[Scientific collaboration and article citations: practices in medical journals]

OBJECTIVE

In order to characterize scientific collaboration the best way is to study co-signature of articles. Two indicators are interesting: number of authors and international character. The objective is to study correlation between these two indicators and citation number.

METHODS

We selected two pharmacy and medicine journals in order to compare practices. We used a sample of about 800 articles published in 2002-2005 for which we collected citations up to 2010. We transformed numeric variables, authors number and citation number, into qualitative variables.

RESULTS

"Authors" and "Citations" variables are not independent.

CONCLUSIONS

Less cited articles are often published by one author or a very small team while international character of articles generally increases citation number. This micro-analysis also allowed us to better understand publication practices.

[Comparative analysis of impact factor and h-index for pharmacology journals]

Using the strictly same parameters (identical two publication years (2004-2005) and identical one-year citation window (2006)), impact factor (IF) 2006 was compared with h-index 2006 for one sample of "pharmacology and pharmacy" journals computed from the ISI Web of Science. For this sample, the IF and the h-index rankings of the journals are very different. The correlation coefficient between the IF and the h-index is low for "pharmacology and pharmacy" journals. The IF and h-index can be completely complementary when evaluating journals of the same scientific discipline.

Rédaction des adresses sur les publications

OBJECTIVE

To assess, through the example of the université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, whether the poor international visibility of French universities may be due in part to a lack of care by researchers in listing their affiliations and address on their scientific publications.

METHOD

Querying the heading "address" of Medline, Embase.com and Pascal Biomed for 2003 in searches for publications from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.

RESULTS

In 300 bibliographic entries studied, we found 44 different forms of the university's name. Only 15% of the addresses were correct, and 44% did not mention the author's affiliation with the university.

DISCUSSION

Authors' lack of care in listing their affiliations and address and the absence of a standardized official name for the university may explain the poor visibility of French universities. Recommendations about this topic might help to promote the reputation and work of French researchers internationally.

[Analysis of European pharmaceutical journal diffusion: the example of the principal French document supplier]

Our purpose was to analyse the process of providing papers, edited by european pharmaceutical journals, by the main French document supplier, "Institut National de l'Information Scientifique et Technique" linked to the "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique" (INIST-CNRS). After having given a definition and built up a corpus of 289 journals, orders about them during 1996-1998 were analysed. Then, the possible relationships between orders to INIST-CNRS and impact of journals on scientific community (from Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) data) were examined. Finally, relationships between document orders to INIST-CNRS and, on the one hand european pharmaceutical journals indexation in bibliographic databases and, on the other hand their possible indexation in the French National Collective Catalogue were studied.

[Factor impact and indexing in bibliographic databases: comparison of these quality criteria for the assessment of pharmaceutical journals]

In spite of limits, the impact factor (IF) of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) of Science Citation Index (SCI) edited by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) is the most currently used bibliometric factor by scientists. Otherwise, bibliographic systems select and index scientific journals with their own quality criterion. In order to bring scientists and information professionals some new journal evaluation developments, we studied and compared pharmaceutical journal IF and the number of bibliographic systems in which they were indexed. We firstly have given our definition of pharmaceutical journal and then evaluated these journals by giving one point each time they were indexed in one of the five following bibliographic systems: Index Medicus/Medline, Excerpta Medica/Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents. We then compared their results with IF. We selected 292 journals: 14.4% scored 5 points, 22.3% scored 4 points, 27.7% scored 3 points, 18.8% scored 2 points, 16.8% scored 1 point. We also showed that the more journals scored highly, the more they had chances of being taken by JCR. We studied the first hundred journals indexed by JCR and having the highly IF: 31, 40, 21, 6 and 2 journals were respectively indexed by 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 bibliographic systems. We showed that there was a significant difference between the two classifications. So, we can say that people who take IF as the one and only journal quality criterion have in fact a very partial representation of the edition of scientific papers.

[French language pharmaceutical publications in 1995. I. Assessment and analysis of French language pharmaceutical periodicals]

Periodicals constitute a vital source of information and an invaluable continuing education medium to pharmacists. The aim of the present study was to compile the list of the 83 pharmacy-related periodicals published in French as at 1995 with a view to establishing their main characteristics. The first part focuses on the definition of the concept of "French language pharmaceutical periodicals" selected for the survey needed a) to be in circulation in 1995 and published at least two times a year, b) published by pharmacists or non-pharmacists but must carry articles intended to help, inform, or retrain pharmacists irrespective of their specialties (community, hospital, biological or industrial pharmacy) as well as their closest collaborators (assistants, technicians, etc.) and c) published in French. The second section presents the methodology of the survey, which consisted essentially in consulting publisher and library catalogs and direct interviews with embassies and Pharmacy Associations in French-speaking countries. Questionnaires were also sent out to editors of periodicals and the information gathered was analysed by computer. The following section reproduces the results of the the survey: These were classified into three categories: scientific, professional, and continuing education periodicals. The last section concentrates on their readership (national, international), frequency, modalities of publication, date of creation, indexing in bibliographic databases.

[CD-ROM and pharmacy: a new means of accessing information. I. Characteristics and analysis of CD-ROMs of interest to pharmacy]

CD-ROMs represent a new data medium which is not used enough by health professionals. This survey aimed to list current CD-ROMs useful in pharmacy field with their main characteristics. Thus, databases and directories from health information providers were consulted. A database was then made in order to exploit data collected as well as possible. The following section detailed the results of the survey: 205 CD-ROMs were selected, 95% are bibliographic or full-text data, 94% use English language, 84% present international information, 82% allow us previous years information retrieval, 65% are updated at least every three months, 97% work on PC computers, 74% are provided by american companies.

Survey of European pharmaceutical journals in circulation in 1993

Journals represent a very important source of information to pharmacists. This survey aimed to list current European pharmaceutical journals with their main characteristics. First, we provide a working definition of "European pharmaceutical journal". Then, the methodology and our sources which included books, databases, and questionnaires are reported. The following section details the results of the survey: journal creation for the period 1930 to 1993, geographic distribution, characteristics of the different types of journals (scientific, professional, scientific and professional/educational journals), inclusion in international bibliographic indexes. Finally, the list of the European pharmaceutical journals with their main characteristics and the list of the independent European pharmaceutical journals are reported in Appendix.

Synthesis of acetylenic spirobutenolide derivatives and evaluation of their growth inhibitory effect on cells in culture

Acetylenic spirobutenolide amides and esters and their Mannich bases were synthesized to evaluate their growth inhibitory effect. The biological tests have used both normal and transformed cells and they have shown the selectivity of the prepared compounds. The ester derivatives presented the best selectivity comparable to that of daunorubicin.