An application of Bradford's law: identification of the core journals of pediatric neurosurgery and a regional comparison of citation density

Comparison of clinical research trends and hotspots in allergic rhinitis and asthma from 2013 to 2023 based on bibliometric analysis

Purpose

To analyze and compare clinical research trends and hot topics in allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma and provide valuable theoretical data and references for future research.

Methods

Clinical studies focusing on AR or asthma published from 2013 to 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Eligible articles were screened and analyzed using bibliometrics from multiple indicators.

Results

A total of 261 eligible articles on AR and 991 qualified articles on asthma were screened. The following bibliometric analyses identified the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology as the most influential publication on AR and asthma and proved the significant contributions of Harvard University in clinical studies on AR and asthma. The analyses also revealed that the top ten prolific authors for AR were from China, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany, whereas the top ten productive authors for asthma were mainly from the USA. Collaborations among countries for AR were relatively concentrated in the Occident, whereas international cooperation on asthma was mainly achieved by the Occident and certain Eastern countries.

Conclusions

This study compared and analyzed the current status and evolution of AR and asthma-related clinical research using bibliometric analysis. Additionally, the study comprehensively summarized the impactful authors, institutions, and countries, and revealed the replacement and evolution of hotspots.

Robotic surgery across Latin America: a bibliometric analysis of research trends from 2009 to 2022

The rise of robotic surgery throughout the world, particularly in Latin America, justifies an objective evaluation of research in this field. This study aimed to use bibliometric techniques to identify the research trends and patterns of robotic surgery in Latin America. The research strategy used the terms "Robotic," "Surgery," and the name of all the Latin American countries, in all fields and collections of Web of Science database. Only original articles published between 2009 and 2022 were included. The software Rayyan, Bibliometric in the R Studio, and VOSViewer were used to develop the analyses. After screening, 96 articles were included from 60 different journals. There was a 22.51% annual increase in the scientific production of robotic surgery in the period studied. The more frequent topics by specialty were: Urology (35.4%), General Surgery (34.4%), and Obstetrics and Gynecology (12%). International cooperation was observed in 65.62% of the studies. The Latin American institution with the highest production of manuscripts was the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Mexico, Chile, and Brazil were, in descending order, the nations with the highest number of corresponding authors and total citations. When considering the total number of articles, Brazil ranked ahead of Chile. Scientific production regarding robotic surgery in Latin America has experienced accelerated growth since its beginning, supported by the high degree of collaboration with leading countries in the field.

Identifying Core Journals in Otolaryngology: A Bibliometric Analysis

OBJECTIVES

As research in otolaryngology continues to expand rapidly, it is important to identify core journals to keep clinicians updated with the latest advances. This study is the first to characterize core journals in otolaryngology.

METHODS

Using h-index and impact factor (IF), the top 15 NLM-indexed otolaryngology journals were selected for analysis. The references from all articles published in these journals in one randomized quarter were compiled into a citation rank list, with the most cited journal ranked the highest. Citation zonal distribution analysis was conducted to identify the zonal distribution of otolaryngology journals.

RESULTS

A total of 3150 journals containing 26876 articles were cited in otolaryngology literature in April-June 2019. Laryngoscope was the most cited journal containing 1762 citations. IF is significantly associated with the h-index for the top 10 otolaryngology journals (p = 0.032). Three core journal zones were identified, with Zone 1 containing 8 journals, Zone 2 containing 36 journals, and Zone 3 containing 189 journals. A linear relationship between the log journal rank for Zones 1-3 and a cumulative number of citations was found (R2  = 0.9948).

CONCLUSION

Eight core journals for otolaryngology were identified: Laryngoscope, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Otology & Neurotology, JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Head & Neck, European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology. In the face of rapidly evolving research and a multitude of journals, the high citation density within these core journals highlights their utility in updating busy clinicians.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

NA Laryngoscope, 133:3346-3352, 2023.

