The evolution of the sleep science literature over 30 years: A bibliometric analysis

During the 1974–2004 period, the sleep literature had quadrupled (2384 publications in 1974, and 9721 in 2004) while overall scientific productivity had only doubled. The set of the seven most productive countries (USA, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada and Italy) in sleep research, and the geographical region distribution remained stable over the three decades. On the other hand several indicators appeared in the sleep research literature during the 1990s: the increasing productivity of sleep researchers; the growing number of countries publishing on sleep; the continuous creation of sleep-focused journals; the scattering of sleep publication among increasingly more scientific journals; the turnover among the leading journals; and the emergence of new entities such as China, Turkey, and the European Union.     

Bibliometric overview of the utilization of artificial neural networks in medicine and biology

The distribution of articles involving artificial neural networks (ANN) in the fields of medicine and biology and appearing in the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) databases during the period 2000-2001 was analysed. The following parameters were considered: the number of articles, the total impact factor, the ISI journal category, the source country population, and the gross domestic product. Among the 803 articles and the 49 countries considered, the 5 most prolific (in term of the number of publications) were the USA, The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Canada; other active countries included Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, France, Japan, and China. Comparison between the USA and the European Union, and the distribution of ANN publications among the subdisciplines of the life sciences and clinical medicine are also presented.     

Analysis of the medical and biological pain research literature in the European Union: A 2006 snapshot

This study analyzed 2443 papers published in 2006 by European Union authors on pain-related research. Five EU countries (the UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and France) each published > 200 papers while three countries (Cyprus, Malta and Estonia) published none; socio-economic indicators were related to each country’s productivity. The 2443 papers were published in 592 journals and Cephalalgia, Pain and European Journal of Pain were the most prolific. Publications were also analyzed for intra- versus inter-EU/non-EU collaborations and subdisciplines profiles in Clinical Medicine and the Life Sciences for the World, USA, EU and the top-four EU countries were compared.     

A snapshot of EU publications in sleep research: A scientometric survey

A bibliometric analysis of the literature covering a one-year period (2003) was performed to evaluate the number of scientific publications on sleep and its distribution among the European Union countries. 912 articles appearing in Life Sciences and Clinical Medicine journals indexed in the Institute for Scientific Information databases were downloaded. These articles were authored by EU researchers; Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy rank at the top of the EU countries. The output distribution of the most productive EU countries are also presented and discussed. Despite the limitations of the methods used, the present results give an interesting snapshot of the EU publishing behavior in sleep research.