Increases in alcohol and other drug articles during 15 years.

There has been a dramatic increase during the last 20 years in psychologists' interest and research productivity in the area of alcohol and other drugs that is usually traced to the establishment of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse during the early 1970s. In order to have an index of this increase, we undertook to determine how the frequency with which psychologists have published articles on the topics of alcohol and other drugs in the journals of the American Psychological Association (APA) has changed during a 15-year period. For each of the 17 APA journals that publishes authors' original research, we tabulated the number of alcohol and other drug articles that was published during the period 1970-1984. If an article was related to both alcohol and another psychoactive drug, that article was assigned a value of one-half for alcohol and one-half for other drugs. Finally, across all 17 journals and for each year in the period under question, we determined (a) the percentage of total articles published that were related to alcohol and (b) the percentage of total articles published that were related to other drugs. Results suggest a steady increase in the percentage of both alcohol and other drug articles. Pearson product-moment correlations computed between year of publication and percentage of alcohol and other drug articles published yielded significant coefficients for both alcohol articles and other drug articles: r = 78, p     

Bibliometric analysis of the original articles published in the Revista Espa?ola de Anesthesiología y Renimación in 10 years (1987-1996)

OBJECTIVE: To describe the original research articles published in Revista Espa?ola De Anestesiología y Reanimación (REAR) from 1987 through 1996, as well as to characterize the citations included in those articles. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The 299 articles published as original research in REAR over the past 10 years (1987 through 1996) were analyzed. The bibliographic aspects examined were coauthorship (authors/paper index), citations per article, isolation in function of language of publication of references, degree of obsolescence of articles based on year of references cited ("half-life"), self-citation and degree of dispersion of citations. RESULTS: The authors/paper index was 5.16 +/- 1.62. No statistically significant difference was found in number of authors over the 10-year study period. Mean number of references cited per article was 24.05 +/- 12.02. We found statistically significant differences for 1993 and the period 1987 to 1988, and 1994 and the year 1987 (p < 0.001). The "half-life" of articles was 6 when analyzing on a year-by-year basis; this index ranged from 5.5 to 7, with no significant annual differences. REAR articles accounted for 4.02% of all citations. English was the most frequent language of cited publications, with 6,240 references (86.8%), followed by Spanish with 621 (8.64%), French with 223 (3.1%) and German with 74 (1.03%). Of the 7,191 references analyzed, 6,447 (89.65%) were of scientific journals. Books are the second most commonly cited type of document, with 623 (8.66%) citations. Analyzing journals cited 25 or more times, we found that 74.19% of the articles (4,783/6,447) had been published in 5.3% of the journals (36/678). Seven journals of anesthesia, which represented 1.03% of all journals (7/678) appeared in 52.81% of references of this type (3,405/6,447). CONCLUSIONS: The number of authors of original research articles published in REAR in the last 10 years was high. Spanish authors in anesthesiology cite mainly literature in English; use up-to-date sources of information, mainly journals; and take a large proportion of information from a small number of journals, which are those of greatest international impact in our specialty.     

Inferential and advanced analysis of research data

This study was undertaken to determine which biomedical journals contain articles written by podiatric physicians and in which indexing sources such articles are likely to appear. A survey was conducted of the 20 most frequently published podiatrist authors from a selected group of podiatric journals during the period from 1990 to 1995. Articles published by these authors during the study period were examined to determine where they had appeared. The MEDLINE database was found to contain the largest number of citations to articles written by these podiatric physicians. Both the Podiatry Index and Embase are also very good sources of citations to podiatric medical literature and should be used to supplement MEDLINE searches.     

Publication counts and scholastic productivity: Comment on Howard, Cole, and Maxwell.

Argues that the study of research productivity by G. S. Howard et al (see record 1988-09385-001) replicated the failure of W. M. Cox and V. Catt (see record 1978-21651-001) to use a representative sample by selecting only in-house American Psychological Association (APA) journals and ignoring some journals published by specific APA divisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing the scholarly impact of health psychology: A citation analysis of articles published from 1993 to 2003.

Objective: We conducted a citation analysis to explore the impact of articles published in Health Psychology and determine whether the journal is fulfilling its stated mission. Design: Six years of articles (N = 408) representing three editorial tenures from 1993–2003 were selected for analysis. Main Outcome Measures: Articles were coded for several dimensions enabling examination of the relationship of article features to subsequent citations rates. Journals citing articles published in Health Psychology were classified into four categories: (1) psychology, (2) medicine, (3) public health and health policy, and (4) other journals. Results: The majority of citations of Health Psychology articles were in psychology journals, followed closely by medical journals. Studies reporting data collected from college students, and discussing the theoretical implications of findings, were more likely to be cited in psychology journals, whereas studies reporting data from clinical populations, and discussing the practice implications of findings, were more likely to be cited in medical journals. Time since publication and page length were both associated with increased citation counts, and review articles were cited more frequently than observational studies. Conclusion: Articles published in Health Psychology have a wide reach, informing psychology, medicine, public health and health policy. Certain characteristics of articles affect their subsequent pattern of citation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Books and chapters are not to be neglected in measuring research productivity.

