[New bibliometric indicators for the scientific literature: an evolving panorama]

Pediatric Minimally Invasive Surgery-A Bibliometric Study on 30 Years of Research Activity

Background: Pediatric minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is a standard technique worldwide. We aimed to analyze the research activity in this field. Methods: Articles on pediatric MIS (1991−2020) were analyzed from the Web of Science™ for the total number of publications, citations, journals, and impact factors (IF). Of these, the 50 most cited publications were evaluated in detail and classified according to the level of evidence (i.e., study design) and topic (i.e., surgical procedure). Results: In total, 4464 publications and 53,111 citations from 684 journals on pediatric MIS were identified. The 50 most cited papers were published from 32 institutions in the USA/Canada (n = 28), Europe (n = 19), and Asia (n = 3) in 12 journals. Four authors (USA/Europe) contributed to 26% of the 50 most cited papers as first/senior author. Hot topics were laparoscopic pyeloplasty (n = 9), inguinal hernia repair (n = 7), appendectomy, and pyloromyotomy (n = 4 each). The majority of publications were retrospective studies (n = 33) and case reports (n = 6) (IF 5.2 ± 3.2; impact index 16.5 ± 6.4; citations 125 ± 39.4). They were cited as often as articles with high evidence levels (meta-analyses, n = 2; randomized controlled trials, n = 7; prospective studies, n = 2) (IF 12.9 ± 22.5; impact index 14.0 ± 6.5; citations 125 ± 34.7; p > 0.05). Conclusions: Publications on laparoscopic pyeloplasty, inguinal hernia repair, appendectomy, and pyloromyotomy are cited most often in pediatric MIS. However, the relevant number of studies with strong evidence for the advantages of MIS in pediatric surgery is missing.

A bibliometric and visualization analysis of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis research from 2012 to 2021

INTRODUCTION

Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) is the most common cause of secondary osteoporosis. Although many studies related to GIOP have been published, there was no bibliometric analysis in this field. This study aimed to investigate the research trends on GIOP by using bibliometric analysis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

All data were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). All original research articles regarding GIOP from 2012 to 2021 were retrieved. CiteSpace was used to analyze the distribution of countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords. We revealed hotspots and trends in the field by drawing co-occurrence keyword maps and identifying burst keywords.

RESULTS

From 2012 to 2021, 685 relevant articles were published, with a peak in 2018 in the annual number of publications. China and McMaster University were the leading country and institution in this field with 208 and 12 publications, respectively. Osteoporosis International was the journal with the most studies, while Journal of Bone and Mineral Research was the most cited journal. "Bone mineral density", "fracture", "postmenopausal women", "prevention" and "therapy" were the most high-frequency keywords, while "bone mineral density", "bisphosphonate" and "metabolism" were the top high-centrality keywords.

CONCLUSION

The results from this bibliometric study provided insight into the status and research trends in GIOP of the past decade, which could help researchers quickly determine the current hotspots and frontier trends in this field.

The relative citation ratio and the h-index among academic ophthalmologists: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis

Background

Limited research has evaluated the relative citation ratio (RCR), a novel measure of research productivity. Accordingly, there remains a minimal understanding of its practical value relative to established metrics such as the h-index. Here, we examined correlations between the mean and weighted RCR scores and the h-index and explore the influence of academic rank, career duration, PhD acquisition, and fellowship training on these metrics.

Methods

Data regarding the academic rank (e.g. assistant professor, associate professor, professor, or “other”), career duration, degrees, fellowship training, and research yield were collected for 1018 academic ophthalmologists practicing in the southern United States of America. The iCite and Scopus databases were utilized to quantify research yield via calculations of mean and weighted RCR, and h-index, respectively.

Results

Significant correlations were observed between the h-index and the mean (ρ = 0.62, P < 0.001) and weighted RCR (ρ = 0.84, P < 0.001). Advanced academic rank was associated with increased indices values. In a subset of ophthalmologists excluding members of the “other” category, career duration was moderately correlated with h-index (ρ = 0.45, P < 0.001), and weakly correlated with mean (ρ = 0.14, P < 0.001) and weighted (ρ = 0.26, P < 0.001) RCR. PhD and fellowship acquisition were associated with increased research yield.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that the RCR is an effective measure of research yield, while resolving deficiencies present in the h-index. Further research remains to characterize the RCR's value relative to other established markers of research productivity.

