The perceived impact of publications on Neglected Tropical Zoonoses as measured by their impact factor

We investigated whether papers on Neglected Tropical Zoonoses are published in journals with lower impact factors than research on diseases with a similar global health burden. We found that, despite being cited equally often, the papers on Neglected Tropical Zoonoses were published in journals with lower impact factors. The scopes of these journals are mainly restricted to Tropical medicine. A clustering analysis revealed that The Lancet, a high impact general medical journal, does pay attention to Neglected Tropical Zoonoses. We discuss our findings in the context of the ongoing discussion about the publishing policies of medical journals. Moreover, our findings stress the importance of recent suggestions that impact factors should not be used for assigning public funding to research (programs) on Neglected Tropical Zoonoses.     

Authorship patterns in life sciences,preclinical basic and clinical research papers

The present paper examines the multiple authorship in research papers in biomedical sciences from the more basic aspects to clinically oriented research. Seventeen journals were chosen for analysis — nine from the general and life sciences categories and eight from medical sciences group with clinical orientation. All these were high impact journals as per the Science Citation Index and come in the top ten journals in their respective desciplines. The average authors/paper was significantly higher (P<0.001) in medical journals –4.299 (range 3.21–5.35) as compared to general biomedical journals –3.298 (range 3.21–5.35). Data from highly cited papers (1961–78) also indicate that papers in clinical sciences have higher average authors (2.71) as compared to preclinical basic research (2.25: P<0.26) and more basic research areas like biochemistry and molecular biology (2.208; P<0.02). The team size in research in clinical subjects is therefore appreciably larger as compared to basic biomedical sciences. Also the general and biomedical sciences articles were relatively longer (average 7.75 pages; range 2.69–10.07) as compared to medical papers with a clinical orientation (avarage 4.24 pages; range 1.80–12.92; P<0.001).     

Scientific articles and national medical cultures: A comparison of Russian and American medical journals

Medical journals are products of national medical cultures, which influence the organization of medical research and the readiness to employ different research methodologies. A content analysis was undertaken to ascertain the characteristics of scientific papers in nine Russian and three American medical journals published in 1992. The American medical journals were thriving, both in appearance, and with research contributions coming from a decentralized national system of research institutions and also from European and other international research centers. Much of American medical research is “big science” based on collaborative efforts of researchers at a number of institutions. Russian medical journals, in contrast, were more parochial in content, reporting mainly local research, with several primary journals serving as outlets for endeavors of sponsoring institutes. While Russian medical culture did appear to discourage usage of classical random experimental designs, the choice of research methodologies proved to be influenced more by medical specialization than by national culture.     

Hypothetical influence of non-indexed Spanish medical journals on the impact factor of the Journal Citation Reports-indexed journals

The purpose of this study is to analyze the hypothetical changes in the 2002 impact factor (IF) of the biomedical journals included in the Science Citation Index-Journal Citation Reports (SCI-JCR) by also taking into account cites coming from 83 non-indexed Spanish journals on different medical specialties. A further goal of the study is to identify the subject categories of the SCI-JCR with the largest increase in their IF, and to estimate the 2002 hypothetical impact factor (2002 HIF) of these 83 non-indexed Spanish journals. It is demonstrated that the inclusion of cites from a selection of non SCI-JCR-indexed Spanish medical journals in the SCI-JCR-indexed journals produces a slight increase in their 2002 IF, specially in journals edited in the USA and in the UK. More than half of the non-indexed Spanish journals has a higher 2002 HIF than that of the SCI-JCR-indexed journal with the lowest IF in the same subject category.     

The relationship between the author byline and contribution lists: a comparison of three general medical journals

The author byline is an indispensable component of a scientific paper. Some journals have added contribution lists for each paper to provide detailed information of each author’s role. Many papers have explored, respectively, the byline and contribution lists. However, the relationship between the two remains unclear. We select three prominent general medical journals: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Annals of Internal Medicine (Annals), and PLOS Medicine (PLOS). We analyze the relationship between the author byline and contribution lists using four indexes. Four main findings emerged. First, the number, forms, and names of contribution lists significantly differed among the three journals, although they adopted the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Second, a U-shaped relationship exists between the extent of contribution and author order: the participation levels in contribution lists were highest for first authors, followed by last and second authors, and then middle authors with the lowest levels. Third, regarding the consistency between author order in the contribution list and byline, every contribution category has a high consistency in JAMA and Annals, while PLOS shows a low consistency, in general. Fourth, the three journals have a similar distribution for the first authors in the contribution category; the first author in the byline contributes the highest proportion, followed by the middle and second authors, and then the last author with the lowest proportion. We also develop recommendations to modify academic and writing practice: implement structured cross-contribution lists, unify formats and standards of contribution lists, draft the author contribution criteria in the social sciences and humanities, and consider author contribution lists in scientific evaluation.     

