Hendrix, D An analysis of bibliometric indicators, Natl Inst of Health funding, and faculty size at Assoc of American Med Colleges medical schools, 1997-2007 JOUR OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 96 (4): 324-334 OCT 2008

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: dhendrix at buffalo.edu 

Author(s): Hendrix, D (Hendrix, Dean) 

Title: An analysis of bibliometric indicators, National Institutes of 
Health funding, and faculty size at Association of American Medical 
Colleges medical schools, 1997-2007 

Source: JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 96 (4): 324-334 OCT 
2008 

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Keywords Plus: AUTHOR SELF-CITATIONS; IMPACT-FACTORS; BIOMEDICAL-RESEARCH; 
EUROPEAN-UNION; ONCOLOGICAL RESEARCH; EVALUATING RESEARCH; SCIENCE SYSTEM; 
JOURNALS; UNIVERSITIES; PUBLICATIONS 

Abstract: Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze 
bibliometric data from ISI, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funding 
data, and faculty size information for Association of American Medical 
Colleges (AAMC) member schools during 1997 to 2007 to assess research 
productivity and impact.
Methods: This study gathered and synthesized 10 metrics for almost all 
AAMC medical schools (n=123): (1) total number of published articles per 
medical school, (2) total number of citations to published articles per 
medical school, (3) average number of citations per article, (4) 
institutional impact indices, (5) institutional percentages of articles 
with zero citations, (6) annual average number of faculty per medical 
school, (7) total amount of NIH funding per medical school, (8) average 
amount of NIH grant money awarded per faculty member, (9) average number 
of articles per faculty member, and (10) average number of citations per 
faculty member. Using principal components analysis, the author calculated 
the relationships between measures, if they existed.
Results: Principal components analysis revealed 3 major clusters of 
variables that accounted for 91% of the total variance: (1) institutional 
research productivity, (2) research influence or impact, and (3) 
individual faculty research productivity. Depending on the variables in 
each cluster, medical school research may be appropriately evaluated in a 
more nuanced way. Significant correlations exist between extracted 
factors, indicating an interrelatedness of all variables. Total NIH 
funding may relate more strongly to the quality of the research than the 
quantity of the research. The elimination of medical schools with outliers 
in 1 or more indicators (n=20) altered the analysis considerably.
Conclusions: Though popular, ordinal rankings cannot adequately describe 
the multidimensional nature of a medical school's research productivity 
and impact. This study provides statistics that can be used in conjunction 
with other sound methodologies to provide a more authentic view of a 
medical school's research. The large variance of the collected data 
suggests that refining bibliometric data by discipline, peer groups, or 
journal information may provide a more precise assessment. 

Addresses: SUNY Buffalo, Hlth Sci Lib, Educ Serv, Buffalo, NY 14214 USA 

Reprint Address: Hendrix, D, SUNY Buffalo, Hlth Sci Lib, Educ Serv, 
Buffalo, NY 14214 USA. 

E-mail Address: dhendrix at buffalo.edu 

Cited Reference Count: 75 

Times Cited: 1 

Publisher: MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOC 

Publisher Address: 65 EAST WACKER PLACE, STE 1900, CHICAGO, IL 60601-7298 
USA 

ISSN: 1536-5050 

DOI: 10.3163/1536-5050.96.4.007 

29-char Source Abbrev.: J MED LIBR ASSOC 

ISO Source Abbrev.: J. Med. Libr. Assoc. 

Source Item Page Count: 11 

Subject Category: Information Science & Library Science 

ISI Document Delivery No.: 360GF 

*AM ASS MED COLL
REP AV FAC ROST : 2008 

*HLTH SCI LIB
HLTH SCI LIB WIK TEN : 

*NAT OP RES CTR
WASH MONTHLY : 

*NIH
AW TRENDS : 

*SCIENCEWATCH COM
TRACK TRENDS PERF BA : 

*US NEWS WORLD REP
AM BEST GRAD SCH : 34 2007 

AKSNES DW
Citation rates and perceptions of scientific contribution 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
57 : 169 DOI 10.1002/asi.20262 2006 

BANSARD JY
Medical informatics and bioinformatics: A bibliometric study 
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICINE 11 : 237 DOI 
10.1109/TITB.2007.892694 2007 

BERGSTROM C
EIGENFACTOR DETAILED : 

BORGMAN CL
Scholarly communication and bibliometrics 
ANNUAL REVIEW OF INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 36 : 3 2002 

CHEN TW
World trend of peritoneal dialysis publications 
PERITONEAL DIALYSIS INTERNATIONAL 27 : 173 2007 

CHILD D
ESSENTIALS FACTOR AN : 2006 

COLEMAN R
Impact factors: Use and abuse in biomedical research 
ANATOMICAL RECORD 257 : 54 1999 

COMREY AL
1 COURSE FACTOR ANAL 1992 

CRONIN B
WEB KNOWLEDGE FESTSC : 1 2000 

DAWSON G
MAPPING LANDSCAPE NA : 

EPSTEIN RJ
Journal impact factors do not equitably reflect academic staff performance 
in different medical subspecialties 
JOURNAL OF INVESTIGATIVE MEDICINE 52 : 531 2004 

