bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2020–07–05
thirty-two papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society



  1. Eur Heart J. 2020 Jul 01. pii: ehaa413. [Epub ahead of print]
      
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa413
  2. Turk Psikiyatri Derg. 2020 ;31(2): 99-105
       OBJECTIVE: In this study we aimed to investigate the frequency and the factors determining the conversion rate of the oral and poster presentations into articles. Five consecutive national psychiatry congresses held by the Psychiatric Association of Turkey (PAT) between 2012 and 2016 were evaluated.
    METHOD: The manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals were identified using the Web of Knowledge, PubMed and Google Scholar databases. The identified manuscripts were classified according to the type of the publication, the duration until publication, the impact factor and the index of the journal.
    RESULTS: Out of the total 1372 reports presented at the five consecutive National Congress of Psychiatry events, a total of 297 abstracts (21.6%), comprising 201 of the 1104 posters and 96 of the 268 oral presentations, were converted in to publications. A significantly higher percentage of the oral presentations (p<0.001) compared to the poster presentations were converted into publications; and more of the publications consisted of research reports as compared to case reports. The mean time taken from presentation at the congress to publication was 19.04 (±12.47) months. The mean impact factor of the journals at the time of publication was 1.45 (±1.49).
    CONCLUSION: Although the publication percentage of the presentations made in National Congress of Psychiatry events held by the PAT is similar to that of other studies conducted in Turkey, they are below the percentage reported by similar research in the international literature. There is a need in the mental healthcare institutions of Turkey for time allocation to make research and for creating units that can support researchers in the difficult process of publishing research results. Also, a more selective approach should be adopted when evaluating the congress presentations, and research that is considered to be of high academic value should be encouraged for submission as oral presentations.
  3. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Jul 01.
      The booming construction industry has led to many environmental and occupational health and safety problems. Construction dust caused irreversible damage to the health of frontline workers and polluted the surrounding air environment, which has attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners. In this study, to systematically sort and analyze the distribution of construction dust (CD) research, its hot areas, and the evolution of its fronts, papers with "construction dust" as the subject term in the Web of Science Core Collection Database since 2010 are visually analyzed using CiteSpace. The characteristics of these papers, including the quantity trend, quality, author group, affiliated institution type, and journal type, are summarized, and keyword co-appearance and paper co-citation knowledge maps are produced. The results show that (1) China is the backbone of CD research, and the research results account for a considerable proportion of the total. (2) Respiratory dust and atmospheric aerosols, marble dust, PM2.5, and other hot issues have always attracted international attention. And exposure assessment and spatial distribution were the main focuses in the study of CD. (3) The direction of CD research will explore in a more subtle and intelligent direction in the future, for example, monitoring and control equipment under the technical support of big data technology and machine learning and face recognition. By combining bibliometrics with a systematic review, we aim to analyze the research foci and future development direction deeply, providing scholars with a comprehensive view of the field.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; CiteSpace; Construction dust (CD); Knowledge mapping
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09723-y
  4. J Alzheimers Dis. 2020 Jun 22.
       BACKGROUND: Scientific output in the Southeast Asia (SEA) on the topic of dementia is postulated to be low in quality and quantity. It is also speculated that certain socioeconomic variables and measures of disease burden for dementia may play a significant role in driving the research output of a particular country.
    OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the research impact of published journal articles on dementia in SEA and its association with country-level socioeconomic factors and measures of disease burden for dementia.
    METHODS: A systematic search was conducted using electronic healthcare databases. We included articles published on dementia until August 2019 with at least 1 author affiliated withany SEA institution. We obtained bibliometric indices, relevant socioeconomic factors, and measures of disease burden for dementia from published sources.
    RESULTS: One thousand six articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The majority of publications were related to Alzheimer's disease (n = 775, 77.0%). Singapore contributed the highest number of publications (n = 457, 45.4%). Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, % GDP for research and development, and total neurologists significantly correlated with several bibliometric indices. On the other hand, the measures of disease burden for dementia in SEA countries were not significantly associated with research productivity.
    CONCLUSION: Research productivity in SEA on dementia has substantially increased in recent years. Augmenting GDP per capita and expanding the apportionment of resources to R & D may have a significant role in the advancement of dementia research in SEA.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric analysis; Southeast Asia; burden of disease; dementia; scientometrics; socioeconomic factors
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-200355
  5. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2020 Jun 26. pii: S0033-0620(20)30134-1. [Epub ahead of print]
      Soccer has not only the largest number of worldwide participants, it is also the most studied sport, with nearly 14,000 citations listed on Pubmed and nearly 60% more articles than the next most studied sport. Research about soccer was limited until the late 1970s when exponential growth began; approximately 98% of all soccer-related research publications have occurred since 1980. This vast repository of soccer research shows trends in various major (e.g., 'sex' or 'age group' or 'performance' or 'injury') and specialty (e.g., agility, deceleration, elbow-head impact injuries, behavior) topics. Examining trends of the various topics provides insights into which subjects have come in and out of favor as well as what topics or demographics have been neglected and worthy of inquiry. A further examination can be used by students to learn the most productive researchers, which programs have a strong history of inquiry, and what journals have demonstrated a commitment to publishing research on soccer.