Research activities in life sciences in Japan

The purpose of this survey is to study the present state and an evaluation of research activities in the field of life sciences in Japan. Based on the 5,107 papers from Japan in 1989 CD-ROM ofExcerpta Medica, a quantitative analysis to determine the present state of research activities in life sciences was conducted. There were 7 journals in which more than 50 papers by Japanese authors were published.Brain Research stood first. The ranking list of contributed papers demonstrates a preference of Japanese researchers' interest in international journals from commerical publishers rather than in society journals for the publication of their papers overseas. In view of the number of papers and the paper output per head, research activities of organizations were evaluated. The three national medical schools in Kyushu, Osaka, and Kyoto hold ranked high. A comparison between national medical schools and private medical schools shows that the former have higher productivities. Private medical schools were generally inactive, and they emphasized clinical activities more than research activites.     

Publication activity in complementary and alternative medicine

In this article we analyse how research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) break through into one established scientific arena, namely academic journals. With help from bibliometric methods we analyse publication of CAM articles, in the Medline database, during the period 1966–2007. We also analyse the general content of the articles and in what journals they get published. We conclude that the publication activity of CAM articles increases rapidly, especially in the late 1990s, and that the changing growth rate is not due to the general expansion of Medline. The character of CAM articles has changed towards more clinical oriented research, especially in subfields such as acupuncture and musculoskeletal manipulations. CAM articles are found both in core clinical journals and in specialized CAM journals. Even though a substantial part of the articles are published in CAM journals, we conclude that the increasing publication activity is not restricted to the expansion of these specialized journals.     

An item-by-item subject classification of papers published in multidisciplinary and general journals using reference analysis

A serious shortcoming of bibliometric studies based on the(Social) Science (s) Citation Index is the lack of an universally applicable subject classification scheme as individual papers are concerned. Subject classification of papers on the basis of assigning journals to subject categories (like those found in the various supplements of ISI databases) works well in case of highly specialised journals, but fails for multidisciplinary journals such asNature, Science andPNAS—and so far as subfields are taken into consideration-also for “general” journals (e.g.JACS orAngewandte Chemie). This study presents the results of a pilot project attempting to overcome this shortcoming by delimiting the subject of papers published in multidisciplinary and general journals by an item-by-item subject classification scheme, where assignment is based on the analysis of the subject classification of reference literature. The results clearly confirmed the conclusions of earlier studies by the authors in the field of reference analysis. For the really important journals (sufficiently high number of annual publications and high impact with respect to the field), the share of classifiable papers was surprisingly high, and the assignment proved reliable as well. Since papers in the leading general and multidisciplinary journals are frequently citing general and multidisciplinary journals, an iterated application of the procedure is expected to increase the number of classifiable publications. The results of the new methodology may improve the validity of bibliometric studies for research evaluation purposes.     

Some citation-related characteristics of scientific journals published in individual countries

Relationships between publication language, impact factors and self-citations of journals published in individual countries, eight from Europe and one from South America (Brazil), are analyzed using bibliometric data from Thomson Reuters JCR Science Edition databases of ISI Web of Knowledge. It was found that: (1) English-language journals, as a rule, have higher impact factors than non-English-language journals, (2) all countries investigated in this study have journals with very high self-citations but the proportion of journals with high self-citations with reference to the total number of journals published in different countries varies enormously, (3) there are relatively high percentages of low self-citations in high subject-category journals published in English as well as non-English journals but national-language journals have higher self-citations than English-language journals, and (4) irrespective of the publication language, journals devoted to very specialized scientific disciplines, such as electrical and electronic engineering, metallurgy, environmental engineering, surgery, general and internal medicine, pharmacology and pharmacy, gynecology, entomology and multidisciplinary engineering, have high self-citations.     

Quality perceptions of design journals: The design scholars’ perspective

The primary objectives of this study were to identify a set of journals that report on industrial design research and to propose quality rankings of those journals. Based on an online survey, design journals were assessed in terms of two quality metrics: popularity and indexed average rank position. We find that both general and specialized design journals are highly valued and that geographic origin and academic background can be related with journal rankings. The results of the study offer a guide to both evaluators and those evaluated when judging or selecting research outlets.     

The influence of the publication delay on journal rankings according to the impact factor

Summary  The inter-citation journal group is defined as a group of journals with inter-citation relations. In this paper, according to the 2003 JCR, an inter-citation relation matrix of 10 medical journals is established. Based on the transfer function model of the disturbed citing process, the calculation formula of journal impact factor disturbed by publication delays of certain journal in the group is deduced and a changing process of every journal's impact factor caused by the increase of each journal's average publication delay is simulated. In the inter-citation journal group, when a journal's publication delay increase, impact factors of all journals will be decreased and rankings of journals according to the impact factor may be changed. The closer a citation relation between two journals, the stronger the interaction of them and the larger the decrease of their impact factors caused by the increase of their publication delays.     