Bibliometric Analysis of Nature-Based Therapy Research

Unrestrained urbanisation and natural space loss are reducing contact with nature in today's society, producing negative consequences for people's mental and physical health and wellbeing. Nature-based therapies, such as physical activity in natural settings, forest bathing, therapeutic hiking, or experiential learning, reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms and improve the quality of life in both general and specific populations. A bibliometric analysis of research on nature-based therapies was performed by applying the traditional laws of bibliometrics (exponential growth law, Bradford's concentration law, Lotka's law, Zipf's law, etc.) to documents published in journals indexed in the Core Collection of the Web of Science (WoS). Graphical visualisation was performed using the VOSviewer software. Annual publications between 2006 and 2021 presented an exponential growth trend (R² = 91%). The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (MDPI) and Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (Elsevier) were the most productive and cited journals. Ikei, Miyazaki, and Song are the most cited prolific authors. The USA and South Korea were the countries with the highest scientific production. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in adventure, nature, and forest therapies among researchers. Nature-based therapies have experienced a growing interest in recent years. Positive effects on mental, physical, and emotional health have been found in different populations and research lines, although more studies with different designs and populations are needed.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Robotic Surgery From 2001 to 2021

Introduction

Bibliometric analyses are a method of evaluating the quality of research output in a certain domain. Robotic surgery has made vast leaps during the past 20 years and this paper aimed to assess some of the main areas of research using this method.

Methods

A search was undertaken for documents published between 2001 and 2021 from the World of Science database, using the keywords ‘robotic surgery’, ‘robotic assisted surgery’ and ‘robotic-assisted surgery. Results were compared using numerous bibliometric methodologies, and stratified by source-specific metrics, author-specific metrics and country-specific metrics.

Results

The search yielded 3839 documents, from 879 different sources. Only 2% of sources were found to be within Bradford’s Zone 1 of research and the most relevant sources were from the field of urology. The Journal of Urology and Surgical Endoscopy and other Techniques ranked highly among metrics such as H, G, M index and total citations. The top-rated authors had a H index of 15 in the field of robotic surgery and the total citations reached a peak at 1342. The USA, Japan and Italy were the most productive nations and increased collaborative research is leading to a greater number of multiple-centre publications.

Conclusion

Research into robotic surgery is still in its infancy with further reviews of the literature and greater output through large randomised controlled trials in multiple centres through collaborative research needed.

Bibliometric analysis of core journals which publish articles of physical therapy on aging

OBJECTIVE

Increase in population's longevity has led to considerable efforts worldwide on physical therapy aging research. The aim of this study is to identify which are the main scientific journals, as well as the most productive authors, institutions and keywords related to the journals, that have published about physical therapy and aging.

METHODS

Original articles published from 1990 to 2014 were retrieved from the bibliographic database Science Citation Index Expanded of Web of Science Core Collection. After standardization of the bibliographic information, a series of bibliometric indicators was obtained regarding authors, institutions, citation and keywords of the core journals using bibliometric software. The PAJEK network analysis program was used for graphic representation.

RESULTS

A total of 2,237 original articles are included in this analysis. The number of identified journals is 573, with an average growth of publishing journals throughout the studied period of 9.41%. Bradford's distribution shows 12 core journals, out of which 41.67% have published constantly all throughout the 25-year period, being the most productive one Physical Therapy. Fritz, Julie M is the most productive author, and University of Sydney the most productive institution. The keyword exercise is used in an outstanding way.

CONCLUSIONS

The productivity trends provided an indication of the greater scientific interest of physical therapy in aging as a line of research. Collectively, the data indicated that physical therapy-specific journals are being consolidated but non-specific are still a significant research source, and that a fundamental element of their research includes exercise and movement.

Postgraduate publishing output in pediatric neurosurgery: correlation with fellowship site and individual scholars

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to analyze the publication output of postgraduate pediatric neurosurgery fellows for a 10-year period as well as identify 25 individual highly productive pediatric neurosurgeons. The correlation between academic productivity and the site of fellowship training was studied.

METHODS

Programs certified by the Accreditation Council for Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellowships that had 5 or more graduating fellows from 2006 to 2015 were included for analysis. Fellows were queried using Scopus for publications during those 10 years with citation data through 2017. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated, comparing program rankings of faculty against fellows using the revised Hirsch index (r-index; primary) and Hirsch index (h-index; secondary). A list of 25 highly accomplished individual academicians and their fellowship training locations was compiled.

