Ulcerative Colitis: A Critical Approach to the Global Research Output Employing Density-equalizing Mapping and Scientometric Methods.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Despite decades of effort, numerous aspects on ulcerative colitis (UC) remain unknown and require further investigation. Scientists experience numerous challenges to survey >40,000 items that have been published on UC since 1900, to evaluate their scientific impact or to identify collaborative networks publishing the most relevant work. Hence, no current, detailed and comprehensive knowledge regarding the worldwide research architecture of UC has been established until now. METHODS: We conducted a scientometric study employing the previously validated NewQIS (New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science) platform to quantify the global research activity in the field of UC. Hereby, the total research productivity, scientific output of countries, individual institutions, authors, journals, their collaborative networks as well as semiqualitative aspects were assessed. Results were visualized via state-of-the-art density-equalizing mapping projections. RESULTS: The United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom play leading roles regarding scientific activity, multilateral and bilateral cooperations. Within the past decades, research on UC diversified into a field covering numerous subject areas. Recently published studies predict that the scientific progress will be mainly depending on international cooperations; we can confirm that development by now. CONCLUSIONS: Scientometrics proofed to be a useful methodical approach to evaluate quantitative and semiqualitative aspects regarding UC. Also, we conclude that the influence of international cooperations on the scientific progress in the field of UC is constantly progressing.

Gastric Cancer: Bibliometric Analysis of Epidemiological, Geographical and Socio-Economic Parameters of the Global Research Landscape.

BACKGROUND: Although the incidence and mortality of gastric cancer (GC) decreased in the last years, some countries remain highly affected. Especially in high-income economies the cases of cardia types are steadily increasing. Currently, GC is ranked third as cause for cancer death worldwide, whereby two-thirds of deaths still occur in low-income countries. But the global numbers are changing, and new regional challenges must be addressed. METHODS: Therefore, this disease has been chosen for in-depth bibliometric analyses that combines the evaluation of publication meta-data with density equalizing visualization techniques. This study focuses on the chronological and geographical characteristics of GC research worldwide. Epidemiological and socio-economic parameters were analyzed and the influence of political framework conditions was examined. In addition, international collaborations and research priorities were evaluated. RESULTS: In the last years, the publication numbers are rising more extensively in comparison to other cancer types. Albeit the usual leading positions, the United States is not the most publishing country on GC. It occupies the third position. Instead, China and Japan are the most publishing countries and together with South Korea also the key players as well as the most affected countries. These countries' governments are also the main donors for GC-research. The number of articles and the expenditures for research and development (R??D) as well as the incidence rate are correlated. Despite the scarce contribution of low-economic countries to the publication output, international collaborations lead to a modest output in those regions. CONCLUSION: This study pools background information for scientists, practitioners, funders and decision-makers by providing information on the development and priorities of GC research. Adaptive international approaches and partnerships are crucial to meet future changing epidemiological features worldwide.

A world map of evidence-based medicine: Density equalizing mapping of the Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

Systematic reviews represent the core and backbone of evidence-based medicine (EBM) strategies in all fields of medicine. In order to depict a first global sketch of the international efforts in the Cochrane database systematic reviews (CDSR), we analyzed the systematic reviews of the Cochrane database. Our global maps of systematic reviewing offer intriguing structural insights into the world of EBM strategies. They demonstrate that for the CDSR, the UK and Commonwealth countries take the lead position. Since patients, care providers and health systems all over the world benefit from systematic reviewing, institutions in other countries should increase their commitment.

A world map of esophagus cancer research: a critical accounting.

BACKGROUND: Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. The contemporary strong increase of the adenocarcinomas in Western countries and the high mortality rates require the intensification of prospective multinational studies. METHODS: Therefore, this global health issue has been chosen for the bibliometric review of the global publication output. As source for meta and citation data, the Web of Science has been used and Density Equalizing Maps were applied for visualization. RESULTS: 17,387 articles on EC could be identified. The years with publication and citation maxima correspond to the appearance of the most prolific articles. China is the most publishing country, followed by Japan and the USA. Germany and the UK ranked 4th and 5th. The analysis of the ratios articles and socio-economic parameters emphasizes the leading position of the Scandinavian countries and Japan. Here, the high-income countries come out on top. The high incidence regions are mainly represented by Chinese and Japanese research. The association of the publication output and the overall research funding could be shown. CONCLUSIONS: A strengthened international network increasingly consisting of the scientifically best positioned countries as well as more of the high incidence countries worldwide is mandatory for future research. The findings deliver scientists, clinicians and decision makers backgrounds for future decisions all over the world.