    Keywords:  Association football; Pubmed; Research history
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2020.06.011
  6. Health Econ. 2020 Jun 28.
      The Journal of Health Economics and Health Economics are arguably the top two journals in the field of health economics. Together, they published 1,679 empirical research articles in the past decade (2010-2019). In line with analyses based on earlier periods, the empirical evidence in top health economics journals continues to be dominated by the United States (37% of all empirical articles), whereas studies based on low-income countries remain rare (2%). Countries with higher disease burdens receive generally less attention from health economists publishing at the top of their field. Reflecting this, more research was published based on data from the Nordic countries (27 million people) than from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia regions combined (2.9 billion people). Finally, one-third of the empirical articles did not indicate the country of evidence in the title or the abstract, possibly to signal external validity of the findings. This practice was particularly common for articles based on data from North America with more than half of the articles omitting the country of evidence from the title and the abstract. The study concludes by exploring some hypotheses that may explain these findings.
    Keywords:  bibliometrics; external validity; health and inequality; health economics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4128
  7. Clin Neuropsychol. 2020 Jun 30. 1-23
      Objective: The current study utilizes five decades of data to demonstrate cohort differences in gender representation in governance, speaking at conferences, serving on editorial boards, and in scholarly productivity in clinical neuropsychology. Broadly examining gender disparities across domains of professional attainment helps illuminate the areas in which inequity in clinical neuropsychology is most pronounced and in need of ameliorative resources.Methods: Data from 1967 to 2017 were coded from publicly available information from the four major professional associations for clinical neuropsychology in the U.S. (i.e. INS, AACN, NAN, & SCN). Gender differences were examined in (1) speaking at a national conference, (2) holding an office in a professional organization, (3) serving on the editorial team for a journal affiliated with a professional organization, and (4) scholarly activity as coded from Google Scholar.Results: The percentage of men in the field significantly declined across time, whereas the percentage of women significantly increased; the number of women exceeded the number of men in approximately 1992. Gender differences in conference speakers, editorial board members, and research citations were greater in the earlier than in more recent cohorts of clinical neuropsychologists but gender inequity in conference speaking and editorial activities is evident in the most recent cohorts.Discussion: Gender differences in conference speakers, editorial board members, and in earning research citations have diminished over time, but early career women still face disadvantages in speaking at conferences and serving on editorial boards. We provide strategies to increase and sustain women's participation in leadership in neuropsychology.
    Keywords:  Gender; bias; leadership; neuropsychology; sex
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/13854046.2020.1778791
  8. Dermatol Online J. 2020 Mar 15. pii: 13030/qt8f54k6bp. [Epub ahead of print]26(3):
       BACKGROUND: Over the past 20 years, China has experienced an increased popularity of Western medicine. The impact of Western medicine in China on the field of dermatology is not well characterized.
    OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact China has had on the field of dermatology by analyzing the total publications to six dermatological journals, compared to two other Asian countries: Japan and Korea.
    METHODS: PubMed was utilized to search for publications from China, Japan, and Korea within the past 20 years. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the average percentage change in publications during this 20-year period, and the average annual increase in total number of publications from each country. Comparisons were made using one-way ANOVA and two-group t-tests.
    RESULTS: From 1998 to 2019, there was a 24% average annual increase in publications from China (M=24.4, SD=24.5), compared to a 6% increase from Japan (M=5.6, SD=25.4, P=0.02) and 8% increase from Korea (M=7.8, SD=23.4, P=0.03).
    CONCLUSION: For the past 20 years, there has been a strong positive trend regarding the total number of publications from China. This finding might be related in part to an increased acceptance of Western medicine, which follows a similar trend during the time period we analyzed.
  9. Neuroimage. 2020 Jun 30. pii: S1053-8119(20)30607-8. [Epub ahead of print] 117121
      This study aimed to explore and analyze research trends and frontiers on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the past 20 years and identify collaboration networks. fNIRS-related publications from 2000 to 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. A total of 1727 publications satisfied the search criteria. Bibliometric visualization analysis of active authors, journals, institutions, countries, references, and keywords were conducted. The number of annual related publications remarkably increased over the years. Fallgatter published the largest number of fNIRS-related papers (83). Neuroimage not only had the largest number of papers published in the first 10 journals (157 articles) but also had the highest impact factor (IF 2018 = 5.812). The University of Tubingen had the highest number of fNIRS-related publications in the past 20 years. The United States ranked first in terms of comprehensive influence in this field. In recent years, burst keywords (e.g., infant, social interaction, and older adult) and a series of references with citation burst provided clues on research frontiers.
    Keywords:  CiteSpace; Web of Science; bibliometric; functional near-infrared spectroscopy
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117121
  10. World Neurosurg. 2020 Jun 24. pii: S1878-8750(20)31389-9. [Epub ahead of print]
       OBJECTIVE: Traumatic Spinal Injury (TSI) is a global health issue contributing to morbidity and mortality, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Study aim is to compare the epidemiological estimates of TSI to the corresponding amount of published papers for different regions.
    METHODS: A bibliometric analysis was performed by collecting the number of publications concerning TSI from the PubMed database. Results were sorted according to the different geographical WHO Regions. A "publication to volume ratio" was obtained by comparing the average number of documents per year with the number of TSI cases across each Region.
