Indicators for the dynamics of research organizations: a biomedical case study

This paper reports results on a bibliometric case study of the long-term development of research organizations, using an internationally leading biomedical institute as example. Using scientometric concepts, small group theory, organizational ecology, and process-based organizational theory, we developed a life cycle based theoretical model for analyzing long-term development of research groups and institutes. Three bibliometric indicators are proposed for growth, activity profile stability, and focus. With these, the research dynamics of the case institute are described. First, overall output growth matches developments internationally in developmental biology and stem cell research, and, in line with this, journal article output increasingly dominates the institute’s activity profile. Second, superposed on the overall growth curve, a stepwise development is observed, consisting of long phases of growth and stabilisation. These steps reflect local conditions and events. Historical sources from the Institutes’ archive and interviews with the current staff of the institute suggest that the pattern of life cycles reflects a strong influence of pioneering individuals. But once settled, pioneering directors who remain in function for many years delay adaptation of the institutes’ mission to field developments. Furthermore, national science policies on PhD training, and on priority areas have influenced the life cycles, as did merging with other institutes. As in a social science case, also in this case study stabilized local conditions lead to adaptation to research field dynamics in a delayed fashion. In the present case stable output periods lasted at most 15 years, when local impulses led to new growth of research output and thus prevented onset of a lifecycle decline. The continued growth in the larger field both promoted and legitimized these local impulses.     

Trends in radiochemical research: A Finnish view

The main directions of radiochemical research in Finland are discussed. Published in Russian in Radiokhimiya, 2006, Vol. 48, No. 6, pp. 537–538. The text was submitted by the author in English. Reported at the 7th Russian-Finnish Symposium on Radio-chemistry (St. Petersburg, November 2005).     

A case study in action research

This case study demonstrates in practice some of the principles discussed in Roberts' paper. The work is based on the ‘Art and the built environment’ project, which is aimed at encouraging and developing the study of buildings and environments as part of the art curriculum in secondary schools. The project has raised questions about the appropriate media for conducting such study, the development of design awareness in children, and the social relevance of expressing and communicating ideas about the built environment.     

A SCI-Map case study: Building a map of AIDS research

SCI-Map is a new PC based system for mapping the scientific literature. By selecting a seed item, the user can build a network or cluster of nodes interactively, and can view the structure as it is being built. New nodes are selected for addition to the network by the strength of their links to the items already clustered, and the positions of new nodes are determined by a geometric triangulation method. SCI-Map can be used to perform clusterbased retrieval using co-citation or other measures of document association, and enables the user to explore the structure of large document sets. This case study focuses on the AIDS literature and shows how the network is built up topic by topic, the recall of the final cluster, and where AIDS connects to the literature of other fields.Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Bibliometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics in Berlin (Germany), September 11–15, 1993.     

Glyconanomaterials: Emerging applications in biomedical research

Carbohydrates constitute the most abundant organic matter in nature, serving as structural components and energy sources, and mediating a wide range of cellular activities. The emergence of nanomaterials with distinct optical, magnetic, and electronic properties has witnessed a rapid adoption of these materials for biomedical research and applications. Nanomaterials of various shapes and sizes having large specific surface areas can be used as multivalent scaffolds to present carbohydrate ligands. The resulting glyconanomaterials effectively amplify the glycan-mediated interactions, making it possible to use these materials for sensing, imaging, diagnosis, and therapy. In this review, we summarize the synthetic strategies for the preparation of various glyconanomaterials. Examples are given where these glyconanomaterials have been used in sensing and differentiation of proteins and cells, as well as in imaging glycan-medicated cellular responses.      

Experimental research on the effectiveness of speed reduction markings based on driving simulation: A case study

The objective of this paper is to test the effectiveness of speed reduction markings (SRMs). The empirical data including vehicle operations and drivers’ psychological and physical reactions were collected in a driving simulator. An index—the relative speed difference—was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of speed reduction markings. Researchers analyzed data to test the effectiveness of speed reduction markings and quantitatively study their effects and the deceleration process. Out of 15 subjects, there were 1 (7%), 2 (13%), and 7 (47%) subjects who decelerated while driving through the downhill section in the No SRMs scenario, Longitudinal SRMs scenario and Transverse SRMs scenario, respectively. In terms of speed and subjects’ decelerating maneuver, the results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the contrast analysis (S–N–K method) showed that transverse speed reduction markings (TSRMs) could significantly influence subjects’ speed choice and maneuver (P < 0.05).     