Descriptive review of junior OB/GYN physicians' work task financial compensation in German hospitals.

Beginning in the first decade of the 21st centruy, there was a growing disregard for the benefits of the German medical system concerning the junior obstetricians/gynecologists (OB/GYN) job situation. As in other fields of medicine, numerous colleagues left Germany to work in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Noway, Sweden, or Switzerland. According to studies, financial factors represent one of the reasons for the discontent. We here present a practical descriptive approach to assess/review the actual compensation of single work tasks of OB/GYNs on the basis of previously published, existing data. Using the workflow data from the Medical work Assessment in German hospitals (MAGRO) platform of twenty junior OB/GYNs with an average workday of 9:24:35 h (SD = 01:05:07 h), a large scale data analysis of 2,325,556 different time points was performed to calculate the financial valuation of single work tasks. In order to assess the evolution over the past years, different modern and historic (e.g. AiP) pay scales were used and analysed in relation to the actual work on a weekly, monthly and per annum basis. Our review shows that there has been a dramatic increase in the financial reward of the practical work tasks of junior OB/GYN physicians in German hospitals in comparison to the situation of the early 2000s years. In this respect, it can not be further argued that the German system has large disadvantages concerning the payment of junior doctors in comparison to other European countries.

Gendermetrics of cancer research: results from a global analysis on prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: The present study aims to elucidate the success concerning gender equality in cancer research in the last decade (from 2008 to 2017) with prostate cancer as the target parameter. RESULTS: 31.7% of all authorships and 36.3% of the first, 32.5% of the co- and 22.6% of the last authorships were held by women. The corresponding female-to-male odds ratio is 1.26 (CI: 1.22-1.30) for first, 1.15 (CI: 1.12-1.18) for co- and 0.59 (CI: 0.57-0.62) for last authorships. The annual growth rates are 0.6% overall and 0.9% for first, 0.2% for co-authorships, and 2.8% for last authorships. Women are slightly underrepresented at prestigious authorships compared to men. The female underrepresentation accentuates in articles with many authors that attract the highest citation rates. Multi-author articles with male key authors are more frequently cited. Men publish more articles compared to women (61.8% male authors are responsible for 68.3% of the authorships) and are overrepresented at productivity levels of more than 1 article per author. Major regional differences were found with best female odds in Sweden, Brazil, and Austria. The prognosis for the next decade forecasts a harmonization of authorship odds. CONCLUSION: Prostate cancer research is characterized by a career dichotomy with few women in academic leadership positions and many female early career researchers. This career dichotomy has been narrowed in the last decade and will likely be further reduced in the future. METHODS: On the basis of the Gendermetrics Platform, a total of 26,234 articles related to prostate cancer research were analyzed.

[The gender gap in highest quality medical research - A scientometric analysis of the representation of female authors in highest impact medical journals]. / Der Gendergap in der medizinischen Spitzenforschung.

OBJECTIVE: The study aims to elucidate the state of gender equality in high-impact medical research, analyzing the representation of female authorships from January, 2008 to September, 2017. METHODS: 133 893 male and female authorships from seven high-impact medical journals were analyzed. The key methodology was the combined analysis of the relative frequency, odds ratio and citations of female authorships. The Prestige Index measures the distribution of prestigious authorships between the two genders. RESULTS: 35.0 % of all authorships and 34.3 % of the first, 36.1 % of the co- and 24.2 % of the last authorships were held by women. Female authors have an odds ratio of 0.97 (KI: 0.93 - 1.01) for first, 1.36 (KI: 1.32 - 1.40) for co- und 0.57 (KI: 0.54 - 0.60) for last authorships compared to male authors. The proportion of female authorships exhibits an annual growth of 1.3 % overall, with 0.5 % for first, 1.2 % for co-, and 0.8 % for last authorships. Women are underrepresented at prestigious authorship compared to men (Prestige Index = -0.38). The underrepresentation accentuates in highly competitive articles attracting the highest citation rates, namely, articles with many authors and articles that were published in highest-impact journals. Multi-author articles with male key authors are more frequently cited than articles with female key authors. The gender-specific differences in citation rates increase the more authors contribute to an article. Women publish fewer articles compared to men (39.6 % female authors are responsible for 35.0 % of the authorships) and are underrepresented at productivity levels of more than 1 article per author. Distinct differences at the country level were revealed. CONCLUSION: High impact medical research is characterized by few female group leaders as last authors and many female researchers being first or co-authors early in their career. It is very likely that this gender-specific career dichotomy will persistent in the next decade.

