ABS&Comment: Mela, Impact assessment of oncology research in the European Union

[Gretchen Whitney]

 email address of author: ugolini at hp380.ist.unige.it

Author(s):      Mela GS; Cimmino MA; Ugolini D
Title:  Impact assessment of oncology research in the European Union
Source:         EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER 1999, Vol 35, Iss 8, pp 1182-1186

No. cited references:   20
Publisher:      PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Addresses:      Ugolini D, Univ Genoa, Dipartimento Oncol Clin &
Sperimentale, Ctr Documentaz, Largo R Benzi 10, I-16132 Genoa, Italy. Univ
Genoa, Dipartimento Oncol Clin & Sperimentale, Ctr Documentaz, I-16132
Genoa, Italy. Univ Genoa, Dipartimento Med Interna & Specialita Med, Genoa,
Italy.
Author Keywords:        neoplasms; bibliometrics; Europe
KeywordsPlus:   CITATION ANALYSIS; SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS; BIBLIOMETRIC
ANALYSIS; SCIENCE; PERIOD
Abstract:       In this study the distribution of papers published by
authors from the European Union (EU) in oncological journals was analysed,
as was the impact of oncological research in the EU compared with that
produced in other countries. Papers published during 1995 in the oncological
journals listed by ISI (Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia,
U.S.A.) were downloaded. The parameters of impact factor (IF), source
country population and gross domestic product (GDP) were considered. An
analysis of the key words, both those reported by the authors and those
attributed by ISI, was carried out using a special purpose program. 36.5% of
papers published in oncological journals come from the EU (the U.K., Italy,
Germany and France ranking at the top) and 40.7% from the U.S.A. The mean IF
was 2.4 for EU papers, 3.3 for the US and 2.4 for other countries. Our data
confirm that smaller countries performed better than larger ones. The key
words analysis shows that the leading fields of research were breast cancer
for diseases, cisplatin for drugs and p53 for experimental studies. A
standardisation of key words on behalf of journal editors is proposed., (C)
1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cited references:       *I SCI INF-1996-96-SCI-SCI-CIT-IND-1 ADAMS
J-1996-P-NATL-ACAD-SCI-USA-V93-P12664 ANDERSON A-1992-SCIENCE-V256-P472
BENZER A-1993-LANCET-V341-P247 DAVIS RA-1990-NEUROSURGERY-V26-P345 ELDOR
J-1993-LANCET-V341-P634 ELL C-1997-Z-GASTROENTEROL-V35-P23 GARFIELD
E-1955-SCIENCE-V122-P108 HANSEN HB-1996-CLIN-PHYSIOL-V16-P507 HAUSEN
A-1993-LANCET-V341-P634 KLAIC ZB-1997-COLLEGIUM-ANTROPOL-V21-P301 LUUKKONEN
T-1990-ANN-MED-V22-P145 MACROBERTS MH-1996-SCIENTOMETRICS-V36-P435 MELA
GS-1998-ANN-RHEUM-DIS-V57-P643 PARKIN DM-1997-IARC-SCI-PUBLICATION-V143
PARODI S-1993-TUMORI-V79-P9 REED KL-1995-B-MED-LIBR-ASSOC-V83-P503 SCHENA
FP-1996-NEPHROL-DIAL-TRANSPL-V11-P2359 SCHOONBAERT
D-1996-TROP-MED-INT-HEALTH-V1-P739 STAAB MA-1993-LANCET-V341-P634
Source item page count:         5
Publication Date:       AUG
IDS No.:        228UF
29-char source abbrev:  EUR J CANCER
Publisher address:      THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5
1GB, ENGLAND

-----comment---------------------------------------

This is an extremely interesting paper. It will be interesting to see what
happens when and if the authors update these 1995 data, which are based on
coverage by Current Contents. However, on page 1185 it is stated " that
bibliometric analyses are biased towards English language journals, and
authors of some nations (e.g. France and Germany) with a strong tradition of
publishing in their native languages and less prone to submitting papers to
internationally peer-reviewed English language journals may be penalized in
comparative studies drawing on databases that include few
non-English-language publications. For example, the database EMBASE includes
more non-English-language journals than does Medline. None the less, English
has become the common language of the international scientific community,
and future bilbiometric studies are likely to be performed only on
English-language journals."
Nevertheless, the alleged bias is probably not true in the case of Germany.
Many of the journals listed by CC are actually published in German or other
foreign languages. In 1997 German researchers published 75,300 papers of
which 11,614 (about 15.4% were in German. see my AAAS talk at
http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/mapsciworld.html
Further, using ISI's National Science Indicators Database
http://www.isinet.com/products/rsg/products/nsi/
I found that Germany contributed 946 oncology articles in 1997. This
represented 8.24% of the 11,428 SCI covered papers classified as oncogenesis
and cancer research. For 1995 the authors reported 580 papers from Germany
in cancer, only 2% of the total.  NSI included 792  papers or 7.26 % of the
10, 915 cancer papers. Clearly their more restrictive definition accounts
for the differences. As I have reported elsewhere and as these authors
confirm the trend to English is increasing, but the importance of the
vernacular language journals for evaluative medicine should not be
underestimated. Eugene Garfield
---------------------------------------------

Eugene Garfield, Ph.D.
Chairman Emeritus, ISI, 3501 Market St , Philadelphia, PA 19104-3389
Pres.,Ed.-in-Chief,  The Scientist, 3600 Market St , Philadelphia, PA
19104-2645
   http://www.the-scientist.com
Phone:  (215)243-2205 // Fax: (215)387-1266
home page: http://garfield.library.upenn.edu
E-mail: garfield at codex.cis.upenn.edu