04/22/23 1

Obstetrics & Gynecology: evaluation of the portuguese scientific activity based on

bibliometric indicators

Helena DonatoCarlos F. de Oliveira

HUC

04/22/23 2

“Without publication, science is dead”Gerard Piel

Reasons to write

04/22/23 3

■ The scientific publication is a key-step in every investigation project■ It represents the step where results are submitted to the public scrutiny

Reasons to write

04/22/23 4

In Medicine and independently from the outstanding results obtained, the task won’t be complete till those results are published

In a first instance do good science, then publish good science

“a naturalist´s life would be a happy one if he had only to observe and never to write”

Charles Darwin

Reasons to write

04/22/23 55

Introduction

■ Bibliometry together with peer-review has been used to assess and quantify the importance of authors and scientific investigations

04/22/23 604/22/23 6

Introduction ■ Bibliometric studies based on data from

scientific publications have shown a growing development in the most advanced countries in the last years

■ In Portugal there are few studies of that type, at least in the field of biomedicine

Donato HM, De Oliveira CF. Patologia mamaria: avaliação da actividade cientifica nacional através de indicadores bibliométricos:1995 July 2005. Acta Med Port. 2006;19(3):225-34

Donato HM, De Oliveira CF. Bibliometria do Cancro em Portugal: 1997 a 2006. Actualizações em Oncologia. Coimbra 17-18 Jan 2008

04/22/23 704/22/23 7

Bibliometry■ What is Bibliometry? A science which enables quantitative and

qualitative analysis of the scientific production through evaluation of the produced literature

■ What does it study? Authors Subjects Journals Departments Countries

04/22/23 Actualizações em Oncologia 2008 8

Bibliometry Resources■ The widest used resource of bibliometry is

the one produced by Thomson Scientific (Institute for Scientific Information), the Web of Science (WOS)

■ It evaluates articles published in more than 8700 journals

■ It also publishes an yearly Index (Journal Citation Reports) based on the cited articles

04/22/23 904/22/23 9

Objectives

This study deals mainly with :■ The contribution of portuguese authors

to the international scientific production in the specific area of Obstetrics & Gynecology

■ The analysis of the scientific production during the period from 1997 to 2006

04/22/23 1004/22/23 10

Objectives

■ Using compiled information, the following indicators were calculated :

Quantitative

Qualitative

04/22/23 1104/22/23 11

Quantitative Indicators

■ Productivity rate of institutions

■ Productivity rate of authors

■ Growth of national production in international publications

04/22/23 1204/22/23 12

Qualitative or Impacting Indicators

■ Influence and visibility of scientific production (Impact Factor)

■ The widest used bibliometric indicators in the assessment of quality of scientific activity are based on:

The number of citations received by the published articles

The importance / impact of the journals where they were published

04/22/23 1304/22/23 13

Data Collection■ The study was performed using the Databases

Web of Science (WOS) - http://isiknowledge.com

Medline / Pubmed – http://www.pubmed.gov

■ Have not considered publications in national journals, since none of the journals published in Portugal is included in Journal Citation Reports

04/22/23 1404/22/23 14

Search

■ We collected all documents published between 1997 and 2006 about our thematic, where at least an author belongs to a portuguese institution

■ We considered all articles, independently from its tipology (revisions, clinical trials, letters, editorials…)

04/22/23 1504/22/23 15

Results■ WOS + PubMed = 846 articles

■ 747 articles published in Journals with Impact Factor

■ Our study is based upon the analysis of the 747 IF articles

04/22/23 1604/22/23 16

Results

■ The portuguese scientific contribution to the international scientific production in the field Obstetrics & Gynecology during the studied period, showed a growth of 144%

04/22/23 1704/22/23 1704/22/23 17

144%

Development in the production of Scientific Articles 1997-2006

04/22/23 1804/22/23 18

Productivity of Portuguese Authors

■ Parameter distribution by Author:Seven authors account for 37% of the

documents, contributing thus with more than 20 articles

Twenty seven authors account for 46,8% of the documents, with more than 10 articles