生物医用天然高分子材料研究进展

综述了胶原、壳聚糖、聚羟基烷基酸酯等常见天然高分子材料在生物医学领域的应用及其研究进展,并展望了其发展方向。     

Mapping research topics using word-reference co-occurrences: A method and an exploratory case study

Summary Mapping of science and technology can be done at different levels of aggregation, using a variety of methods. In this paper, we propose a method in which title words are used as indicators for the content of a research topic, and cited references are used as the context in which words get their meaning. Research topics are represented by sets of papers that are similar in terms of these word-reference combinations. In this way we use words without neglecting differences and changes in their meanings. The method has several advantages, such as high coverage of publications. As an illustration we apply the method to produce knowledge maps of information science.     

Determinants of success for biomedical researchers: a perception-based study in a health science research environment

New institutions are coming to the fore as stakeholders in research, particularly hospitals and clinical departments involved in providing health care. As a result, new environments for research are gaining importance. This study aims to investigate how different individual characteristics, together with collective and contextual factors, affect the activity and performance of researchers in the particular setting of hospitals and research centres affiliated with the Spanish National Health System (NHS). We used a combination of quantitative science indicators and perception-based data obtained through a survey of researchers working at NHS hospitals and research centres. Inbreeding and involvement in clinical research is the combination of factors with the greatest influence on scientific productivity, because these factors are associated with increased scientific output both overall as well as in high-impact journals. Ultimately, however, satisfaction with human resources in research group combined with gender (linked in turn to leadership) is the combination of factors associated most clearly with the most relevant indicator of productivity success, i.e. the number of articles in high-impact journals as principal author. Researchers’ competitiveness in obtaining research funding as principal investigator is associated with a combination of satisfaction with research autonomy and involvement in clinical research. Researchers’ success is not significantly related with their age, seniority and international experience. The way health care institutions manage and combine the factors likely to influence research may be critical for the development and maintenance of research-conducive environments, and ultimately for the success of research carried out in hospitals and other settings within the national public health system.     

Value of bibliometric analysis for research policy: A case study of Spanish research into innovation and technology management

The primary aim of this paper is to assess the contribution to the international literature of Spanish scientific production in the research stream of innovation and technology management. For this purpose 72 articles published in the last decade in the most prestigious international journals in this research stream have been evaluated. From this analysis we have concluded that there has been a positive evolution from 1995 to the present time, as much from a qualitative as from a quantitative point of view. Likewise, we have found that research in this research stream is concentrated fundamentally on a reduced group of universities. Nevertheless, these do not focus exclusively on one or a few research subjects, but on a wide range thereof.     

A comparative study of the difference in research performance in biomedical fields among selected Western and Asian countries

In this study, a series of relative indicators are used to compare the difference in research performance in biomedical fields between ten selected Western and Asian countries. Based on Thomson’s Essential Science Indicators (ESI) 1996–2006, the output of papers and their citations in ten biomedical fields are compared at multiple levels using relative indicators. Chart diagrams and hierarchical clustering are applied to represent the data. The results confirm that there are many differences in intra- and interdisciplinary scientific activities between the West and the East. In most biomedical fields Asian countries perform below world average.     

Behavior-based safety on construction sites: A case study

This work presents the results of a case study and describes an important area within the field of construction safety management, namely behavior-based safety (BBS). This paper adopts and develops a management approach for safety improvements in construction site environments. A rigorous behavioral safety system and its intervention program was implemented and deployed on target construction sites. After taking a few weeks of safety behavior measurements, the project management team implemented the designed intervention and measurements were taken. Goal-setting sessions were arranged on-site with workers’ participation to set realistic and attainable targets of performance. Safety performance measurements continued and the levels of performance and the targets were presented on feedback charts. Supervisors were asked to give workers recognition and praise when they acted safely or improved critical behaviors. Observers were requested to have discussions with workers, visit the site, distribute training materials to workers, and provide feedback to crews and display charts. They were required to talk to operatives in the presence of line managers. It was necessary to develop awareness and understanding of what was being measured. In the process, operatives learned how to act safely when conducting site tasks using the designed checklists. Current weekly scores were discussed in the weekly safety meetings and other operational site meetings with emphasis on how to achieve set targets. The reliability of the safety performance measures taken by the company's observers was monitored. A clear increase in safety performance level was achieved across all categories: personal protective equipment; housekeeping; access to heights; plant and equipment, and scaffolding. The research reveals that scores of safety performance at one project improved from 86% (at the end of 3rd week) to 92.9% during the 9th week. The results of intervention demonstrated large decreases in unsafe behaviors and significant increases in safe behaviors. The results of this case study showed that an approach based on goal setting, feedback, and an effective measure of safety behavior if properly applied by committed management, can improve safety performance significantly in construction site environments. The results proved that the BBS management technique can be applied to any country's culture, showing that it would be a good approach for improving the safety of front-line workers and that it has industry wide application for ongoing construction projects.     