    RESULTS: 2304 articles were detected from 2008-2018. The major publishing Regions were North America (AMR-US/Can: 843 articles, 36.6%) and Europe (EUR: 833, 36.2%), then Western Pacific (WPR: 410, 17.8%), Eastern Mediterranean (EMR: 73, 3.2%), South-East Asia (SEAR: 71,3.1%), Latin America (AMR-L: 55, 2.4%), Africa (AFR: 19, 0.8%). United States are the most publishing in AMR-US/Can (86.0%), Germany for EUR (22.4%). In 2018 EUR published 36.6% of paper versus AMR-US/Can 26.5% and WPR 25.7%, thanks to an increase in Chinese publications. The highest publication ratios were found for AMR-US/Can and EUR, with 4.63 and 2.68 respectively. The other were EMR (0.22), WPR (0.18), AMR-L (0.07), SEAR (0.03) and AFR (0.01).
    CONCLUSIONS: A marked divide is currently found between countries with a high burden of TSI and those where there is most research interest, estimated as amount of publications. Data demonstrates the need for increased inclusiveness in guidelines generation from HICs including collection and analysis from LMICs.
    Keywords:  Global neurosurgery; Public health; Research; Spinal cord; Traumatic spinal injury
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2020.06.131
  11. Mil Med. 2020 Jun 30. pii: usaa150. [Epub ahead of print]
       INTRODUCTION: Participating in scientific meetings offers value to physician trainees and faculty. In 2012, the U.S. Government (including the Department of Defense) instituted restrictions on conference travel, requiring central approval to attend. Hence, our objective was to determine the academic impact of research presented at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Armed Forces District Meeting and the effect of this federally mandated policy change on attendance and the quality and quantity of research.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Attendance logs and meeting programs were reviewed for the 3 years immediately before and after institution of travel regulations. A PubMed search of each abstract was performed to determine if it resulted in publication and the mean duration in months from presentation to publication was calculated and compared between oral and poster presentations. The top journals accepting manuscripts were noted along with the corresponding impact factor.
    RESULTS: The overall meeting publication rate was 22%. Oral presentations were significantly more likely than posters to achieve publication (P < 0.001). Following implementation of travel regulations, mean faculty attendance declined from 130 per year to 105 (P < 0.05). Declines in resident attendance and publication rates were not statistically significant. The top journals publishing investigations included Obstetrics and Gynecology (n = 15), Military Medicine (n = 12), and Fertility and Sterility and Gynecologic Oncology (tied, both n = 11).
    CONCLUSION: Approximately one in five presentations at the ACOG Armed Forces District Meeting are published, many in high impact journals within the specialty. Implementation of stricter travel regulations adversely impacted faculty physician attendance, but not trainee participation or the publication rate.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usaa150
  12. Int J Bioprint. 2019 ;5(2.2): 240
      Bioprinting, the printing of living cells using polymeric matrixes (mainly hydrogels), has attracted great attention among science and technology circles. North America has been one of the sources of bioprinting-related technology in recent years. As a natural consequence of geography, high-quality research in the area of bioprinting has started to permeate Latin America. Here, we describe and analyze the knowledge landscape of bioprinting in Latin America using a competitive technology intelligence methodology. Our analysis provides relevant information, such as the scientific publication trends in Latin America and the scientific networks among research groups in Latin America and the world.
    Keywords:  Competitive technology intelligence; Latin America; Patentometrics; Scientometrics; Three-dimensional bioprinting
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v5i2.2.240
  13. Int J Nanomedicine. 2020 ;15 4453-4470
       Background: Exosomes are small vesicles produced by almost all cells in the body and found in all biofluids. Cancer cell-derived exosomes are known to have distinct, measurable signatures, applicable for early cancer diagnosis. Despite the present bibliometric studies on "Cancer detection" and "Nanoparticles", no single study exists to deal with "Exosome" bibliometric study.
    Methods: This bibliometric work investigated the publication trends of "Exosomes" nanoparticles and its application in cancer detection, for the literature from 2008 to July 2019. The data were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection. There were variant visual maps generated to show annual publication, most- relevant authors, sources, countries, topics and keywords. The network analysis of these studies was investigated to evaluate the research trends in the field of exosomes. In addition, the data were qualitatively analyzed according to 22 top-cited articles, illustrating the frequently used subjects and methods in exosomes research area.
    Results: The results showed that the documents in this field have improved the citation rate. The top-relevant papers are mostly published in Scientific Reports journal which has lost its popularity after 2017, while today, Analytical Chemistry is leading in publishing the most articles related to exosomes. The documents containing keywords of plasma, cells, cancer, biomarkers, and vesicles as keywords plus, are more likely to be published in PLoS One journal. The clustering of the keywords network showed that the keyword theme of "extracellular vesicles" has the highest centrality rate. In global research, USA is the most corresponding country, followed by China, Korea and Australia. Based on the qualitative analysis, the published documents with at least 50 citations have used exosome release, cargo, detection, purification and secretion, as their targets and applied cell culture or isolation as their methods.
    Conclusion: The bibliometric study on exosomes nanoparticles for cancer detection provides a clear vision of the future research direction and identifies the potential opportunities and challenges. This may lead new researchers to select the proper subfields in exosome-related research fields.