RESULTS

Sixteen programs qualified with 152 fellows from 2006 to 2015; 136 of these surgeons published a total of 2009 articles with 23,735 citations. Most publications were pediatric-specific (66.7%) clinical articles (93.1%), with middle authorship (55%). Co-investigators were more likely from residency than fellowship. There was a clustering of the top 7 programs each having total publications of around 120 or greater, publications per fellow greater than 12, more than 1200 citations, and adjusted ir10 (revised 10-year institutional h-index) and ih10 (10-year institutional h-index) values of approximately 2 or higher. Correlating faculty and fellowship program rankings yielded correlation coefficients ranging from 0.53 to 0.80. Fifteen individuals (60%) in the top 25 (by r5 index) list completed their fellowship at 1 of these 7 institutions.

CONCLUSIONS

Approximately 90% of fellowship-trained pediatric neurosurgeons have 1 or more publications, but the spectrum of output is broad. There is a strong correlation between where surgeons complete their fellowships and postgraduate publications.

Taking the next step in publication productivity analysis in pediatric neurosurgery

OBJECTIVE There has been an increasing interest in the quantitative analysis of publishing within the field of neurosurgery at the individual, group, and institutional levels. The authors present an updated analysis of accredited pediatric neurosurgery training programs. METHODS All 28 Accreditation Council for Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellowship programs were contacted for the names of pediatric neurosurgeons who were present each year from 2011 through 2015. Faculty names were queried in Scopus for publications and citations during this time period. The 5-year institutional Hirsch index [i h(5)-index] and revised 5-year institutional h-index [i r(5)-index] were calculated to rank programs. Each publication was reviewed to determine authorship value, tier of research, clinical versus basic science research, subject matter, and whether it was pediatrics-specific. A unique 3-tier article classification system was introduced to stratify clinical articles by quality and complexity, with tier 3 being the lowest tier of publication (e.g., case reports) and tier 1 being the highest (e.g., randomized controlled trials). RESULTS Among 2060 unique publications, 1378 (67%) were pediatrics-specific. The pediatrics-specific articles had a mean of 15.2 citations per publication (median 6), whereas the non-pediatrics-specific articles had a mean of 23.0 citations per publication (median 8; p < 0.0001). For the 46% of papers that had a pediatric neurosurgeon as first or last author, the mean number of citations per publication was 12.1 (median 5.0) compared with 22.5 (median 8.0) for those in which a pediatric neurosurgeon was a middle author (p < 0.0001). Seventy-nine percent of articles were clinical research and 21% were basic science or translational research; however, basic science and translational articles had a mean of 36.9 citations per publication (median 15) compared with 12.6 for clinical publications (median 5.0; p < 0.0001). Among clinical articles, tier 1 papers had a mean of 15.0 citations per publication (median 8.0), tier 2 papers had a mean of 18.7 (median 8.0), and tier 3 papers had a mean of 7.8 (median 3.0). Neuro-oncology papers received the highest number of citations per publication (mean 25.7). The most common journal was the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics (20%). MD/PhD faculty members had significantly more citations per publication than MD faculty members (mean 26.7 vs 14.0; p < 0.0001) and also a higher number of publications per author (mean 38.6 vs 20.8). The median i h(5)- and i r(5)-indices per program were 14 (range 5-48) and 10 (range 5.6-37.2), respectively. The mean i r(5)/i h(5)-index ratio was 0.8. The top 5 fellowship programs (in descending order) as ranked by the i h(5)-index corrected for number of faculty members were The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto; Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh; University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital; Seattle Children's Hospital; and St. Louis Children's Hospital. CONCLUSIONS About two-thirds of publications authored by pediatric neurosurgeons are pediatrics-specific, although non-pediatrics-specific articles averaged more citations. Most of the articles authored by pediatric neurosurgeons are clinical, with basic and translational articles averaging more citations. Neurosurgeons with PhD degrees averaged more total publications and more citations per publication. In all, this is the most advanced and informative analysis of publication productivity in pediatric neurosurgery to date.

Using Bradford's law of scattering to identify the core journals of pediatric surgery

BACKGROUND

Bradford's law of scattering defines an exponentially diminishing return when extending a search for references in journals and can be used to identify the "core" journals in a field. The purpose of this study was to identify the core journals of pediatric surgery.

METHODS

With Institutional Review Board approval, we developed bibliometric profiles for the top academically productive pediatric surgeons in the United States. These profiles included the total number of publications, journals in which those authors published their manuscripts, and identification of all articles cited by those surgeons, along with the journals those references were drawn from. Bradford's law of scattering was applied to identify the core journals of pediatric surgery.