Managing publication change at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University: a case study

Scientometrics - Since 2011, in Kazakhstan, one of the main indicators for assessing the effectiveness of researchers is their publication activity in journals indexed by Scopus. The policy...     

Mapping review networks: Exploring research community roles and contributions

In this paper we investigate the position of a review network within a research specialty; the network of scholars who write reviews of their colleagues’ work. This is one of the voluntary activities that researchers perform as a prerequisite for the functioning of the invisible college. We compare this network to other networks within the specialty, and this allows us to distinguish various roles: stars, influentials, members, reviewers and juniors. As scholars are characterized by different role-configurations, the invisible college becomes stratified. We discuss the implications for the development of a referee factor and review factor, norms for refereeing and reviewing, and the development of systems-based research evaluations.     

The effect of funding on the outputs of biomedical research

The Research Outputs Database (ROD) has been used to investigate the effects of different input variables, including the numbers of funding bodies, on the impact of research papers in a biomedical subfield (gastroenterology). This was determined by the medium-term impact of the journals in which they were published. It was shown that, when account was taken of the effects of the other input factors, the mean impact for a group of papers increased with the number of authors, the type of research (basic more than clinical), and with the number and identity of the funding bodies. However itdecreased slightly if there were more addresses; whether the paper was multinational had no significant effect. Previous work showing that multi-institution or multi-country papers are more highly cited reached this conclusion because it did not take into account the confounding effect of multiple funding sources, and possibly other factors.     

Effects of large-scale research funding programs: a Japanese case study

This study investigates the effects of large-scale research funding from the Japanese government on the research outcomes of university researchers. To evaluate the effects, we use the difference-in-differences estimator and measure research outcomes in terms of number of papers and citation counts per paper. Our analysis shows that the funding program led to an increase in the number of papers in some fields and an increase in the citation counts in the other fields. A comparison of our estimation results with assessment data obtained from peer reviews showed important differences. Since the characteristics of research vary according to the field, bibliometrics analysis should be used along with the peer review method for a more accurate analysis of research impact.     

Motorcycle safety device investigation: A case study on airbags

The present standard for assessing the effectiveness of safety measures for motorcycle riders defined in ISO 13232 is unique and it incorporates evaluation by computer simulation supplemented by full-scale crash tests. This report describes the process of using FE (Finite Element) simulations to investigate safety options for motorcycle riders. The experience of developing finite element models acceptable as per ISO 13232 standards has been described. The variation in dummy head accelerations on impact with inflating airbags has been studied in an environment acceptable as per ISO 13232 standards. Based on the simulations, it may be concluded that inflating airbags in motorcycles do not pose a significant injury threat.     

Median age difference of references as indicator of information update of research groups: A case study in Spanish food research

Median age difference (D) is obtained by subtracting median value of the age distribution of references of a scientific paper from citing half life of the journal that published it. Such an indicator can be related to the state of knowledge of research groups and can show some interesting properties: 1) it must be related with the incorporation of information pieces in an informal way, say the rate of self-citations; 2) it must follow the natural tendency of the groups towards a progressively updated state of knowledge, and 3) more productive groups will tend to use more recent information. These natural hypotheses have been investigated using a medium sized Spanish institution devoted to Food Research as a case study. Scientific output comprised 439 papers published in SCI journals between 1999 and 2004 by 16 research teams. Their 14,617 references were analyzed. Variables studied were number of published papers by every team, number of authors per paper, number of references per paper, type of documents cited, self citation rate and chronological range of reference lists. Number of authors per paper ranged between 1 and 15. The most frequent value (N = 128) was 3 authors. Average number of authors per paper is 4.03 (SD = 1.74). Mean number of references per paper (including review papers) is 33.3 (SD= 17.39) with slight differences between the groups. Mean self-citation rate was 13.72 % (SD = 11.7). The greatest chronological range was 119 years; half of all ranges was 30 years and the general mean for this variable was 33.34 years (SD = 16.34). D values were associated with self-citation rate and a negative relationship between D and chronological range of references was also found. Nevertheless, correlation figures were too small to reach sound conclusions about the effect of these variables. Number of references per paper, number of contributing authors and number of papers published by each team were not associated with D. D values can discriminate between groups managing updated information and delayed research teams. Publication delay affects D figures. Discontinuity of research lines, heterogeneity of research fields and the short time lapse studied could have some influence on the results of the study. It is suggested that a great coverage is needed to evaluate properly D figures as indicators of information update of research groups.