    Keywords:  bibliometrics; cancer detection; exosomes; microvesicles; nanoparticles; research productivity
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S247210
  14. F1000Res. 2020 ;9 207
      Background: Physiotherapy research supports the advancement of evidence-based practice and development of a highly skilled workforce. This study aims to visualize highly cited scientific output of Indian physiotherapists from 1999 to 2018. Methods: A descriptive study design was adopted to visualize highly cited scientific output of Indian physiotherapists using the Web of Science (WoS) database from 1999 to 2018. A search was carried out using the following term "((TS=(physiotherapy) OR TS=("physical rehabilitation") OR TS=("physical therapy")) AND AD=(India))Indexes=SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH, ESCI, CCR-EXPANDED, IC Timespan=1999-2018". Data collected were analyzed using Incites from WoS and VOSviewer software. Results:  A total of 489 articles were published between 1999 and 2018, with a peak of 103 in 2016 with 2420 citations. A decline in publication count was observed after 2016. The journal International Journal of Physiotherapy published the highest number of articles (n=35). Manipal University (n=26) was found to be the most active institution for physiotherapy research in India, as determined by producing the most articles. Indian physiotherapists published the highest number of research articles in collaboration with US authors (n=24). Conclusion: There is an increasing trend in the scientific output of Indian physiotherapists over the past two decades; however, a decline is observed after 2016. It is recommended that research collaborations across the globe are increased and scientific output should be improved, leading to a higher number of citations. Future research should explore factors influencing scientific production of Indian physiotherapists and devise appropriate strategies to attain further improvement.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric study; India; Physiotherapy; Scientific output
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.22390.1
  15. J Pain Res. 2020 ;13 1533-1545
       Background: Neuropathic pain, a type of chronic pain, is difficult to treat clinically. Mounting evidence suggests that exercise can effectively ease neuropathic pain, and the number of publications related to exercise and neuropathic pain has increased over time. However, bibliometrics is rarely used in analyzing the general aspects of studies on exercise and neuropathic pain. The present study aims to provide a systematic overview of global scientific research related to exercise and neuropathic pain from 2005 to 2019.
    Methods: Publications on Science Citation Index - Expanded of Web of Science from 2005 to 2019 were searched, and those related to exercise and neuropathic pain were analyzed. Only English papers were included without specific species restrictions.
    Results: A total of 676 papers were included in accordance with our adopted criteria. Linear regression analysis showed a statistically meaningful increase in the number of publications on exercise and neuropathic pain study over time (p< 0.001). The subject categories of the 676 papers mainly focused on neuroscience (29.88%), clinical neurology (18.79%) and rehabilitation (10.06%) in Web of Science. In terms of contribution to scientific research on exercise and neuropathic pain, the United States led the first echelon and had the largest numbers of published papers, citations and H-index.
    Conclusion: The findings in our study may provide researchers useful information about research trends and frontiers, cooperators and cooperative institutions.
    Keywords:  bibliometrics; exercise; neuropathic pain; research trends
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S258696
  16. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(7): e0234912
      The association between mention of scientific research in popular media (e.g., the mainstream media or social media platforms) and scientific impact (e.g., citations) has yet to be fully explored. The purpose of this study was to clarify this relationship, while accounting for some other factors that likely influence scientific impact (e.g., the reputations of the scientists conducting the research and academic journal in which the research was published). To accomplish this purpose, approximately 800 peer-reviewed articles describing original research were evaluated for scientific impact, popular media attention, and reputations of the scientists/authors and publication venue. A structural equation model was produced describing the relationship between non-scientific impact (popular media) and scientific impact (citations), while accounting for author/scientist and journal reputation. The resulting model revealed a strong association between the amount of popular media attention given to a scientific research project and corresponding publication and the number of times that publication is cited in peer-reviewed scientific literature. These results indicate that (1) peer-reviewed scientific publications receiving more attention in non-scientific media are more likely to be cited than scientific publications receiving less popular media attention, and (2) the non-scientific media is associated with the scientific agenda. These results may inform scientists who increasingly use popular media to inform the general public and scientists concerning their scientific work. These results might also inform administrators of higher education and research funding mechanisms, who base decisions partly on scientific impact.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234912
  17. Eur J Radiol. 2020 Jun 21. pii: S0720-048X(20)30322-3. [Epub ahead of print]129 109133
       PURPOSE: While carotid atherosclerosis (CA) biomarkers are valuable surrogates for cardiovascular events, their inadequate utility is highlighted by clinical practice. We performed an interdisciplinary systematic review and bibliometric analysis to identify the knowledge gaps and offer directions for future research.
    METHODS: We applied a comprehensive search strategy to construct a representative dataset of the bibliographic records of CA from 1997 to 2018. A total of 31,793 retrieved articles and 407,473 cited references were included in the analysis. The co-word network and co-citation network were derived to describe the major disciplines and topics of CA research. Milestones detected by burst analysis were reviewed to delineate the evolutionary patterns and emerging trends of research on CA biomarkers.