Gender disparities in high-quality dermatology research: a descriptive bibliometric study on scientific authorships.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to elucidate the state of gender equality in high-quality dermatological research by analysing the representation of female authorships from January 2008 to May 2017. DESIGN: Retrospective, descriptive study. SETTING: 113 189 male and female authorships from 23 373 research articles published in 23 dermatological Q1 journals were analysed with the aid of the Gendermetrics Platform. RESULTS: 43.0% of all authorships and 50.2% of the firstauthorships, 43.7% of the coauthorships and 33.1% of the last authorships are held by women. The corresponding female-to-male ORs are 1.41 (95% CI 1.37 to 1.45) for first authorships, 1.07 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.10) for coauthorships and 0.60 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.62) for last authorships. The annual growth rates are 1.74% overall and 1.45% for first authorships, 1.53% for coauthorships and 2.97% for last authorships. Women are slightly under-represented at prestigious authorships compared with men (Prestige Index=-0.11). The under-representation remains stable in highly competitive articles attracting the highest citation rates, namely, articles with many authors and articles that were published in highest-impact journals. Multiauthor articles with male key authors are only slightly more frequently cited than those with female key authors. Women publish slightly fewer papers compared with men (47.2% women hold 43.0% of the authorships). At the level of individual journals, there is a high degree of uniformity in gender-specific authorship odds. By contrast, distinct differences at country level were revealed. The prognosis for the next decades forecasts a consecutive harmonisation of authorship odds between the two genders. CONCLUSIONS: In high-quality dermatological research, the integration of female scholars is advanced as compared with other medical disciplines. A gender gap consists mainly in the form of a career dichotomy, with many female early career researchers and few women in academic leadership positions. However, this gender gap has been narrowed in the last decade and will likely be further reduced in the future.

Crohn's Disease: A Critical Approach to Publication Procedures and Citation Behavior of the Global Research Network.

BACKGROUND AND GOALS: Crohn's disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease, which can lead to abdominal pain, weight loss, fatigue, severe diarrhea, and malnutrition. Despite enormous efforts and progress in diagnosis and therapy, there are still many aspects of uncertainty leading to an increasing scientific interest in this topic. As it is challenging to survey all articles regarding CD and to measure their scientific importance, this study uses reliable scientometric tools to evaluate the global research output on CD related to quantitative and qualitative aspects and in chronological and geographical context. STUDY: We conducted a scientometric analysis to assess all global research activity on CD from 1900 until 2013. We analyzed the research output of countries, individual institutions, journals, authors and their collaborative networks and depicted our findings by density-equalizing map projections. RESULTS: The worldwide research architecture indicated that the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France play leading role regarding scientific activity, h-indices, multilateral and bilateral cooperations. There is a dramatic increase of collaborative publications since the 1990s, which underlines recent studies pronouncing that the scientific progress will be mainly depending on international cooperations. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the field of CD is constantly progressing, in which the influence of international cooperations on the scientific productivity is of major and growing importance. North American and Western European nations constitute the scientific leaders in the field of CD whereas developing or underdeveloped countries did not exhibit considerable research productivity.

Gendermetrics of cancer research: results from a global analysis on lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Cancer research is critically dependent on a continuous recruitment of junior research staff that devotes its academic life not only to clinical duties but also to basic and translational research. The present study aims to elucidate the success concerning gender equality in cancer research in the last decade (from 2008 to 2016) with lung cancer as the target parameter. MATERIALS AND METHODS: On the basis of the Gendermetrics Platform, a total of 19,724 articles related to lung cancer research were analyzed. The key method was the combined analysis of the proportion of female authorships and the female-to-male odds ratio for first, co- and last authorships. The distribution of prestigious authorships was measured by the Prestige Index. RESULTS: 31.3% of all authorships and 35.2% of the first, 32.2% of the co- and 22.1% of the last authorships were held by women. The corresponding female-to-male odds ratio is 1.22 (CI: 1.18-1.27) for first, 1.19 (CI: 1.16-1.23) for co- and 0.59 (CI: 0.57-0.61) for last authorships. Women are underrepresented at prestigious authorships compared to men (Prestige Index = -0.22). The female underrepresentation accentuates in articles with many authors that attract the highest citation rates. CONCLUSIONS: While the current system promotes early career promotion of women, men still outnumber women in leadership positions. However, this male-female career dichotomy has been narrowed in the last decade and will likely be further reduced in the next decade.

Gender equality in academic research on epilepsy-a study on scientific authorships.

