Webster BM. "International presence and impact of the UK biomedical research, 1989-2000 ASLIB Proceedings 57(1):22-47, 2005

[Eugene Garfield]

TITLE:          International presence and impact of the UK biomedical
                research, 1989-2000 (Article, English)

AUTHOR:         Webster, BM

SOURCE:         ASLIB PROCEEDINGS 57 (1). 2005. p.22-47 EMERALD GROUP
                PUBLISHING LIMITED, BRADFORD


ABSTRACT:       Purpose - To map UK biomedical research by analysing
biomedical publications from authors with UK institutional affiliation
and indexed in Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation
Index (SSCI).

Design/methodology/approach - Bibliometric methods to assess the volume
of research published, its impact and sources of funding of biomedical
research in the UK are used. The analyses also include an examination of
national and international collaboration, leading regions and
institutions (by volume of output), types of research carried out and its
potential impact factor. This was done for all of biomedicine and 32
selected sub-fields. The data used span 12 years, allowing changes and
developments over time to be tracked.

Findings - The UK's position as the second largest producer of biomedical
research is under threat from Japan and Germany and other countries with
traditionally weaker biomedical research base. Strength in malaria and
asthma research and relative weakness in surgery and renal medicine is
notable. The profile of UK biomedical research has changed significantly
in the period analysed, with a doubling of the level of international
collaboration, a significant increase in basic research papers and an
increase in the potential impact of UK publications. A relative decrease
of acknowledgement of UK Government funding was noted, as were increased
acknowledgements to UK not-for-profit and international organisations.

Practical implications - Bibliometric analyses can provide reliable tools
in mapping the development of scholarly disciplines which can be of use,
as demonstrated in this paper, in research policy, as well as in domain
analysis in information science, library collection development or
publishing.

Originality/value - Apart from policy applications, bibliometric research
of this type can provide valuable information about changes in the
patterns of scholarly communication within a domain (areas of interest in
sociology of science and information science) and inform collection
development policies in libraries and information centres (by describing
literatures: ageing and obsolescence, volume and impact).

AUTHOR ADDRESS: BM Webster, Victoria Univ Wellington, Sch Informat
                Management, Wellington, New Zealand