    RESULTS: CA is a multidisciplinary field of study which could be divided into 3 communities: the primary prevention of CVD, the secondary prevention of CVD and imaging techniques to characterize carotid atherosclerosis. The evolution of a CA biomarker may go through 3 stages: the conceptualization stage, the validation stage and the reclassification stage. Measurements that include different CA plaque features, rather than separately, have shown greater value for cardiovascular risk or clinical decision-making.
    CONCLUSIONS: Although wide variability exists in the evolutionary stages of CA biomarkers, combined evaluation of CA plaque imaging features shows potential value to improve risk prediction and clinical decision-making for CVD prevention.
    Keywords:  Bibliometic analysis; Carotid atherosclerosis; Carotid intimal-medial thickness; Carotid plaque; Carotid stenosis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrad.2020.109133
  18. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis. 2020 Jun 24. pii: S0925-4439(20)30228-3. [Epub ahead of print] 165880
      Research performed using model organisms such as mice and the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster has significantly enhanced our knowledge about cancer biology and the fundamental processes of cancer. This is because the major biological properties and genes associated with cancer including signaling pathways, oncogenes, tumor suppressors, and other regulators of cell growth and proliferation are evolutionary conserved. This review provides bibliometric analysis of research productivity, and performance of authors, institutions, countries, and journals associated with personalized animal cancer models, focussing on the role of Drosophila in cancer research, thus highlighting emerging trends in the field. A total of 1469 and 2672 original articles and reviews for Drosophila cancer model and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) respectively, were retrieved from the Scopus database and the most cited papers were thoroughly analyzed. Our analysis indicates a steadily increasing productivity of the animal models and especially of mouse models in cancer research. In addition to the many different systems that address almost all aspects of tumor research in humanized animal models, a trend towards using tailored screening platforms with Drosophila models in particular will become widespread in the future. Having Drosophila models that recapitulate major genetic aspects of a given tumor will enable the development and validation of novel therapeutic strategies for specific cancers, and provide a platform for screening small molecule inhibitors and other anti-tumor compounds. The combination of Drosophila cancer models and mouse PDX models particularly is highly promising and should be one of the major research strategies the future.
    Keywords:  Cancer; Drosophila; Model organism; Oncogene; Ras; Tumor suppressor
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2020.165880
  19. BMC Public Health. 2020 Jun 29. 20(1): 1030
       BACKGROUND: Since its inception in 2009, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) program has focused on strengthening the capacity of nine African universities and four research centres to produce skilled researchers and scholars able to improve public and population health on the continent. This study describes the alignment between CARTA-supported doctoral topics and publications with the priorities articulated by the African public and population health research agenda.
    METHODS: We reviewed the output from CARTA PhD fellows between 2011 and 2018 to establish the volume and scope of the publications, and the degree to which the research focus coincided with the SDGs, World Bank, and African Development Bank research priority areas. We identified nine key priority areas into which the topics were classified.
    RESULTS: In total, 140 CARTA fellows published 806 articles in peer-reviewed journals over the 8 years up to 2018. All the publications considered in this paper had authors affiliated with African universities, 90% of the publications had an African university first author and 41% of the papers have CARTA fellows as the first author. The publications are available in over 6300 online versions and have been cited in over 5500 other publications. About 69% of the published papers addressed the nine African public and population health research agenda and SDG priority areas. Infectious diseases topped the list of publications (26.8%), followed by the health system and policy research (17.6%), maternal and child health (14.7%), sexual and reproductive health (14.3%).
    CONCLUSIONS: Investments by CARTA in supporting doctoral studies provides fellows with sufficient training and skills to publish their research in fields of public and population health. The number of publications is understandably uneven across Africa's public and population priority areas. Even while low in number, fellows are publishing in areas such as non-communicable disease, health financing, neglected tropical diseases and environmental health. Violence and injury is perhaps underrepresented. There is need to keep developing research capacity in partner institutions with low research output by training more PhDs in such institutions and by facilitating enabling environments for research.
    Keywords:  African agenda; Doctoral research; Peer review publications; Population and health priorities
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09147-w
  20. J Korean Med Sci. 2020 Jun 29. 35(25): e208
       BACKGROUND: The present study analyzed publishing data of scholarly journals which were published in 2018 by academic societies of science and technology in Korea to observe journal editing and publishing status.
    METHODS: A total of 346 regional journals (59 natural science, 118 engineering, 44 agriculture, fisheries, and oceanography, and 125 medical and pharmacy) and 141 international journals (32 natural science, 43 engineering, 12 agriculture, fisheries, and oceanography, 54 medical and pharmacy) were included in this analysis, which applied the journal review by the Korea Federation of Science and Technology. Websites of the journals and the submitted publication data in 2019 were reviewed.
    RESULTS: Except for a few journals, all of the journals were published by academic societies. Basic information of journals was well displayed by both offline and online. Most of the 346 regional journals were published in Korean language or mixed with English but 77 (22.3%), mostly medical, were in English. One-third (n = 104) journals published less than 40 articles while 9 published over 200, and 261 journals (75.4%) received less than 100 submissions in 2018. Most (n = 298, 86.1%) of them were enlisted in the Korean Citation Index (KCI). Editorial board members performed manuscript editing in 171 (49.4%) journals, and most of the journals paid < 50,000,000 won for publishing costs. Of 141 international journals, 138 (97.9%) were published in English and all of them published overseas submissions. Forty-one (29.1%) journals accepted < 20% of submissions but 58 (41.1%) accepted 100%. Of them, 124 (87.9%) were indexed in the KCI, 93 (66.0%) in the Web of Science, 120 in Scopus, and 62 in PubMed. Editorial board members in 38 (27.0%) journals took responsibility of manuscript editing. Publishing cost of 79 (56.0%) journals was < 50,000,000 won. Only 157 (32.2%) of total 487 journals, mostly medical, documented gendered innovation in their instruction to authors.
