Collagen research in the 1970s

The specialty of collagen research is tracked over a ten year period, 1970–1979, using the methodology of co-citation cluster strings. Independently obtained annual clusters are linked together over time by the percentage of highly cited documents countinuing from year to year. All inter-year links are clustered by single-linkage to form the strings, one of which corresponds to the collagen specialty. Maps of the individual year clusters within the string reveal an alternating pattern of expansion/innovation followed by contraction/consolidation. At the same time the subject focus of research gradually shifts. The institutional affiliation and funding sources for highly cited documents show a trend from early dominance by a few institutions and sources to a multiplicity and collaboration of centers and sources later on, due in part to the migration of researchers from an initially dominant institution.     

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).     

The second process of peer review: Some correlates of comments published in the ASR (1947–1979)

Several studies have demonstrated that such factors as area of specialization, and the age, rank, years of experience and prestige background of authors affect the publication of scientific research. This study examines the impact of these variables on the probability that published articles will receive critical comment. The data for the study are based on information gathered on the authors of 477 articles and comments published in theAmerican Sociological Review over a 33 year period (1947–1979). Results show that area of specialization is a major factor influencing the probability of an article being commented on. Articles written in the areas of theory/history of social thought and quantitative methods receive a disproportionately higher percentage of comments; while articles in such areas as community, social psychology and marriage and family receive far fewer comments. None of the five demographic and prestige characteristics of article authors was found to significantly discriminate between those articles that either had or had not been commented on. And finally, journal article comments are shown to either enhance or diminish an article's likelihood of later being cited, depending upon the speciality area in which that article is written.     

Scientometric indicators for a specialty in theoretical high-energy physics: Monte Carlo methods in lattice field theory

Publication and citation data are used to analyse the dynamics of the theoretical highenergy physics specialty Monte Carlo methods in lattice field theory. The present study is based on a comprehensive bibliography of the given subject area for the six-year period 1979–1984 and the 1979–1985 citations to these papers. The application of a recently introduced set of scientometric indicators provides clues to undertanding the growth of a new research specialty from a core body of seminal literature.     

A Bibliometric Study of the Publication Patterns in the Sciences of South African Scholars 1981–96

The paper is a bibliometric study of the publication patterns and impact of South African scientists 1981–96, with special emphasis on the period 1992–96. The subject fields surveyed are Physics; Chemistry, Plant and Animal Sciences; and Biochemistry/Microbiology. Scientists were selected from the ten universities of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal, which vary considerably, with respect to standards of education, quantity of publications, development and overall progress. The general purpose is two-fold: 1) to observe the publication and citation trends during 1981–96, a period which covers significant policy changes in the country, in particular the end of apartheid 1994; within this context 2) to investigate the patterns used by scientists 1992–96 from these different institutions in publishing the results of their research in the form of conference papers or (inter)national journals. The study collected two sets of data through a scientometric analysis of Science Citation Index and a questionnaire. With the exception of Physics, the results demonstrate a decreasing South African world share, in particular for Plant & Animal Sc. publications, and a similar decline of citations starting in 1986/87. Further, the citation impact relative to the world, after a substantial drop 1985–93 probably representing the international embargo period, in 1994–96 reaches the same level as observed in 1985–89. Also, the study shows that there is a direct relation between academic position, research experience and productivity among South African Scientists in the four scientific disciplines.     

Bibliometric analysis of publications of Spanish pharmacologists in the SCI (1984–89). Part II

During the period 1984–89 Spanish pharmacologists published 344 papers (44.3% of their total scientific production) (Science Citation Index, CD-Edition) in journals classified by theSCI in subfields different from Pharmacology & Pharmacy. Distribution by institutions, geographical regions, journals, subfields and research levels are presented. The Normalized Journal Position (NJP) is introduced as indicator of the expected impact in each subfield. Results are compared with those of the analysis of the production of Spanish pharmacologists in the Pharmacology & Pharmacy subfield, presented in a previous paper. Some of the features detected are common to both areas, such as: increasing trend in the productivity over years, irregular geographical distribution with three regions as major producers, or university as main producer institution. Special features of the extra-Pharmacology area are also pointed out: irregular growth of publication number over years, high dispersion of publications in journals and subfields, high collaboration rate, and low percentage of authors with at least 1 paper/year, among others. Attending to journal of publication, cross-disciplinarity research of Spanish pharmacologists is analysed, being Neurosciences, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Physiology, the main border fields involved.     