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The relative citation ratio (RCR) is a novel NIH-supported research metric.

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Advanced academic rank and PhD acquisition is associated with increased RCR and h-index.

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The h-index is poorer at delineating differences due to career duration.

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Overall, the RCR is a more representative measure of research productivity.

Quality and Impact of Survey Research Among Anesthesiologists: A Systematic Review

New technology has facilitated survey research of anesthesia professional society members. We evaluated prevailing metrics of quality and impact of published research studies based on surveys of anesthesiologists. We hypothesized that adherence to recommended practices (such as use of reminders) would be associated with increased survey response rates, and that higher response rates would be associated with higher article impact. Using the MEDLINE database, we identified 45 English-language research articles published in 2010-2017 reporting original data from surveys of anesthesiologists. The median response rate was 37% (IQR: 25-46%). Recommended survey practices, including the use of reminders (p = 0.861) and validated questionnaires (p = 0.719), were not correlated with response rates. In turn, survey response rates were not associated with measures of article impact (p = 0.528). The impact of published research based on surveys of anesthesiologists, as measured by citation scores (p = 0.493) and Altmetrics (p = 0.826), may be driven primarily by the novel data or questions raised using survey methodology, but does not appear to be associated with response rates. Improving reporting of survey methodology and understanding possible sources of non-response bias are important for future studies in this area.

Research on the Development of Theme Trends and Changes of Knowledge Structures of Drug Therapy Studies on Major Depressive Disorder Since the 21st Century: A Bibliometric Analysis

BACKGROUND

Antidepressant treatment is one of the most effective ways of relieving or curing depressive symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Although many studies have explored the efficacy, tolerability, adverse reactions, and functional mechanism of the disease, there has been no systematic evaluation of the relevant results in this field.

AIM

This paper aims to analyze the theme trends and knowledge structure of drug therapy studies on MDD since the 21^st century by employing bibliometric analysis.

METHODS

Literature published in PubMed and related to drug therapy studies on MDD were retrieved between 2001 and 2018 in 6-year increments. After extracting major Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms/MeSH subheadings, bi-clustering analysis, social network analysis, and strategic diagrams were employed to complete bibliometric analysis.

RESULTS

Overall, 1,577, 2,680, 2,848 relevant research articles were retrieved for the periods during 2001-2006, 2007-2012, and 2013-2018, respectively. In line with strategic diagrams, the main undeveloped and peripheral theme clusters during 2001-2006 were functional mechanisms of antidepressants in pathophysiology, neuroendocrinology and neural biochemistry. These themes were replaced during 2007-2012 by clinical efficacy and influencing factors of antidepressants with or without psychotherapy, mechanisms of adverse reactions of antidepressants, and predictive studies of clinical therapeutic effects of antidepressants based on brain imaging. During 2013-2018 application and evaluation of new antidepressant agents, early identification and prevention of suicide of patients with MDD, as well as genetic- or bio-markers affecting the response and efficacy of antidepressants were the primary themes. Based on social network analyses, emerging hotspots, such as antidepressive agents, second-generation/adverse effects, depressive disorder, major/metabolism, psychotherapy/methods, and brain/drug effects could be identified during 2007-2012 and 2013-2018.

CONCLUSIONS

These undeveloped theme clusters and emerging hotspots can be helpful for researchers to clarify the current status of their respective fields and future trends, and to generate novel ideas that may launch new research directions.

Citation Classics and Trends in the Field of Opioids: A Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction

Bibliometric analysis is one of the emerging and latest statistical study type used to examine and keep a systemic record of the research done on a particular topic of a certain field. A number of such bibliometric studies are conducted on various topics of the medical science but none existed on the vast topic of pharmacology - opioids. Hence, we present a bibliometric analysis of the ‘Citation Classics’ of opioids.

Method

The primary database chosen to extract the citation classics of opioids was Scopus. Top 100 citation classics were arranged according to the citation count and then analyzed.

Results

The top 100 citation classics were published between 1957 and 2013, among which seventy-two were published from 1977 to 1997. Among all nineteen countries that contributed to these citation classics, United States of America alone produced sixty-three classics. The top three journals of the list were multidisciplinary and contained 36 citation classics. Endogenous opioids were the most studied (n=35) class of opioids among the citation classes and the most studied subject was of the neurosciences.