    CONCLUSION: Most of the Korean science and technology journals keep global standard of editing and publishing. Their offline and online visibility is acceptable but most regional journals are small and of low academic impact while international journals are globally indexed and acknowledged. Korean scholarly journals should invite more and better articles to keep quality publication.
    Keywords:  International; Korean Academic Society; Regional; Scholarly Journal; Science and Technology
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e208
  21. Int J Nurs Pract. 2020 Jun 30. e12851
       BACKGROUND: International nursing research comparisons can give a new perspective on a nation's output by identifying strengths and weaknesses.
    AIM: This article compares strengths in nursing research between six mainly English-speaking nations (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States).
    METHODS: Journal authorship (percentage of first authorship by nationality) and article keywords were compared for Scopus-indexed journal articles 2008-2018. Three natural language processing strategies were assessed for identifying statistically significant international differences in the use of keywords or phrases.
    RESULTS: Journal author nationality was not a good indicator of international differences in research specialisms, but keyword and phrase differences were more promising especially if both are used. For this, the part of speech tagging and lemmatisation text processing strategies were helpful but not named entity recognition. The results highlight aspects of nursing research that were absent in some countries, such as papers about nursing administration and management.
    CONCLUSION: Researchers outside the United States should consider the importance of researching specific patient groups, diseases, treatments, skills, research methods and social perspectives for unresearched gaps with national relevance. From a methods perspective, keyword and phrase differences are useful to reveal international differences in nursing research topics.
    Keywords:  bibliometrics; natural language processing; nursing; research priorities; topic differences
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/ijn.12851
  22. Materials (Basel). 2020 Jun 27. pii: E2891. [Epub ahead of print]13(13):
      Artificial extracellular matrices (aECMs) are an extension of biomaterials that were developed as in-vitro model environments for tissue cells that mimic the native in vivo target tissues' structure. This bibliometric analysis evaluated the research productivity regarding aECM based on tissue engineering technology. The Web of Science citation index was examined for articles published from 1990 through 2019 using three distinct aECM‑related topic sets. Data were also visualized using network analyses (VOSviewer). Terms related to in-vitro, scaffolds, collagen, hydrogels, and differentiation were reoccurring in the aECM‑related literature over time. Publications with terms related to a clinical direction (wound healing, stem cells, artificial skin, in‑vivo, and bone regeneration) have steadily increased, as have the number of countries and institutions involved in the artificial extracellular matrix. As progress with 3D scaffolds continues to advance, it will become the most promising technology to provide a therapeutic option to repair or replace damaged tissue.
    Keywords:  artificial extracellular matrix; biomaterials; regeneration; tissue engineering
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13132891
  23. J Prim Health Care. 2020 Jun;12(2): 149-158
      INTRODUCTION Measurement of family medicine research productivity has lacked the replicable methodology needed to document progress. AIM In this study, we compared three methods: (1) faculty-to-publications; (2) publications-to-faculty; and (3) department-reported publications. METHODS In this cross-sectional analysis, publications in peer-reviewed, indexed journals for faculty in 13 US family medicine departments in 2015 were assessed. In the faculty-to-publications method, department websites to identify faculty and Web of Science to identify publications were used. For the publications-to-faculty method, PubMed's author affiliation field were used to identify publications, which were linked to faculty members. In the department-reported method, chairs provided lists of faculty and their publications. For each method, descriptive statistics to compare faculty and publication counts were calculated. RESULTS Overall, 750 faculty members with 1052 unique publications, using all three methods combined as the reference standard, were identified. The department-reported method revealed 878 publications (84%), compared to 616 (59%) for the faculty-to-publications method and 412 (39%) for the publication-to-faculty method. Across all departments, 32% of faculty had any publications, and the mean number of publications per faculty was 1.4 (mean of 4.4 per faculty among those who had published). Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, Professors and Chairs accounted for 92% of all publications. DISCUSSION Online searches capture a fraction of publications, but also capture publications missed through self-report. The ideal methodology includes all three. Tracking publications is important for quantifying the return on our discipline's research investment.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1071/HC19098
  24. Cureus. 2020 May 30. 12(5): e8368
      Background Women physicians continue to comprise the minority of leadership roles in Academic Family Medicine (AFM) faculty across North American medical schools. Our study quantified the current state of gender disparity by analyzing academic position, leadership ranking, and research productivity. Methods We generated a database for 6,746 AFM faculty members. Gender and academic profiles were obtained for 2,892 academic ranks and 1,706 leadership roles by searching faculty listings enlisted in Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) and Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS). To measure research productivity, we obtained bibliometric data: h-index, citations, and tenure from 2,383 faculty members using Elsevier's SCOPUS archives. Data analysis and h-index were formulated using Stata version 14.2 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX). Results Our results indicated that women hold 46.11% (3,110/6,746) of faculty positions. The proportional composition decreased with increasing academic ranking (49.84% assistant, 46.78% associate, and 41.5% full professor). The same decreasing trend was demonstrated with leadership rank (57.14% minor leadership, 47.65% second-in-command, and 36.61 first-in-command). Compared to their gender counterparts, women in AFM demonstrated lower publication productivity as measured by citation number (p=0.04) and years of study (p=0.008). The final prediction equation model after multivariable analyses included gender, publications, citations, country of graduation, and years of active research (p<0.05). Conclusions The composition of academic family medicine faculty members included in this study demonstrated gender disparity. Inclusivity initiatives and policies to tackle the issue of female retention, promotion, and recruitment need to be further explored.