Astronomy in the twentieth century

This paper is based on theSource Book in Astronomy and Astrophysics 1900–1975 which is considered representative of the pioneer research work in the field. The distribution of important scientific achievements over a certain period, their distribution by subject area and sources, single or multiple authorship and age of techniques relevant to these areas are quantitatively examined. In some cases results are obtained as known from the analysis of the overall output of the sciences (including astronomy). As regards, however, the frequency of published important papers and the role of the latest technique pioneer achievements differ significantly from the total of scientific publications.     

Estimates of the annual total number of titles on medicine and its disciplines and scientific productivity of physicians

Two scientometric indices are reviewed: number of printed scientific works per 100 specialists per year and number of scientific journals per 1000 specialists. In 1973–1977 Brazilian chemists and pharmacologists published 15.8 scientific works per 100 specialists per year, in 1981–1985 Japanese physicians — 17.1 ones, in 1968–1986 Czechoslovakian physicians —17.1 ones, in 1978–1986 Hungarian physicians — 18.3 ones, in 1963–1979 Polish physicians — 18.5 ones, in 1983 Yugoslavian physicians — 20.1 titles per 100 specialists. In 1986 in USA 7.2 biomedical journals were issued per 1000 physicians, in Japan — 3.4 ones, in Spain —1.8 biomedical journals per 1000 physicians. In 1986 in USA 6.8 dental periodicals were published per 1000 dentists, Great Britain — 3.0 ones, in Canada — 2.6 ones, in Spain — 2.0 dental journals. The total number of world's biomedical articles and books' titles was 535,000 in 1967, 628,000 in 1972, 820,000 in 1978, 1.01 million ones in 1983 and 1.13 million titles in 1986.     

Changes in publication patterns of biotechnologists: An evaluation of the impact of government stimulation programs in six industrial nations

The effects of a government stimulation program on the development of Dutch biotechnology have been studied scientometrically in comparison with world-wide averages, and with the effects of programs of five important large Western industrial nations, in the period 1976–1985. In two priority fields of the Dutch programme, fermentation and bio-industrial chemistry, and biochemical genetics, publication rates were below world average before 1980–1981, but reached levels significantly above world average in 1984–1985. Both in 1980 and 1984, Dutch articles were characterized by a relatively high short-term impact. In 1984, the impact of Dutch articles was slightly above the 1980 level. When publications were counted in a core set of 19 biotechnology relevant journals, the share of Dutch biotechnologists did not change between 1979–1982 and 1983–1986, while Canada, Japan, France, and, to some extent, the UK, improved their positions, but the Federal Republic of Germany lost some ground.     

Time series analysis of publication counts of a university: what are the implications?

Yearly publication counts of research institutions and universities continue to be a widely-used parameter to assess their research productivity, and such evaluations have been successfully used to analyze the influence of research support policies at various levels. This study was designed to analyze the yearly number of articles having an Akdeniz University address and that appeared in the Web of Science databases from 1996 to 2009. Time series analysis of the number of published articles was used to determine the impact of alterations in the number of faculty members and research funding as well as changes in the institutional and country-wide research support policies and encouragement mechanisms. It was observed that alterations in both the number of faculty members who are active in research and the total amount of research funding each year may explain the general pattern published articles. However, there is a period with significant deviations from the trend predicted by these relationships. This period, corresponding to the years 2002–2008, is discussed in terms of the effects of policy changes which may have positive and negative contributions to the predicted pattern. Mathematical analysis of publication time series, together with parameters expected to affect research output, may provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of research support mechanisms.     

A Comparison of Iranian Scientific Publications in the Science Citation Index: 1985–1989 and 1990–1994

Iranian scientific publications in the Science Citation Index for two five-year periods, 1985–1989 and 1990–1994, were compared. Distributions of various attributes of the publication output for the two periods were obtained primarily through the Rank command of the Dialog Online System. Results include: productivity by publication year and by ranked order of the most productive Iranian authors; influence or impact of the most productive Iranian authors by ranking them as cited authors; collaboration of Iranian scientists with scientists from other countries; and the journals Iranian scientists published in and the journals they cite in their papers. The subject areas of Iran's scientific publications were examined vis-à-vis the world's publication output and that of the Third World Countries (TWC).     

