Scientific publications by anesthesia departments in East Asia

Academic Publication of Anesthesiology From a Bibliographic Perspective From 1999 to 2018: Comparative Analysis Using Subject-Field Dataset and Department Dataset

Background: Publication activity in the field of anesthesiology informs decisions that enhance academic advancement. Most previous bibliometric studies on anesthesiology examined data limited to journals focused on anesthesiology rather than data answerable to authors in anesthesia departments. This study comprehensively explored publication trends in the field of anesthesiology and their impact. We hypothesized that anesthesiology's bibliometric scene would differ based on whether articles in the same study period were published in anesthesiology-focused journals or were produced by authors in anesthesia departments but published in non-specialty journals.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used bibliometric data from the Science Citation Index Expanded database between 1999 and 2018. Two datasets were assembled. The first dataset was a subject-dataset (articles published in 31 journals in the anesthesiology category of InCites Journal Citation Reports in 2018); the second dataset was the department-dataset (articles published in the Science Citation Index Expanded by authors in anesthesia departments). We captured the bibliographical record of each article in both datasets and noted each article's Institute for Scientific Information code, publication year, title, abstract, author addresses, subject category, and references for further study.

Results: A total of 69,593 articles were published—cited 1,497,932 times—in the subject-dataset; a total of 167,501 articles were published—cited 3,731,540 times—in the department-dataset. The results demonstrate differences between the two datasets. First, the number of articles was stagnant, with little growth (average annual growth rate = 0.31%) in the subject-dataset; whereas there was stable growth (average annual growth rate = 4.50%) in articles in the department-dataset. Second, only 30.4% of anesthesia department articles were published in anesthesiology journals. Third, journals related to “pain” had the lowest department-subject ratio, which was attributable to a large portion of non-anesthesia department researchers' participation in related research.

Conclusions: This study showed that articles published in anesthesiology-focused and non-specialty journals demonstrate fundamentally different trends. Thus, it not only helps researchers develop a more comprehensive understanding of the current publication status and trends in anesthesiology, but also provides a basis for national academic organizations to frame relevant anesthesiology development policies and rationalize resource allocation.

Systematic review and bibliometric analysis of African anesthesia and critical care medicine research part II: a scientometric analysis of the 116 most cited articles

Background

Scientometrics is used to assess the impact of research in several health fields, including Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine. The purpose of this study was to identify contributors to highly-cited African Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine research.

Methods

The authors searched Web of Science from inception to May 4, 2020, for articles on and about Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine in Africa with ≥2 citations. Quantitative (H-index) and qualitative (descriptive analysis of yearly publications and interpretation of document, co-authorship, author country, and keyword) bibliometric analyses were done.

Results

The search strategy returned 116 articles with a median of 5 (IQR: 3–12) citations on Web of Science. Articles were published in Anesthesia and Analgesia (18, 15.5%), World Journal of Surgery (13, 11.2%), and South African Medical Journal (8, 6.9%). Most (74, 63.8%) articles were published on or after 2013. Seven authors had more than 1 article in the top 116 articles: Epiu I (3, 2.6%), Elobu AE (2, 1.7%), Fenton PM (2, 1.7%), Kibwana S (2, 1.7%), Rukewe A (2, 1.7%), Sama HD (2, 1.7%), and Zoumenou E (2, 1.7%). The bibliometric coupling analysis of documents highlighted 10 clusters, with the most significant nodes being Biccard BM, 2018; Baker T, 2013; Llewellyn RL, 2009; Nigussie S, 2014; and Aziato L, 2015. Dubowitz G (5) and Ozgediz D (4) had the highest H-indices among the authors referenced by the most-cited African Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine articles. The U.S.A., England, and Uganda had the strongest collaboration links among the articles, and most articles focused on perioperative care.

Conclusion

This study highlighted trends in top-cited African articles and African and non-African academic institutions’ contributions to these articles.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12871-021-01246-4.

Trend of academic publication activity in anesthesiology: A 2-decade bibliographic perspective

OBJECTIVES

The publication of anesthesiology papers presents the importance of understanding the corresponding research activity. This research used the bibliographic method to investigate the publication trend in anesthesiology using Science Citation Index Expanded over the period 1995-2014.

METHODS

The journals listed in the subject category of anesthesiology in the 2014 Journal Citation Reports were selected, and bibliographic information was collected from Science Citation Index Expanded, with 128,003 papers published from 1995 to 2014. Only the document type "article" was analyzed. The productivity and impact of various journals, countries, and institutions are discussed.

RESULTS

A total of 64,199 articles published from 1995 to 2014, with 1,084,491 cited times, were examined. The total number of articles published by journals showed a slight increase in the 2^nd decade. More than 45% of these articles were published by the top five journals, which have maintained their ranking over 2 decades. Most publications originated from North America and European countries, of which the United States had the highest number of publications and citations. Most of the institutions are academic universities and hospitals. More than half of the top 25 institutions (in rankings) are located in the United States, and Harvard University accounted the highest number of articles and citations among all institutions.

CONCLUSION

The results reported here may aid clinicians and researchers to better understand the worldwide contribution of anesthesiology research activities over 2 decades.