Others with 10 or less articles account 16,2%

04/22/23 1904/22/23 19

Co-authorship■ In biomedicine, the rule is co-authorship

in publications; portuguese authors follow this international trend

■ The co-authorship rate exibits an increase during the years

■ Slight increase in the average number of authors by document

04/22/23 2004/22/23 20

Qualitative Analysis of Results

■ The analysis of qualitative data from scientific literature enables the assessment of:

The yield of scientific activity and its impact on the community

The impact of the whole of the portuguese scientific production in the area Obstetrics & Gynecology determined by the number of citations obtained by published articles

04/22/23 2104/22/23 21

Citation Report

■ Total 747 articles

■ Sum of the Times Cited – 7,989

■ Average Citations per Item – 10.96

04/22/23 22

Citations in each year

04/22/23 2304/22/23 23

Qualitative Analysis of Results

■ Articles which envolved international collaboration obtained an higher number of citations

More cited article (Lancet 2005) obtained 604 citations

■ Investigation articles are more frequently cited than clinical articles

■ The 747 articles were published in journals disposing of an IF

04/22/23 2404/22/23 24

Qualitative Analysis of Results

■ The most frequently used subject Categories of JCR are:

Obstetrics & Gynecology (302 articles)Oncology (148 articles)Pathology (146 articles)

04/22/23 25

JCR Categories

■ 79,7% of the articles are published in 3 Categories

■ 20,3% of the articles are published in 23 Categories

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Pharmacology & Pharmacy Medicine, General, Internal Endocrinology & Metabolism Hematology …

04/22/23 26

Journals per JCR Categories■ Category Obstetrics & GynecologyHas 59 journals, we publish in 31

■ Category OncologyHas 127 journals we publish in 39

■ Category PathologyHas 64 journals we publish in 32

04/22/23 27

Regions

04/22/23 2804/22/23 2804/22/23 28

04/22/23 2904/22/23 2904/22/23 29

04/22/23 3004/22/23 30

Conclusion

■ The portuguese contribution to the international scientific production in the area Obstetrics & Gynecology in the time period studied is of 0,31 %

04/22/23 3104/22/23 3104/22/23 3104/22/23 31

World Scientific Production

04/22/23 3204/22/23 3204/22/23 3204/22/23 32

Iberian Scientific Production

Spain is demographically 4,2 x higher than Portugal

In terms of Scientific Production is 6,3 x higher than Portugal

04/22/23 3304/22/23 33

Conclusion

■ The portuguese scientific literature in this subject area shows a significant increase in the last 10 years, not only quantitavely (144%), but also at a qualitative level

04/22/23 3404/22/23 34

Conclusion

■ The portuguese scientific literature in this subject area shows a significant increase in the last 10 years, not only quantitavely (144%), but also at a qualitative level

04/22/23 3504/22/23 35

Conclusion

■ Growing visibility of investigation, assessed by the number of articles published in journals of international scope and prestige; publication in well positioned journals in its category ranking

■ Increase of international collaboration

Qualitative increase (positive development of Portuguese investigation in the field)

04/22/23 3604/22/23 36

Recommended Literature■ Bakkalbasi N, Bauer K, Glover J, Wang L. Three options for

citation tracking: Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science. Biomed Digit Libr. 2006 Jun 29;3:7

■ Falagas ME, Pitsouni EI, Malietzis GA, Pappas G. Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: strengths and weaknesses. FASEB J. 2007 Sep 20; [Epub ahead of print]

■ King DA. The scientific impact of nations. Nature 2004;430(6997):311-6.

■ Manske PR. The impact of the impact factor. J Hand Surg [Am] 2004;29(6):983-6

■ Moya-Anegon FD. Coverage analysis of Scopus:a journal metric approach. Scientometrics 2007;73(1), 53-78

■ Nayak BK. The enigma of impact factor. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2006 Dec;54(4):225-6.

■ Scully C, Lodge H. Impact factors and their significance; overrated or misused? Br Dent J 2005 ;198(7):391-3