    Keywords:  academic position; canada; family medicine; gender disparity; h-index; leadership; north america; productivity; usa
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.8368
  25. F1000Res. 2020 ;9 517
      Background: Development partners and research councils are increasingly investing in research capacity strengthening initiatives in low- and middle-income countries to support sustainable research systems. However, there are few reported evaluations of research capacity strengthening initiatives and no agreed evaluation metrics. Methods: To advance progress towards a standardised set of outcome and impact indicators, this paper presents a structured review of research capacity strengthening indicators described in the published and grey literature. Results: We identified a total of 668 indicators of which 40% measured output, 59.5% outcome and 0.5% impact. Only 1% of outcome and impact indicators met all four quality criteria applied. A majority (63%) of reported outcome indicators clustered in four focal areas, including: research management and support (97/400), the attainment and application of new research skills and knowledge (62/400), research collaboration (53/400), and knowledge transfer (39/400). Conclusions: Whilst this review identified few examples of quality research capacity strengthening indicators, it has identified priority focal areas in which outcome and impact indicators could be developed as well as a small set of 'candidate' indicators that could form the basis of development efforts.
    Keywords:  Evaluation; Indicators; LMICs; Research capacity strengthening; Review
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.24144.1
  26. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2020 Jul 01. 9(7): 269-273
      The editorial materials in top medical and public health journals are opportunities for experts to offer thoughts that might influence the trajectory of the field. To date, while some studies have examined gender bias in the publication of editorial materials in medical journals, none have studied public health journals. In this perspective, we studied the gender ratio of the editorial materials published in the top health and medical sciences journals between 2008 and early 2018 to test whether gender bias exists. We studied a total of 59 top journals in health and medical sciences. Overall, while there is a trend of increasing proportion of female first authors, there is still a greater proportion of male than female first authors. The average male-to-female first author ratio during the study period across all journals was 2.08. Ensuring equal access and exposure through journal editorials is a critical step, albeit only one step of a longer journey, towards gender balance in health and medical sciences research. Editors of top journals have a key role to play in pushing the fields towards more balanced gender equality, and we strongly urge editors to rethink the strategies for inviting authors for editorial materials.
    Keywords:  Bias; Editorials; Gender Equality; Publication
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2020.06
  27. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2020 Jun 26. 272 229-232
      The Inappropriate design of experimental studies in medicine inevitably leads to inaccurate results and biased conclusions. The aim of our study was to compare prevalence of implementing basic principles of experimental design in preclinical experimental studies published in international journals with low and high impact factor. The samples for analysis ware randomly chosen among publications retrieved from PubMed and Web of Science (WoS). Implementation rate of basic experimental research principles (local control, randomization and replication) was established by careful reading of the sampled publications and their checking against predefined criteria. The difference in number of satisfied criteria among the groups was not significant, however, number of citations was significantly higher in the group of studies published in high-impact factor journals (30.5 ± 38.5 vs 2.6 ± 4.1, p=0.000). The studies published in low-IF journals less frequently used pseudo replication (30% vs 56%, p=0.000) and more often randomized their units of observation (40% vs 5%, p=0.000). Prevalence of experimental preclinical studies that did not implement completely basic principles of research design was high in both low- and high-impact factor journals. Although much more cited, studies published in high-impact factor journals bore the same risk of incorrectness, bias, and consequent misleading of future researchers.
    Keywords:  Randomization; control experiments; internal validity; replication
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200536
  28. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 26. pii: E4593. [Epub ahead of print]17(12):
      Telomere length in early life has been recently associated with biological aging and development of negative consequences in later adult life. A relevant area of research has emerged to understand the factors that impact telomere length in children. We conducted a bibliometric analysis to track research output and identify global trends and gaps in the knowledge of telomere length in children. Bibliographic data were retrieved from the Web of Science database and then analyzed by using Bibliometrix R package. A total of 840 publications were yielded from 1991 to 2019. The references were prominently published in journals, with 20 high ranked journals contributing to 30% of literature on telomere length in children. The USA was the most productive country (35.7%), followed by Europe (12.1%), and Asia (11.9%). A knowledge map of telomere length in children through keyword analyses revealed that there were two potential main lines of research based on two different approaches: genomic research and epidemiological research. This study shows that telomere length in children is a topic of research that has gained significant relevance in the last decade. This bibliometric study may be helpful in identifying research trends and finding research hot spots and gaps in this research field.