Visibility and impact of research in Psychiatry for North European countries in EU,US and world contexts

An earlier publication and citation analysis of Scandinavian clinical and social medicine 1988–96 reported that in particular Sweden and Denmark loose publication and citation world shares in many medical fields. In well fare systems such observations are alarming, and follow up studies and monitoring are thus carried out in selected medical fields. One such typical field is Psychiatry. It was decided to broaden the scope of analysis also to include the Netherlands with the European Union, USA and the world as comparative baselines. The period covered is 1981–98. This paper reports the findings and their implications on research policy. As in many other scientific fields the Psychiatric research output converges with respect to the US vs. EU in publication world shares. Both Denmark and Sweden suffer from stagnation in absolute publication numbers over the period and loose visibility dramatically in terms of world and EU shares. Finland and the Netherlands show steep growth rates. In terms of citations the picture is identical. Sweden declines dramatically its EU citation share from 13% to 6.5% during the period. The gap between EU and the US citation impact widens with USA on top. Among the analysed Northern EU countries only the Netherlands demonstrates an above-average impact. Other European players, like Belgium and Ireland, increasingly take part in Psychiatric research and show much higher citation impact than the Scandinavian well fare countries.     

Using a bibliometric approach to support research policy making: The case of the Flemish BOF-key

In this paper, we describe the development of a methodology and an instrument to support a major research funding allocation decision by the Flemish government. Over the last decade, and in parallel with the decentralization and the devolution of the Belgian federal policy authority towards the various regions and communities in the country, science and technology policy have become a major component of regional policy making. In the Flemish region, there has been an increasing focus on basing the funding allocation decisions that originate from this policy decentralization on “objective, quantifiable and repeatable” decision parameters. One of the data sources and indicator bases that have received ample attention in this evolution is the use of bibliometric data and indicators. This has now led to the creation of a dedicated research and policy support staff, called “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken,” and the first time application of bibliometric data and methods to support a major inter-university funding allocation decision. In this paper, we analyze this evolution. We show how bibliometric data have for the first time been used to allocate 93 million Euro of public research money between 6 Flemish universities for the fiscal year 2003, based on Web-of-Science SCI data provided to “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken” via a license agreement with Thomson-ISI. We also discuss the limitations of the current approach that was based on inter-university publication and citation counts. We provide insights into future adaptations that might make it more representative of the total research activity at the universities involved (e.g., by including data for the humanities) and of its visibility (e.g., by including impact measures). Finally, based on our current experience and interactions with the universities involved, we speculate on the future of the specific bibliometric approach that has now been adopted. More specifically, we hypothesize that the allocation method now developed and under further improvement will become more criticized if it turns out that it (1) also starts influencing intra-university research allocation decisions and, as a consequence (2) introduces adverse publication and citation behaviors at the universities involved. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The evaluation of plant biomass research: A case study of the problems inherent in bibliometric indicators

The aim of this project was to evaluate research groups working in the broad field of plant biomass in the areas outside the USA and the EC. The assessment had two key elements: the measurement of scientific productivity and the investigation of factors affecting research performance. Research groups were identified from a range of information sources. Data on funding, information access, staffing, publication policy and degree of awareness of other research groups in the field were collected during the course of interviews. Two approaches —bibliometric analysis and peer review — were examined as a means of constructing indicators for assessing research output.Following a critical review of the use of bibliometric indicators in peripheral countries, the results from a study of eight countries are presented. Neither of two indicators employed proved to be a particularly successful method of evaluating research, and this finding is discussed in relation to publication patterns, the nature of the research community and the research field under study. Finally, the use of a peripatetic expert was found to have some value as a means of assessment.Paper presented at the International Conference on Science Indicators for Developing Countries, Paris, 15–19 October, 1990.     

Communication activities in scientific disciplines in Belgium

The communication behaviour of Belgian university scientists is investigated over the period of 1977–1979. For 5 broad scientific domains the general characteristics are given and the distribution of the scientists over groups with 1 to 20 communications per three year is discussed. For two domains, Arts and Basic Sciences, an analysis is given of constituent disciplines. The present investigation presents a background profile of the communication activities, enabling evaluation of extreme activity in the disciplines discussed.     