Turning journals into encyclopaedias: Medical editorship and reprinting in the Low Countries (1815–1860)

This paper scrutinizes the attempts of 19th-century Belgian and Dutch physician-editors to convey foreign knowledge in new ways. By analysing their editorial practices and strategies—including the duplication (reprinting in full), reduction, modification, and translation of texts—it shows that the introduction of periodical publishing in medicine involved experimentation not only with the style of professional debate, but also with the format of medical knowledge. My analysis of reprinting reveals how editors, in cooperation with publishers, succeeded in broadening the readership of scientific medical texts by including private practitioners. The model for these publishing experiments was not so much the (polemical) newspaper, as was the case in the natural sciences, but rather the encyclopaedia and the handbook. If science was to interest practicing doctors, medical journals had to present scientific texts in a useful and easily consultable form. The core idea of the “reprint journal” was to continuously assemble and render insightful a growing body of international knowledge. This exercise, however, was fraught with tensions: reprint journals were reproached for not having a sufficiently international selection of articles, but at the same time for not being sufficiently “national.” As the framework of the nation-state gained strength around 1850 and an awareness of authors' rights took a stronger hold, reprinting in medical journals lost its popularity.     

The role of correspondence sections in post-publication peer review: A bibliometric study of general and internal medicine journals

Scientific journals claim that correspondence sections are for post-publication peer review. We compared the conditions for submission and the bibliometrics of letters-to-editors published in leading medical journals in 2002 and 2007 using journal-derived information and data from PubMed and Journal Citation Reports. The median time limit for letter submissions decreased from 6 to 3.5 weeks, the median word limit from 400 to 350. The median number of letters per published article was near one in both years. Only about half of the letters were followed by an author reply in either year. Electronic response systems were available for four journals in 2007.     

Effect on the journal impact factor of the number and document type of citing records: a wide-scale study

We studied the effect on journal impact factors (JIF) of citations from documents labeled as articles and reviews (usually peer reviewed) versus citations coming from other documents. In addition, we studied the effect on JIF of the number of citing records. This number is usually different from the number of citations. We selected a set of 700 journals indexed in the SCI section of JCR that receive a low number of citations. The reason for this choice is that in these instances some citations may have a greater impact on the JIF than in more highly-cited journals. After excluding some journals for different reasons, our sample consisted of 674 journals. We obtained data on citations that contributed to the JIF for the years 1998?C2006. In general, we found that most journals obtained citations that contribute to the impact factor from documents labeled as articles and reviews. In addition, in most of journals the ratio between citations that contributed to the impact factor and citing records was greater than 80% in all years. Thus, in general, we did not find evidence that citations that contributed to the impact factor were dependent on non-peer reviewed documents or only a few citing records.     

Publications resulting from Spanish radiology meeting abstracts: Which, Where and Who

Summary Many abstracts submitted to medical meetings never come to full publication in peer-reviewed journals. From the 2,992 abstracts presented at the 1994-1998 Spanish Congresses of Radiology, 464 (15%) were published as full articles in journals covered by the Medline and IME (índice Médico Espa?ol), the Spanish medical database. The publication rate of oral presentations was higher than that of posters (18% versus 13%). Collaboration between radiologists and clinicians and between radiologists from different institutions increased full publication (21% and 27%, respectively) compared to abstracts from just one institution (14%). Therefore, oral presentations, multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration in the abstract predicted full publication.     

Scholarly gratitude in five geographical contexts: a diachronic and cross-generic approach of the acknowledgment paratext in medical discourse (1950–2010)

This study analyzed the use of acknowledgements in medical articles published in five countries (Venezuela, Spain, France, UK and USA) from 1950 to 2010. For each country, we selected 54 papers (18 research papers, 18 reviews and 18 case reports), evenly distributed over six decades, from two medical journals with the highest impact factors. Only papers written by native speakers in the national language were included. The evolution of the frequency and length of acknowledgments was analyzed. Of 270 articles studied, 127 (47%) had acknowledgments. The presence of acknowledgments was associated with country (p = 0.001), this section being more common and longer in US and UK journals. Acknowledgments were most common in research papers (70 vs. 40% in case reports and 31% in reviews, p < 0.001). Reviews without acknowledgments were significantly more common than those with (69 vs. 31%), but there was no trend in case reports. Altogether, articles with acknowledgments predominated only after 2000. Since the frequency of use of acknowledgments remained stable over time in US and UK journals but increased in non-Anglophone journals, the overall increase is attributed to the change in non-English publications. Authors acknowledged sub-authorship more in English language journals than in those published in the national language in France, Spain and Venezuela. However, the practice of acknowledging is increasing in non-Anglophone journals. We conclude that the concept of intellectual indebtedness does not only differ from one geographical context to another, but also over time and from one academic genre to another.     

Demonstrating the ascendancy of COVID-19 research using acronyms

Scientometrics - “COVID” which stands for corona virus disease, has become the world’s most infamous acronym. Previous analysis of acronyms in health and medical journals found a...     

On the behaviour of information flows in multicomponent polymer systems research

The behaviour of information flows in multicomponent polymer systems over the 1979–1983 period is analyzed. It has been found that this field of science obeys general relationships valid for other established sciences. Its special features are a high concentration of information (only 9 journals) and a wide scatter of papers among a great number of peripheral journals. The doubling times for papers and journals as well as the doubling period for papers in a single journal have been determined, they are 3.2, 4.6 and 5.6 years respectively.