Conclusion

The subject areas of neurology and analgesic aspects of opioids are well established and endogenous and synthetic opioids were the most studied classes of opioids. However, the egregious issues of addiction and misuse of opioids were underrepresented in the citation classics. The pulmonary and gastrointestinal aspects of opioids are also marginalized among the citation classics.

Impact factor correlations with Scimago Journal Rank, Source Normalized Impact per Paper, Eigenfactor Score, and the CiteScore in Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging journals

INTRODUCTION

In the last decade, several journal's editors decided to publish alternative bibliometric indices parallel to the impact factor (IF): Scimago Journal Rank (SJR), Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), Eigenfactor Score (ES) and CiteScore™ (CiteScore); however, there is scarce information about the correlations among them. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the associations between this bibliometrics in the Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging category of the Web of Knowledge. We hypothesized the IF did not show the best correlation with other metrics.

METHODS

Retrospective study. We used bibliometrics recorded from the 2017 publicly available versions of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), SJR ( www.scimagojr.com ), SNIP ( www.journalindicators.com ), and CiteScore ( www.scopus.com ); we also included the Total Cites. We measured the correlations using the Spearman correlation coefficients (R_S) for all combinations of the bivariate pair, performed pairwise comparisons of the R_S values, and calculated the coefficients of determination. We also tested the statistical significance of the difference between r coefficients between groups. All analyses were conducted with the JMP Pro software.

RESULTS

The stronger bivariate correlations were represented by the ES↔Total Cites R_S = 0.968, p < 0.001, R² = 0.937; and the CiteScore↔SJR R_S = 0.911, p < 0.001, R² = 0.829. From 105 possible combinations of pairwise comparisons, 38 depicted a p value > 0.050 which would suggest interchangeability among bivariate correlations.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support our hypothesis that the IF does not show the best correlation between other metrics. Radiologists, interventional radiologist, or nuclear medicine doctors should have a clear understanding of the associations among the journal's bibliometrics for their decision-making during the manuscript submission phase.

Current concepts on bibliometrics: a brief review about impact factor, Eigenfactor score, CiteScore, SCImago Journal Rank, Source-Normalised Impact per Paper, H-index, and alternative metrics

BACKGROUND

Understanding the impact of a publication by using bibliometric indices becomes an essential activity not only for universities and research institutes but also for individual academicians. This paper aims to provide a brief review of the current bibliometric tools used by authors and editors and proposes an algorithm to assess the relevance of the most common bibliometric tools to help the researchers select the fittest journal and know the trends of published submissions by using self-evaluation.

METHODS

We present a narrative review answering at least two related consecutive questions triggered by the topics mentioned above. How prestigious is a journal based on its most recent bibliometrics, so authors may choose it to submit their next manuscript? And, how can they self-evaluate/understand the impact of their whole publishing scientific life?

RESULTS

We presented the main relevant definitions of each bibliometrics and grouped them in those oriented to evaluated journals or individuals. Also, we share with our readers our algorithm to assess journals before manuscript submission.

CONCLUSIONS

Since there is a journal performance market and an article performance market, each one with its patterns, an integrative use of these metrics, rather than just the impact factor alone, might represent the fairest and most legitimate approach to assess the influence and importance of an acceptable research issue, and not only a sound journal in their respective disciplines.

The 100 Most Influential Papers and Recent Trends in the Field of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumours: A Bibliometric Analysis

Background

Bibliometric analysis is a statistical tool used to examine the exponential growth in medical research. Many analogous analyses have been conducted, but none existed for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). Hence, we conducted a citation analysis of the hundred most cited and recently published articles on this topic.

Methods

Scopus was chosen as the primary database, through which the top 100 and recent publications were ranked according to the citation count and were then analysed.

Results

The 100 most cited articles were published between 1992 and 2013, among which the greatest number of articles were published in the years 2002 (n = 15) and 2006 (n = 11). Amidst the 24 countries from which the articles originated, the United States of America (n = 76) topped the list. The Journal of Clinical Oncology (n = 15) and the American Journal of Clinical Pathology (n = 10) contributed majority of the top articles. Harvard Medical School alone produced 44 of the top 100. Articles from 2013 to date showed the same trend as that of top 100 articles regarding origin and institutions.

Conclusion

Basic science and genetics of GISTs are established, and new drugs are being studied for medicinal therapy. Surgical management and diagnostics of these tumors, however, are yet to be studied as extensively.