The catalytic role of a research university and international partnerships in building research capacity in Peru: A bibliometric analysis.

OBJECTIVE: In Peru, the past three decades have witnessed impressive growth in biomedical research catalyzed from a single research university and its investigators who secured international partnerships and funding. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of publications by Peruvian authors to understand the roots of this growth and the spread of research networks within the country. METHODS: For 1997-2016, publications from Web of Science with at least one author affiliated with a Peruvian institution were examined by year, author affiliations, funding agencies, co-authorship linkages, and research topics. RESULTS: From 1997-2016, the annual number of publications from Peru increased 9-fold from 75 to 672 totaling 6032. Of these, 56% of the articles had co-authors from the US, 13% from the UK, 12% from Brazil, and 10% from Spain. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) was clearly the lead research institution noted on one-third of publications. Of the 20 most published authors, 15 were Peruvians, 14 trained at some point at UPCH, and 13 received advanced training abroad. Plotting co-authorships documented the growth of institutional collaborations, the robust links between investigators and some lineages of mentorship. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis suggests that international training of Peruvian physician-scientists who built and sustained longstanding international partnerships with funding accelerated quality research on diseases of local importance. The role of a single research university, UPCH, was critical to advance a culture of biomedical research. Increased funding from the Peruvian Government and its Council for Science, Technology and Innovation will be needed to sustain this growth in the future. Middle-income countries might consider the Peruvian experience where long-term research and training partnerships yielded impressive advances to address key health priorities of the country.

Fifty Years of Supporting Global Health Research at the NIH Fogarty International Center.

For 50 years, the Fogarty International Center (FIC) has built research capacity particularly in low and middle-income countries responding to national and global public health priorities. Established in 1968 in honor of U.S. Congressman John E. Fogarty, FIC is one of 27 Institutes and Centers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Initially created in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s and emerging infectious diseases in the 1990s, the Center provided training for approximately 6,000 health scientists from more than 100 countries including 1,000 from the U.S. Current programs are catalytic, addressing national and international institutional capacity strengthening in HIV and other infectious diseases, environmental and occupational health, research ethics, brain disorders, trauma and injury and other non-communicable diseases, tobacco, health systems implementation research, and medical education. Since 1988, FIC provided over $1.5 billion in extramural grants leveraging its relatively modest $50 million extramural budget by $20-$30 million annually. FIC-trained scientists and public health leaders led key studies about malaria vaccines and AIDS prevention trials, became directors of national HIV/AIDS programs, and achieved leadership positions such as Minister of Health. Between 2009 and 2015, FIC cited-papers averaged approximately 1.1% of the NIH total, in comparison to the FIC budget, which averaged only 0.22% of the NIH budget. While maintaining strong commitments to respond to global health threats caused by communicable diseases, FIC is training the next generation of global health researchers focusing on chronic diseases, implementation science and epidemic modeling needed to predict and help contain future global pandemics.

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Landscape of Cancer Rehabilitation Research (1992-2016).

Cancer rehabilitation research has accelerated as great attention has focused on improving survivorship care. Recent expert consensus has attempted to prioritize research needs and suggests greater focus on studying physical functioning of survivors. However, no analysis of the publication landscape has substantiated these proposed needs. This manuscript provides an analysis of PubMed indexed articles related to cancer rehabilitation published between 1992 and 2017. A total of 22 171 publications were analyzed using machine learning and text analysis to assess publication metrics, topic areas of emphasis, and their interrelationships through topic similarity networks. Publications have increased at a rate of 136 articles per year. Approximately 10% of publications were funded by the National Institutes of Health institutes and centers, with the National Cancer Institute being the most prominent funder. The greatest volume and rate of publication increase were in the topics of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and Psychological Interventions, followed by Depression and Exercise Therapy. Four research topic similarity networks were identified and provide insight on areas of robust publication and notable deficits. Findings suggest that publication emphasis has strongly supported cognitive, behavioral, and psychological therapies; however, studies of functional morbidity and physical rehabilitation research are lacking. Three areas of publication deficits are noted: research on populations outside of breast, prostate, and lung cancers; methods for integrating physical rehabilitation services with cancer care, specifically regarding functional screening and assessment; and physical rehabilitation interventions. These deficits align with the needs identified by expert consensus and support the supposition that future research should emphasize a focus on physical rehabilitation.

Data sharing in PLOS ONE: An analysis of Data Availability Statements.

