Chiu, WT; Huang, JS; Ho, YS "Bibliometric analysis of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related research in the beginning stage" Scientometrics 61(1):69-77, 2004.

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail:
Yuh-Shan Ho - ysho at tmu.edu.tw


TITLE:          Bibliometric analysis of severe acute respiratory
                syndrome-related research in the beginning stage (Article,

                English)

AUTHOR:         Chiu, Wen-Ta; Huang, Jing-Shan; Ho, Yuh-Shan

SOURCE:         SCIENTOMETRICS 61 (1). 2004. p.69-77 KLUWER ACADEMIC
                PUBL, DORDRECHT


ABSTRACT:       Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has become the
major of health issues since its outbreak early 2003. No analyses by
bibliometric technique that have examined this topic exist in the
literature. The objective of this study is to conduct a bibliometric
analysis of all SARS-related publications in Science Citation Index (SCI)
in the early stage. A systematic search was performed using the SCI for
publications since SARS outbreak early 2003. Selected documents included
'severe acute respiratory syndrome' or 'SARS' as a part of its title,
abstract, or keyword from the beginning stage of SARS outbreak, March
till July 8, 2003. Analysis parameters included authorship, patterns of
international collaboration, journals, language, document type, research
institutional address, times cited, and reprint address. Citation
analysis was mainly based on impact factor as defined by Journal Citation
Reports (JCR) issued in 2002 and on the actual citation impact (ACI),
which has been used to assess the impact relative to the whole field and
has been defined as the ratio between individual citation per publication
value and the total citation per publication value. Thirty-two percent of
total share was published as news features, 25% as editorial materials,
22% as articles, 13% as letters, and the remaining being biographic
items, corrections, meeting abstracts, and reprints. The US dominated the
production by 30% of the total share followed closely by Hong Kong with
24%. Sixty-three percent of publication was published by the mainstream
countries. The SARS publication pattern in the past few months suggests
immediate citation, low collaboration rate, and English and mainstream
country domination in production. We observed no associations of research
indexes with the number of cases.

AUTHOR ADDRESS: YS Ho, Taipei Med Univ, Wan Fang Hosp, Bibliometr Ctr, 111
                Hsing Long Rd Sec 3, Taipei 116, Taiwan

(IDS: 844RQ 00005)  ISSN: 0138-9130