Science in Scandinavia: A Bibliometric Approach

The development of publication activity and citation impact in Scandinavian countries is studied for the 1980–1997 period. Besides the analysis of trends in publication and citation patterns and of national publication profiles, an attempt is made to find statistical evidences of the relation between international co-authorship and both research profile and citation impact in the Nordic countries. A coherent Scandinavian cluster has been found, and the Nordic countries have strong co-authorship links with highly developed countries in West Europe and North America. It was found that international co-authorship, in general, results in publications with higher citation rates than purely domestic papers. International collaboration has, however, not the same influence on publication profiles and citation impact of each analysed countries.     

Partial assessment of Mexican health sciences research 1982–1986

The paper provides a picture of Mexican health sciences research for the years 1982–1986, measuring, bibliometrically, the size of its scientific activity. The most widely bibliometric indicators for research evaluation, publication count and citation analysis, are combined to determine the degree of production, productivity, and impact. The study also highlights the role of leading research institutions.Paper presented at the International Conference on Science Indicators for Developing Countries, Paris, 15–19 October, 1990.     

Science in the eighties: A typology of countries based on inter-field priorities

This paper seeks to compare the research priorities of thirty three countries in five macrofields (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Engineering & Technology) in two time spans: 1980–1984 and 1985–1989. Comparative analysis is based on the distribution of publications in different fields. Since the raw counts of publications are confounded by the size of the countries and the size of the subject fields, a relative index — Research Priority Index (PI) — is computed for cross-national comparisons. Correspondence analysis is applied to the asymmetrical matrices of priority profiles to reveal the structure of multivariate relationships between countries and fields. The configurations for the two time-spans, obtained through correspondence analysis, are compared to reveal the dynamics of research priorities of these countries.     

Disease burden and the advancement of biomedical knowledge

Despite the importance and magnitude of biomedical research, little is known about its development and responsiveness to current health needs. Herein, we characterized the evolution of disease specific biomedical research and assess the alignment of research and translational efforts with disease burden. Publication patterns for approximately 2700 diseases indicated a fluid landscape of modern biomedical interests. In studying a subset of diseases with available data, overall measures of disease burden explained a large fraction of publication variance but only a small portion of NIH funding variance. In addition, discrete measures of mortality and morbidity differentially impacted NIH funding levels, research efforts, and the number of clinical trials in the US. Our findings not only scrutinize the relevance of our current biomedical enterprise, but may also serve as a resource for fostering strategies that adequately prepare the scientific community to address future health needs and promote accountability in the allocation of resources.     

A new approach to defining a multidisciplinary field of science: The case of cardiovascular biology

This paper describes a new and objective method for tackling the problem of defining a multidisciplinary research area for bibliometric analysis. The test field was cardiovascular biology. A three stage process was adopted in setting a boundary around this research field:

1. Appropriate sections of a hierarchical subject classification scheme, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), were developed into a “MeSH filter” through which papers indexed in MEDLINE were screened.
2. A panel of cardiovascular experts reviewed the core set of classification terms, identifying irrelevant and missing areas, facilitating the development of a more sophisticated “filter”.
3. The definition was validated using publication lists from research departments with a known interest in cardiovascular research.

This iterative process resulted in a definition of the field which captured basic and clinical research papers from the international biomedical research community and which was recognisable to experts in the field of cardiovascular research. Importantly, the field boundary also excluded publications which were not relevant to cardiovascular research. The process of involving experts in shaping the field definition also yielded two intangible, but key benefits: (a) it lent credibility to subsequent analyses, the results of which were to be presented to policy-makers in cardiovascular biology, and (b) it served to shape consensus among the cardiovascular experts on the full range of scientific disciplines that are relevant to their field. Analysis of international publishing in cardiovascular research revealed that whilst the UK and US dominate in total numbers of papers, the relative emphasis on cardiovascular research in these countries (as a proportion ofall biomedical publishing) is actually quite low, and declining. Japan and Germany in contrast appear to give greater emphasis to cardiovascular research in their national portfolios of biomedical science, and between 1988–1991 Japan established a marked increase in activity.