OBJECTIVE: The study aims to elucidate the state of gender equality in epilepsy research, analyzing the representation of female authorships from 2008 to 2016. METHODS: Gendermetrics aided in analyzing 106,282 authorships from 22,180 epilepsy-related original research articles. The key methodology was the combined analysis of the relative frequency and the odds ratio of female authorships. The Prestige Index measures the distribution of prestigious authorships between the two genders. RESULTS: The following were held by women: 39.6% of all authorships and 44.1% of the first, 41.0% of the co-, and 29.0% of the last authorships. Female authors have an odds ratio of 1.25 (95% CI 1.21-1.29) for first, 1.17 (CI 1.14-1.20) for co-, and 0.57 (CI 0.55-0.59) for last authorships. The female authorship ratios showed substantial growth in recent years, with an annual growth rate of 1.7% overall, with 2.4% for first, 1.4% for co-, and 1.9% for last authorships. Women publish fewer articles compared to men (43.8% female authors hold 39.6% of the authorships). Women are also less likely to secure prestigious authorships in articles with many authors that attract the highest citation rates. Multi-author articles with male key authors are cited slightly more frequently than articles with female key authors. Distinct differences at the country level were revealed. The prognosis for the next decade forecasts significantly increasing female odds for first authorships and only slightly higher female odds for last authorships. A female authorship ratio of 49.2% is predicted for the year 2026. SIGNIFICANCE: The integration of women in the scientific field of epilepsy is advanced. However, a dichotomy is present: Although the current system promotes early career steps, there is an apparent lack of female research leaders. This structural imbalance is expected to grow in the next decade due to the consistently high increase of female early career researchers.

Maternal depression research: socioeconomic analysis and density-equalizing mapping of the global research architecture.

Maternal depression can be accounted for one of the most common complications during pregnancy and the postpartum period affecting women all over the world. So far, no detailed map of the worldwide maternal depression research architecture has been constructed, which encompasses aspects of research activity, quality, and also socioeconomic features. Using the NewQIS platform, density-equalizing mapping projections, scientometric techniques, and economic benchmarking procedures were applied to evaluate global maternal depression research for the period between 1900 and 2012. In total, 7330 related publications and 3335 international collaborations were identified. The USA was the most active country concerning collaborations and total research activity. In the socioeconomic analysis of research activity in high-income countries, Australia was ranked first with an average of 412.05 maternal depression-related publications per 1000 billion US$ GDP (Q1), followed by the UK (Q1 = 373.51) and Canada (Q1 = 306.32). The group of upper-middle-income countries was led by South Africa (Q1 = 145.67), followed by Turkey (Q1 = 91.8). China authored 11.95 maternal depression-related publications per 1000 billion US$ GDP. The USA had the highest activity of maternal depression research per GDP in billion US$ per capita (Q2 = 60.86). When research activity was related to population size (Q3 = publications per Mio. inhabitants), Australia (Q3 = 26.44) was leading the field, followed by Norway (Q3 = 18.48). Gender analysis revealed a relatively high degree of female scientists involved in this field of research with pronounced differences between single subject areas. In summary, we here present the first picture of the global scientific development in maternal depression research over a period of more than 100 years. The research landscape is clearly dominated by North American and Western European countries, with only minor contribution of Asian or South American countries.

Hirschsprung Disease: Critical Evaluation of the Global Research Architecture Employing Scientometrics and Density-Equalizing Mapping.

Introduction Hirschsprung disease (HD) is a congenital bowel innervation disorder that involves several clinical specialties. There is an increasing interest on the topic reflected by the number of annually published items. It is therefore difficult for a single scientist to survey all published items and to gauge their scientific importance or value. Thus, tremendous efforts were made to establish sustainable parameters to evaluate scientific work within the past decades. It was the birth of scientometrics. Materials and Methods To quantify the global research activity in this field, a scientometric analysis was conducted. We analyzed the research output of countries, individual institutions, authors, and their collaborative networks by using the Web of Science database. Density-equalizing maps and network diagrams were employed as state of the art visualization techniques. Results The United States is the leading country in terms of published items (n = 685), institutions (n = 347), and cooperation (n = 112). However, although there is dominance in quantity, the most intensive international networks between authors and institutions are not linked to the United States. By contrast, most of the European countries combine the highest impact of publications. Further analysis reveal the influence of international cooperation and associated phenomena on the research field HD. Conclusion We conclude that the field of HD is constantly progressing. The importance of international cooperation in the scientific community is continuously growing.