Comments on the attempt by G. S. Howard et al (see record 1988-09385-001) to measure the quality of work of US institutions by counting articles in a set of American Psychological Association journals. It is argued that Howard et al did not show that the resulting productivity measures were a good representation of total productivity in the literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Citation analysis of psychology journals.

Conducted a citation analysis of 57 psychology journals. Total citations to articles published in each journal in 1972 and 1973 were counted from a sample of pages (10%) in the Social Science Citation Index. Journals were rank ordered according to citation frequency per articles published in each journal during the 2-yr period. Mean citation rate per published article was .9. Spearman rank correlations between the rank order based on citations per article and the rank orders of the same journals determined by subjective evaluation in 2 previous studies by D. Koulak and H. J. Keselman (1975) and K. C. Mace and H. D. Warner (1973) were .39 and .56, respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research productivity and impact of male and female psychologists.

Investigated whether the marked underrepresentation of females in lists of highly cited psychologists reflected differences in the quality or the quantity of research produced by males and females. Citation counts were established for 396 papers reporting dissertation research published by male and female psychologists in 14 journals between 1967 and 1972. Females attracted as many citations as males for dissertation research over the 6 yrs following publication. Although females had by 1978 published significantly fewer papers than males, there was no difference between sexes in the number of citations gained/published paper. However, more males than females were prolific researchers with heavy outputs of highly cited papers. Sex differences in productivity, impact, and recognition are discussed in the context of factors that facilitate or hinder research achievement. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Double, double, toil and trouble: Pitfalls of suppositional inquiries of journal ratings.

Three recent comments in the September 1976 issue (Buss & McDermott; Levin & Kratochwill; Porter (see record 1990-57250-001; see record 1990-57248-001; and see record 1990-57249-001), attempting to deal with the difficult area of assessing journal "reputations," raised some interesting questions concerning our study reporting journal rankings (Koulack & Keselman, November 1975; see record 1976-24649-001). We are in agreement with Buss and McDermott (1976) that citations and rankings might not be measuring the same things, but we are in disagreement with Porter, who suggests that "fine ordering among journals is whimsical" (p. 675). In fact, as we suggest in our introduction and have demonstrated in the body of our article (Koulack & Keselman, 1975), journal rankings change as a function of type of work and area of interest. Perhaps Porter's (1976) findings might be a bit whimsical because of the procedure he used to obtain his correlations. Moreover, it is impossible to probe further because Porter does not present the rankings of the two journals chosen from the APA members' top 50, which appeared in either of the citation measures' top 50. Such data might provide some insight into the low correlations obtained between journal citations and rankings. For example, extremely low citation rankings on either citation index for these two journals, given their relatively high position in the APA membership rankings, would diminish the size of the correlation coefficients. The Levin and Kratochwill (1976) comment is somewhat annoying because it distorts a line from Shakespeare as well as misrepresents our presentation. They imply that (a) we thought our rankings represented a definitive approach to the journal rating problem, (b) we neglected to place emphasis on a table presented in the paper, and (c) respondents chose to ignore our instructions and in fact, rated journals on the basis of familiarity. In conclusion, we appreciate the fact that there are numerous ways of examining journal reputations (e.g., rankings by departmental chairpersons, rankings by APA membership, citations obtained from 77 psychology journals published in 1969, citations obtained from 3 psychology journals published from July 1973 to June 1975) and that each of them has potential value. However, comments that are not based on empirical investigation, such as those of Levin and Kratochwill (1976), are mere suppositions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thrillers among the journals: A technique to increase graduate students' reading of research.

Developed a technique that familiarized graduate students in clinical psychology with a wide range of professional journals and allowed them free choice in reading journal articles. The technique was well received by all students, most read more than the required number of articles, and they continued the habit of self-directed reading in the journals after the course ended. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A correlation between shoulder laxity and interfering pain in competitive swimmers

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The "impact factor" published in Science Citation Index (SCI) is widely used in the scientific community to measure the relative importance of a medical journal. In contrast to all other indicators of academic growth in emergency medicine, impact factors for emergency medicine journals have remained low and unchanged since the inception of the specialty. We wished to investigate this incongruity. METHODS: We examined the methodology used to derive the SCI's journal impact factor. RESULTS: The impact factor for journals is defined mathematically as the number of times a journal is cited over a period of time (the numerator) divided by the number of articles published by that journal during the same period (the denominator). Citation counts are derived from examination of all references contained in a subset of journals known as "source" journals. No emergency medicine journals are included in this group. The only source of citations for emergency medicine journals is from journals outside of emergency medicine. This produces small numerators with relatively constant denominators, leading to low impact factors. CONCLUSION: The apparent failure of emergency medicine journals, as measured by the SCI impact factor, to keep pace with other indicators of academic development of the field is at least in part attributable to a methodologic bias inherent in the derivation of this factor.     

