Measuring the impact of scientific publications and publication extenders: examples of novel approaches.

Different stakeholders, such as authors, research institutions, and healthcare professionals (HCPs) may determine the impact of peer-reviewed publications in different ways. Commonly-used measures of research impact, such as the Journal Impact Factor or the H-index, are not designed to evaluate the impact of individual articles. They are heavily dependent on citations, and therefore only measure impact of the overall journal or researcher respectively, taking months or years to accrue. The past decade has seen the development of article-level metrics (ALMs), that measure the online attention received by an individual publication in contexts including social media platforms, news media, citation activity, and policy and patent citations. These new tools can complement traditional bibliometric data and provide a more holistic evaluation of the impact of a publication. This commentary discusses the need for ALMs, and summarizes several examples - PlumX Metrics, Altmetric, the Better Article Metrics score, the EMPIRE Index, and scite. We also discuss how metrics may be used to evaluate the value of "publication extenders" - educational microcontent such as animations, videos and plain-language summaries that are often hosted on HCP education platforms. Publication extenders adapt a publication's key data to audience needs and thereby extend a publication's reach. These new approaches have the potential to address the limitations of traditional metrics, but the diversity of new metrics requires that users have a keen understanding of which forms of impact are relevant to a specific publication and select and monitor ALMs accordingly.

Different readers have different ways of deciding how important scientific articles are. The usual methods used to measure the impact of research, like the Journal Impact Factor or the H-index, are not meant to measure this for individual articles. These methods mainly look at how many times the articles are mentioned by others, and it can take a long time to see the impact.But in the past ten years, new tools called article-level metrics (ALMs) have been created. These tools measure how much attention an article gets online, like on social media, in the news, or when other researchers talk about it. ALMs are better at explaining how important a specific article is. They can work together with the usual methods to measure impact.This paper talks about why ALMs are important and gives examples of these tools, like PlumX Metrics, Altmetric, the Better Article Metrics score, the EMPIRE Index, and scite. It also explains how these tools can help us see the value of animations, videos, or summaries in simple language. These make it easier for more people to understand and learn from the articles.These new ways of measuring impact can help us see how important articles are in a more complete way. But because there are many different ways to measure this, it's important for users to understand which methods are relevant for a specific article and keep track of them.

Progress and controversies: treating obesity and insulin resistance in the context of hypertension.

Improvements in hypertension treatment and control are challenged by the increasing incidence of metabolic risk factors for hypertension, in particular, obesity and insulin resistance. Such risk factors can increase the severity of hypertension and can interact via a multitude of hormonal and inflammatory pathways. Their presence may affect antihypertensive agent choice with regard to antihypertensive efficacy as well as potential synergistic or antagonistic effects on inflammatory status and progression to diabetes. Furthermore, an increasing number of pharmacologic options are available to promote weight loss and insulin sensitivity that may affect blood pressure directly and indirectly. This review considers the metabolic basis for the complex interactions of hypertension with obesity and insulin resistance, and it assesses the clinical evidence for an impact of weight loss and insulin-sensitizing treatment on blood pressure. Awareness of these pathophysiologic interrelations and their implications for treatment are likely to be of increasing importance for successful blood pressure management.

Optimal management of lipids in diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Patients with diabetes or metabolic syndrome frequently have higher triglycerides, lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and more particles containing apolipoprotein B (ApoB); this combination contributes significantly to their cardiovascular risk. Optimal management of dyslipidemia and increased atherosclerotic risk requires a fundamental understanding of diabetic dyslipidemia, the clinical evidence for different interventional strategies, and the potential benefit of achieving therapeutic targets. For this review, we considered guidelines, recent reviews, and clinical trial results. The features of dyslipidemia in type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome are linked metabolically and are related to central adiposity and insulin resistance. Levels of ApoB and HDL cholesterol are particularly important markers of risk. Guidelines broadly agree that low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol should be reduced below population average levels. Additional or secondary strategies in patients with diabetes or the metabolic syndrome are to decrease non-HDL cholesterol, ApoB and/or LDL particle concentration, to increase HDL cholesterol, and to reduce triglycerides. Lifestyle changes and statins are the bedrock of treatment, although second-line treatment using fibrates or niacin will likely benefit many patients with residual risk. Ezetimibe, too, has a favorable effect on lipid profile and inflammatory biomarkers of risk. Dyslipidemia in type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome has a distinct profile, suggesting the need for a tailored therapy that targets the key features of lowered HDL cholesterol and raised triglycerides, in addition to the primary antiatherogenic strategy of lowering ApoB-containing lipoproteins, such as LDL. With the prominent failure of some recent intervention trials, new therapeutic strategies-particularly safe and effective means to raise HDL-are needed to manage dyslipidemia in this high-risk population.