RESULTS

We identified n = 69 pediatric surgeons (10 ± 0.2 5-year h-index). These authors published 10,031 articles (145 ± 90 per surgeon), which were cited 250841 times (3635 ± 413 per surgeon). Pediatric surgeons' articles contained 199507 references (2891 ± 176 per surgeon). We analyzed 58,310 references (top 20 journals) cited by pediatric surgeons. Bradford's Law identified a single core journal for p = 3-10 zones, with P = 3, providing the best correlation between predicted and actual values (Rˆ2 = 0.9996). The core journal for pediatric surgery is Journal of Pediatric Surgery.

CONCLUSIONS

We used Bradford's Law to identify the core journals of pediatric surgery. These core journals include the two leading pediatric surgery-specific journals and the highest impact factor journals in surgery (Annals of Surgery) and medicine (NEJM). These findings can help busy pediatric surgeons focus their reading to stay updated in a rapidly evolving field.

Trends and topics in eye disease research in PubMed from 2010 to 2014

Background: The purpose of this study is to provide a report on scientific production during the period 2010–2014 in order to identify the major topics as well as the predominant actors (journals, countries, continents) involved in the field of eye disease. Methods: A PubMed search was carried out to extract articles related to eye diseases during the period 2010–2014. Data were downloaded and processed through developed PHP scripts for further analysis. Results: A total of 62,123 articles were retrieved. A total of 3,368 different journals were found, and 19 journals were identified as “core journals” according to Braford’s law. English was by far the predominant language. A total of 853,182 MeSH terms were found, representing an average of 13.73 (SD = 4.98) MeSH terms per article. Among these 853,182 MeSH terms, 14,689 different MeSH terms were identified. Vision Disorders, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, Macular Degeneration, and Cataract were the most frequent five MeSH terms related to eye diseases. The analysis of the total number of publications showed that Europe and Asia were the most productive continents, and the USA and China the most productive countries. Interestingly, using the mean Five-Year Impact Factor, the two most productive continents were North America and Oceania. After adjustment for population, the overall ranking positions changed in favor of smaller countries (i.e. Iceland, Switzerland, Denmark, and New Zealand), while after adjustment for Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the overall ranking positions changed in favor of some developing countries (Malawi, Guatemala, Singapore). Conclusions: Due to the large number of articles included and the numerous parameters analyzed, this study provides a wide view of scientific productivity related to eye diseases during the period 2010–2014 and allows us to better understand this field.

Ascertaining the standard of journal using quality indices

In the modern era, most of the researchers want to share their work on a global platform so that they not only receive the due recognition but even their findings can be utilized by other professionals working in the same arena. In order to achieve this, the most common approach is to publish the research findings in an appropriate journal. However, the indicators which eventually determine the overall quality of a journal are variable and there is a great need that the contributors should understand the meaning and scope of each of these indicators. In conclusion, in order to establish the journal's quality, the researchers should obtain the information about the various indices from the journals' website or editorial board and then only submit their research work for publishing.

Bradford's law: identification of the core journals for neurosurgery and its subspecialties

OBJECTIVE

Bradford's law describes the scatter of citations for a given subject or field. It can be used to identify the most highly cited journals for a field or subject. The objective of this study was to use currently accepted formulations of Bradford's law to identify core journals of neurosurgery and neurosurgical subspecialties.

METHODS

All original research publications from 2009 to 2013 were analyzed for the top 25 North American academic neurosurgeons from each subspecialty. The top 25 were chosen from a ranked career h-index list identified from previous studies. Egghe's formulation and the verbal formulation of Bradford's law were applied to create specific citation density zones and identify the core journals for each subspecialty. The databases were then combined to identify the core journals for all of academic neurosurgery.

RESULTS

Using Bradford's verbal law with 4 zone models, the authors were able to identify the core journals of neurosurgery and its subspecialties. The journals found in the most highly cited first zone are presented here as the core journals. For neurosurgery as a whole, the core included the following journals: Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Spine, Stroke, Neurology, American Journal of Neuroradiology, International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, and New England Journal of Medicine. The core journals for each subspecialty are presented in the manuscript.

CONCLUSIONS

Bradford's law can be used to identify the core journals of neurosurgery and its subspecialties. The core journals vary for each neurosurgical subspecialty, but Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery are among the core journals for each neurosurgical subspecialty.