A number of publishers and funders, including PLOS, have recently adopted policies requiring researchers to share the data underlying their results and publications. Such policies help increase the reproducibility of the published literature, as well as make a larger body of data available for reuse and re-analysis. In this study, we evaluate the extent to which authors have complied with this policy by analyzing Data Availability Statements from 47,593 papers published in PLOS ONE between March 2014 (when the policy went into effect) and May 2016. Our analysis shows that compliance with the policy has increased, with a significant decline over time in papers that did not include a Data Availability Statement. However, only about 20% of statements indicate that data are deposited in a repository, which the PLOS policy states is the preferred method. More commonly, authors state that their data are in the paper itself or in the supplemental information, though it is unclear whether these data meet the level of sharing required in the PLOS policy. These findings suggest that additional review of Data Availability Statements or more stringent policies may be needed to increase data sharing.

Research evaluation support services in biomedical libraries.

Objective: The paper provides a review of current practices related to evaluation support services reported by seven biomedical and research libraries. Methods: A group of seven libraries from the United States and Canada described their experiences with establishing evaluation support services at their libraries. A questionnaire was distributed among the libraries to elicit information as to program development, service and staffing models, campus partnerships, training, products such as tools and reports, and resources used for evaluation support services. The libraries also reported interesting projects, lessons learned, and future plans. Results: The seven libraries profiled in this paper report a variety of service models in providing evaluation support services to meet the needs of campus stakeholders. The service models range from research center cores, partnerships with research groups, and library programs with staff dedicated to evaluation support services. A variety of products and services were described such as an automated tool to develop rank-based metrics, consultation on appropriate metrics to use for evaluation, customized publication and citation reports, resource guides, classes and training, and others. Implementing these services has allowed the libraries to expand their roles on campus and to contribute more directly to the research missions of their institutions. Conclusions: Libraries can leverage a variety of evaluation support services as an opportunity to successfully meet an array of challenges confronting the biomedical research community, including robust efforts to report and demonstrate tangible and meaningful outcomes of biomedical research and clinical care. These services represent a transformative direction that can be emulated by other biomedical and research libraries.

Using bibliometrics to demonstrate the value of library journal collections.

Although cited reference studies are common in the library and information science literature, they are rarely performed in non-academic institutions or in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences. In this paper, we analyze over 400,000 cited references made by authors affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration between 2009 and 2013. Our results suggest that these methods can be applied to research libraries in a variety of institutions, that the results of analyses performed at one institution may not be applicable to other institutions, and that cited reference analyses should be periodically updated to reflect changes in authors' referencing behavior.

The Productivity of NHLBI-Funded Obesity Research, 1983-2013.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and elucidate the time trends of the academic productivity of NHLBI's obesity-related research funding via bibliometric analysis of 30 years of NHLBI-supported obesity-related publications. METHODS: In total, 3,545 NHLBI-funded obesity-related publications were identified in the Thomson Reuters InCites™ database. Shared references in a community detection algorithm were used to identify publication topics. Characteristics of publications and topical communities were analyzed based on citation count and percentile rank. A percentile rank >90 was considered "highly cited." RESULTS: Obesity-related publications increased more than 10-fold over 30 years, whereas NHLBI-funded publications only increased twofold NHLBI-funded obesity publications were cited a median of 23 times (IQR 8-55, range 0-2,047, mean 52). Thirty percent of these publications were highly cited compared to the expected ten percent. Six topical communities were present in 1983 compared to 16 in 2013. The most highly cited topical areas were sleep (n = 199 publications, 38% highly cited), cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (n = 277, 36%), obesity correlates and consequences (n = 588, 35%), and asthma and inflammation (n = 283, 35%). CONCLUSIONS: NHLBI-funded obesity publications have contributed substantially to the obesity literature, with many highly cited. Publications grew in number and topical diversity over 30 years and grew at a faster rate than total NHLBI publications.

Measuring the value of research data: a citation analysis of oceanographic data sets.

Evaluation of scientific research is becoming increasingly reliant on publication-based bibliometric indicators, which may result in the devaluation of other scientific activities--such as data curation--that do not necessarily result in the production of scientific publications. This issue may undermine the movement to openly share and cite data sets in scientific publications because researchers are unlikely to devote the effort necessary to curate their research data if they are unlikely to receive credit for doing so. This analysis attempts to demonstrate the bibliometric impact of properly curated and openly accessible data sets by attempting to generate citation counts for three data sets archived at the National Oceanographic Data Center. My findings suggest that all three data sets are highly cited, with estimated citation counts in most cases higher than 99% of all the journal articles published in Oceanography during the same years. I also find that methods of citing and referring to these data sets in scientific publications are highly inconsistent, despite the fact that a formal citation format is suggested for each data set. These findings have important implications for developing a data citation format, encouraging researchers to properly curate their research data, and evaluating the bibliometric impact of individuals and institutions.