Research productivity of psychologists in VA medical centers based on APA journal publication.

Investigated the research productivity of psychologists in VA medical centers, using a method similar to the one used by W. M. Cox and V. Catt (see record 1978-21651-001) to assess the productivity of university psychology departments. The 10 VA medical centers from which psychologists published most frequently in journals of the American Psychological Association during 1975–1984 are listed, and the journals in which these articles were published are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of 80 psychology journals based on the Science Citation Index..

Ranked 80 psychology journals and those from closely related fields in terms of their impact factors (average citations per article) where the numerator for the impact factor was based on the total number of citations accruing to 1972–1973 articles in that journal in the 1974 Science Citation Index. The top 3 journals were Psychological Review, Cognitive Psychology, and Psychological Bulletin. Comparisons are made with a ranking study conducted by M. J. White and K. G. White (1977). For related article, see PA, Vol 56:4649. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Journal Impact Factors and Self-Citations: Implications for Psychology Journals.

Comments on the study by J. G. Adair and N. Vohra (see record 2003-02034-002) of changes in the number of references and citations in psychology journals as a consequence of the current knowledge explosion. They made a striking observation of the sometimes excessive number of self-citations in psychology journals. However, after this illustration, no further attention was paid to the issue of self-citation. Therefore, an important underexplored question is to what extent impact factors of psychology journals are artificially inflated or deflated by self-citations. For the present article, the authors used the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) databases Web of Science (WoS) and Journal Citation Reports (JCR) as the basis of our analyses. From each article (including empirical articles and literature reviews) in five high-, five middle-, and five low-ranked journals in psychology published in 1998 and 1999, they collected the number of self-citations and other-citations in 2000 from the WoS. Data analyses show that, compared with low- and middle-impact psychology journals, the true citation counts of high-impact psychology journals are actually underestimated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A historical examination of author sex and research funding in industrial/organizational psychology.

Analyzed 9,042 research articles in 5 journals during the period 1917–1984 for trends in author sex and funding in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology. Results show that the greatest percentage of articles authored by women appeared in the 1920's. This figure declined through the 1960's and rose during the 1970's and 1980's. More male than female authors received funding up through the 1950's, but this was reversed in the 1960's and 1970's. It is suggested that more credit should be given to the effect female professionals had on the growth of I/O psychology and that women are now publishing in proportion to their professional membership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual and institutional productivity of racial and ethnic minority research in the Journal of Counseling Psychology.

This study examined individual and institutional productivity of research pertaining to racial and ethnic minorities in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP). Full-length articles appearing in JCP from 1988 to 1997 were examined. Two distinct methods to calculate productivity scores were used to obtain rankings of individual authors (G. S. Howard, D. A. Cole, & S. E. Maxwell, 1987) and institutions (D. J. Tinsley & H. E. Tinsley, 1979). Our findings identified the top most productive authors and institutions of ethnic and racial research published in JCP from 1988 to 1997. Implications of these findings and areas for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and scholarly impact.

The claim that older scientists generate research of lower quality than do younger scientists was tested through two analyses in which the age distribution of authors of frequently cited articles in psychology journals was compared with the age distribution of authors of low-impact articles published in the same journals. Most high-impact articles were published by relatively young psychologists, but so were most low-impact articles. When allowance was made for relative numerical representation, there was no evidence that publications from older scientists have less impact. Results are discussed in the context of methodological issues in evaluation of relations between age and scientific achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sample description, reporting, an analysis of sex in psychological research: A look at APA and APA division journals in 1990.

Extends a study by L. Gannon et al (see record 1992-23274-001) by examining the sex of Ss in American Psychological Association (APA) journals publishing original human studies research and by sampling all APA division journals publishing such research. Two issues of each APA and APA division journal published in 1990 were examined, yielding a sample of 504 articles from 26 journals. 79 cases (9.86%) clearly indicated using Ss of only 1 sex, 440 cases (54.93%) used both male and female Ss and reported sex fully, and 44 cases (5.49%) indicated using Ss of each sex without reporting exact numbers. The evidence suggests that there remains a significant tendency to consider male Ss as "normative," and results obtained from them generally applicable, whereas female Ss are somehow "different," and results obtained from them are specific to female Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)