[Scientific impact and bibliometric contextualisation of Paediatrics compared to other specialities]

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, to identify and characterise the production, citation, impact and collaboration indicators of the Pediatrics area of the Journal Citation Reports, and on the other hand, to place the journal Anales de Pediatría in the context of the Spanish journals of another twenty areas and medical specialties.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

The sources of information used to obtain the indicators were Science Citation Index-Expanded, Journal Citation Reports, and Scimago Journal & Country Rank. A regression analysis was performed to determine the correlation between the citation and other variables.

RESULTS

Pediatrics ranked 8th in scientific production during the period 2009-2018. In citations per journal it ranks 17th, and the average citations per article approaches 27, occupying, in this case, the 18th position. Below Pediatrics are Emergency Medicine, Rehabilitation, and Primary Health Care. There are no citations for 12.47% of the articles. The average impact factor places the area in 18th place and its h index was 197, reaching 14th position, and standing above seven other areas. The percentage of works carried out with international collaboration was 17.71%, above Primary Health Care (12.88%), Oncology (16.37%), and Emergency Medicine (17.03%). Among the Spanish journals, Anales de Pediatría was the fourth most productive journal, and occupied an intermediate position in terms of the number of citations.

CONCLUSIONS

The indicators of citation and impact of the Pediatrics area tend to be above areas such as Emergency Medicine, Primary Health Care, Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine, and Rehabilitation. Professional practice outside large hospitals, together with poor funding, as well as the low number of clinical trials due to the ethical requirements imposed on studies with children, may be the causes that result in moderate citation and impact indicators.

Evolution of its main bibliometric indicators in the Web of Science and Scopus international databases]

PURPOSE

To analyse the coverage and main bibliometric indicators of ANALES DE PEDIATRÍA in Scopus and Science Citation Index Expanded of the Web of Science (SCIE) databases.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

The evolution of the journal production was identified according to the document types, collaboration indexes between authors and institutions, and citations, and impact indicators (number of citations, impact factor, 5-years impact factor and without self-citations, Scimago Journal Rank, quartile, h index and most cited works).

RESULTS

A total of 10,128 papers were included in Scopus (a mean of around 225 per year) and 1,861 in SCIE (a mean of around 207 per year). The index of collaboration was 4.4 for authors and 2 for institutions. There was international collaboration in 4.2% of the papers. The number of citations received in Scopus (619) exceeded the number of citations received in SCIE (385) by 234. The mean number of citations per paper was lower in SCIE (2.27 in Scopus compared to 1.5 in SCIE). The h index was 18 in Scopus and 14 in SCIE.

CONCLUSIONS

Discrepancies were observed in the indicators obtained in both databases due to the different indexation policies, coverage, and classification methods of the papers. The number of citations, the mean number of citations per work, and the h index were higher in Scopus due to the longer life of the journal in that database. There is a positive evolution of the impact factor in SCIE, of the impact factor excluding self-citations, and of the 5-year impact factor.

[On the 50th anniversary of Anales de Pediatría, official publication of the Spanish Association of Paediatrics]

The 50th Anniversary of Anales de Pediatría is a good time for the celebration of events and tributes, and also for critical thought. Anales de Pediatría is the official publication of scientific expression of the Spanish Association of Paediatrics (AEP). It has been published continuously since October 1968. Anales has contributed so much to the narrative of the advances in Spanish paediatrics, as well as the AEP. Throughout its 50 years of history, the editorial teams of the journal have worked to streamline its management, improve the quality of the content, and to ensure its dissemination and national-international visibility. From 1968 to 1972, Anales was published as a Journal-bulletin. From 1977 until 2000, presence of original articles. Since the year 2000, continuous modernisation and recognition with international journals of prestige, indexing in SCI-JCR, impact from 2009, electronic management of manuscripts, Spanish/English from the 2014 Edition. The evolution of the journal is reviewed in this article. With this, the AEP history committee wants to collaborate in a greater understanding of the development of Spanish paediatrics, as well as to present the history of Anales to its authors and readers. The History committee proposes that a small percentage of space is destined for the humanities and to the humanisation of paediatrics. Best information will ensure the best care for children and also for paediatricians.

[Contribution of Anales de Pediatría to the international visibility of Spanish paediatric research in the Web of Science (2010-2014)]

OBJECTIVE

To describe the role of Anales de Pediatría in highlighting Spanish paediatric research, and to identify the journals with which it competes internationally.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Spanish paediatric articles, including those from Anales de Pediatría were identified using the Paediatrics category of the Science Citation Index (2010-2014), and their volume and document type was analysed. For original articles and review articles, the year, the citation and journal of publication was studied. The journals were classified as general and specialised. The productivity of general journals was analysed according to their language, JCR quartile, and article access.

RESULTS

A total of 2,701 Spanish paediatric papers were identified, accounting for 2.8% of the paediatrics world output. More than two-thirds (68%) of papers were articles that received an average number of 4.97 citations per article. The 965 papers published in Anales de Pediatría accounted for 38.7% of the Spanish paediatric output, and for 1% of the paediatric world publications. A mean of 1.03 citations per article were received for 439 (45.4%) articles and reviews. Of the 106 journals identified, 82 were classified as specialised (1,196 articles) and 24 as general (741 articles). Anales de Pediatría published 60% of the articles in general journals. The rest of articles (309) were published in general journals published in English (82.8%), with a best position in the JCR ranking (83.4%) and mainly by subscription (73.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

Anales de Pediatría plays an important role in providing international visibility to a large volume of Spanish scientific production in paediatrics. The results presented are a still only a snapshot of this role that could be used in the near future for assessing its evolution and the changes that could be made in order to improve its quality, positioning and competitiveness.