    Keywords:  childhood; epidemiological research; genomic research; scientific publication; scientometrics; telomere
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124593
  29. J Neurointerv Surg. 2020 Jun 30. pii: neurintsurg-2020-016238. [Epub ahead of print]
       BACKGROUND: The management of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) has evolved significantly over the last few decades. Our objective was to evaluate the 100 most cited UIA articles by bibliometric analysis to identify nature, content and shifts over time.
    METHODS: Elsevier's Scopus database was interrogated for the 100 most cited articles that focused on UIA. Older versus newer articles were compared, with categorical data analyzed using Pearson's Chi-square, and continuous data analyzed using Wilcoxon's rank-sum test.
    RESULTS: The 100 most cited articles were published between 1975 and 2015, with the majority of these reporting patient clinical outcomes (n=69). There were 47/69 (68%) articles that described surgical intervention, with 38/47 (81%) and 18/47 (38%) including endovascular and open approaches, respectively . Publications peaked in 2004 (n=8), and the most common country of correspondence was the United States (n=59). Compared to older articles, newer articles had statistically higher citation rates (P<0.01), higher number of authors (P<0.01) with more multiple institution collaborations (P=0.01), greater disclosures of funding (P<0.01), more focus on endovascular treatments (P=0.04), in more journals with a clinical, non-surgical focus (P<0.01) published under open access policies (P<0.01).
    CONCLUSIONS: In the 100 most cited articles about UIAs to date, there is a distinct shift towards more co-authored efforts utilizing multi-institutional efforts focused on endovascular approaches supported by funding. The emergence of endovascular techniques has refreshed the need for more contemporary rupture risk prediction models and natural history data to validate current attitudes towards clinical management after these minimally invasive procedures for UIAs.
    Keywords:  aneurysm
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1136/neurintsurg-2020-016238
  30. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2020 Mar 01.
       BACKGROUND: Although the incidence and mortality of gastric cancer (GC) decreased in the last years, some countries remain highly affected. Especially in high-income economies the cases of cardia types are steadily increasing. Currently, GC is ranked third as cause for cancer death worldwide, whereby two-thirds of deaths still occur in lowincome countries. But the global numbers are changing, and new regional challenges must be addressed.
    METHODS: Therefore, this disease has been chosen for in-depth bibliometric analyses that combines the evaluation of publication meta-data with density equalizing visualization techniques. This study focuses on the chronological and geographical characteristics of GC research worldwide. Epidemiological and socio-economic parameters were analyzed and the influence of political framework conditions was examined. In addition, international collaborations and research priorities were evaluated.
    RESULTS: In the last years, the publication numbers are rising more extensively in comparison to other cancer types. Albeit the usual leading positions, the United States is not the most publishing country on GC. It occupies the third position. Instead, China and Japan are the most publishing countries and together with South Korea also the key players as well as the most affected countries. These countries' governments are also the main donors for GC-research. The number of articles and the expenditures for research and development (R&D) as well as the incidence rate are correlated. Despite the scarce contribution of low-economic countries to the publication output, international collaborations lead to a modest output in those regions.
    CONCLUSION: This study pools background information for scientists, practitioners, funders and decision-makers by providing information on the development and priorities of GC research. Adaptive international approaches and partnerships are crucial to meet future changing epidemiological features worldwide.
    Keywords:  Bibliometric Analysis; Cancer Epidemiology; Research Funding; Socio-Economic Influences; Stomach Cancer
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2020.29
  31. Biomed Pharmacother. 2020 Jun 23. pii: S0753-3322(20)30644-2. [Epub ahead of print]129 110451
      Here we present the results of a bibliometric survey of peer-reviewed and pre-print papers published in the English language on issues related to COVID-19 within the first three months since a cluster of a severe acute respiratory disease of unknown etiology was officially confirmed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on 31 December 2019. A systematic search using PubMed/Medline and Scopus databases and preprint servers was performed. The articles were classified according to their type, subject and country of origin. Up to 31 March 2020, a total of 2062 papers published in 578 peer-reviewed journals and 1425 preprints posted mostly on medRxiv (55.4 %), were identified. The mean number of published journal papers and preprints per day in the considered period was 27 and 12, respectively, and reached a maximum of 51 and 46 per day in March, respectively. The identified articles, journal papers and preprints, mostly covered the epidemiology of COVID-19 (35.7 %), clinical aspects of infection (21.0 %), preventative measures (12.8 %), treatment options (12.5 %), diagnostics (12.2 %), mathematical modeling of disease transmission and mitigation (9.6 %), and molecular biology and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 (8.7 %). The majority of the journal papers were commentaries (38.5 %), reviews (33.6 %) and original research (21.3 %), while preprints predominantly presented original results (89.8 %). Chinese scientists contributed the highest share of original research and were responsible for 32.9 % journal papers and 43.9 % preprints published in the considered period. A high number of contributions was also seen from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The benefits and potential risks of such a massive publication output are discussed. The scientific response seen during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 outbreak is a demonstration of the capabilities of modern science to react rapidly to emerging global health threats by providing and discussing the essential information for understanding the etiological factor, its spread, preventative measures, and mitigation strategies.
    Keywords:  Academia; Bibliometric analysis; COVID-19; Emerging infectious disease; SARS-CoV-2
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110451