) χ2 (1, N=3718) = 11.42, p=0.001. A very strong, positive monotonic correlation between H-index and ResearchGate score was shown rs (1292)= 0.93, p<0.0005. Over 400 international departments were determined.
    CONCLUSION: ResearchGate may be a useful platform to increase neurosurgical networking and research collaboration. Its novel bibliometrics are strongly correlated to more classical ones.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Neurosurgery; Research Collaboration; ResearchGate; Social Media
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2019.04.007
  20. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Apr 05. 2(4): e192103
       Importance: Gender equity is a prominent issue in the medical profession. Representation of female physicians at academic meetings has been identified as an important component of gender equity; however, this topic has not been systematically assessed.
    Objective: To determine the trend during the last decade in the proportion of speakers who were women at major academic medical conferences held in Canada and in the United States.
    Design, Setting, and Participants: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted examining the gender of speakers listed in meeting programs of medical conferences held in Canada and in the United States in 2007 and from 2013 through 2017. Eligible conferences were identified using a sensitive search strategy, and a previously validated tool was used to analyze each meeting speaker list and to assign a proportion of female speakers. Conferences held in English language, hosted in Canada or the United States, and targeted to a physician audience with 100 or more attendees were included. The comparison group was active physicians in Canada and in the United States.
    Main Outcomes and Measures: The mean of the proportion of female speakers at each conference per year.
    Results: In total, 181 conferences with 701 individual meetings were analyzed, including 100 medical and 81 surgical specialty conferences. The proportion of women ranged from 0% to 82.6% of all speakers. The mean (SD) proportion of female conference speakers for all meetings analyzed significantly increased from 24.6% (14.6%) for 40 meetings in 2007 to 34.1% (15.1%) for 181 meetings in 2017 (P < .001). The mean proportion of female speakers at medical specialty conferences was 9.8% higher (SE, 1.9%; P < .001) than the mean proportion of female speakers at surgical specialty conferences for all years analyzed. The mean proportion of female speakers at conferences was similar to the mean proportion of active female physicians across all specialties in the United States and in Canada for all years analyzed.
    Conclusions and Relevance: Although our findings indicate that the proportion of female speakers at medical conferences increased during the last decade, women continue to be underrepresented. Speaker invitation and selection at conferences represent important opportunities to influence gender equity within medicine.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.2103