FALAGAS ME
Biogeography of Brazilian populations of Panstrongylus megistus 
(Hemiptera, Reduviidae, Triatominae) based on molecular marker and paleo-
vegetational data 
ACTA TROPICA 99 : 155 DOI 10.1016/j.actatropica.2006.07.010 2006
 
GARCIAGARCIA P
Evolution of Spanish scientific production in international obstetrics and 
gynecology journals during the period 1986-2002 
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS GYNECOLOGY AND REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY 123 : 
150 DOI 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2005.06.039 2005 

GARFIELD E
WHAT CITATIONS TELL US ABOUT CANADIAN RESEARCH 
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF INFORMATION AND LIBRARY SCIENCE-REVUE CANADIENNE DES 
SCIENCES DE L INFORMATION ET DE BIBLIOTHECONOMIE 18 : 14 1993 

GARFIELD E
ESSAYS INFORMATION S 6 : 354 1983 

GLANZEL W
A concise review on the role of author self-citations in information 
science, bibliometrics and science policy 
SCIENTOMETRICS 67 : 263 DOI 10.1556/Scient.67.2006.2.8 2006
 
GLOVER SW
Bibliometric analysis of research published in Tropical Medicine and 
International Health 1996-2003 
TROPICAL MEDICINE & INTERNATIONAL HEALTH 9 : 1327 2004 

HINZE S
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CARTOGRAPHY OF AN EMERGING INTERDISCIPLINARY DISCIPLINE - 
THE CASE OF BIOELECTRONICS 
SCIENTOMETRICS 29 : 353 1994 

HIRSCH JE
An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA 102 : 16569 DOI 10.1073/pnas.0507655102 2005 

HORTA H
Opening the box: Comparing EU and US scientific output by scientific field 
TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND SOCIAL CHANGE 74 : 1334 DOI 
10.1016/j.techfore.2007.02.013 2007 

HUANG MH
Research evaluation of research-oriented universities in Taiwan from 1993 
to 2003 
SCIENTOMETRICS 67 : 419 DOI 10.1556/Scient.67.2006.3.6 2006 

KINNEY AL
National scientific facilities and their science impact on nonbiomedical 
research 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA 104 : 17943 DOI 10.1073/pnas.0704416104 2007 

KLINE P
EASY GUIDE FACTOR AN : 1994 

LAZARIDES MK
Publications in vascular journals: Contribution by country 
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF VASCULAR AND ENDOVASCULAR SURGERY 34 : 243 DOI 
10.1016/j.ejvs.2007.03.008 2007 

LEE KP
Association of journal quality indicators with methodological quality of 
clinical research articles 
JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 287 : 2805 2002 
LEWISON G
Beyond outputs: new measures of biomedical research impact 
ASLIB PROCEEDINGS 55 : 32 DOI 10.1108/00012530310462698 2003 

LEWISON G
International gastroenterology research: subject areas, impact, and 
funding 
GUT 49 : 295 2001 

LEWISON G
RES EVALUAT 8 : 47 1999 

LEWISON G
The classification of biomedical journals by research level 
SCIENTOMETRICS 60 : 145 2004 

LEWISON G
The definition and calibration of biomedical subfields 
SCIENTOMETRICS 46 : 529 1999 

LEWISON G
New bibliometric techniques for the evaluation of medical schools 
SCIENTOMETRICS 41 : 5 1998 

LEWISON G
The effect of funding on the outputs of biomedical research 
SCIENTOMETRICS 41 : 17 1998 

LEYDESDORFF L
TRACKING AREAS OF STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE USING SCIENTOMETRIC JOURNAL 
MAPPINGS 
RESEARCH POLICY 23 : 217 1994 

LOONEN MPJ
Value of citation numbers and impact factors for analysis of plastic 
surgery research 
PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY 120 : 2082 DOI 
10.1097/01.prs.0000295971.84297.b7 2007 

LOPEZILLESCAS C
The actual citation impact of European oncological research 
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER 44 : 228 DOI 10.1016/j.ejca.2007.10.020 2008 

LUNDBERG J
Measuring the validity of early health technology assessment: 
Bibliometrics as a tool to indicate its scientific basis 
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT IN HEALTH CARE 24 : 70 DOI 
10.1017/S0266462307080099 2008 

LUWEL M
A bibliometric profile of Flemish research in natural, life and technical 
sciences 
SCIENTOMETRICS 47 : 281 2000 

MAUNDER RG
Using publication statistics for evaluation in academic psychiatry 
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY-REVUE CANADIENNE DE PSYCHIATRIE 52 : 790 
2007 

MCALLISTER PR
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE RESEARCH PAPERS OF UNITED-STATES MEDICAL-SCHOOLS 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE 34 : 123 1983 

MCGAGHIE WC
America's best medical schools: A critique of the U.S. News & World Report 
rankings 
ACADEMIC MEDICINE 76 : 985 2001 

MELA GS
Impact assessment of oncology research in the European Union 
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER 35 : 1182 1999 

MELA GS
Neurological research in Europe, as assessed with a four-year overview of 
neurological science international journals 
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY 249 : 390 2002 

MOED HF
The impact-factors debate: The ISI's uses and limits 
NATURE 415 : 731 2002 

MONLINARI JF
SCIENTOMETRICS 75 : 163 2008 

MURPHY PS
ASSESS EVAL HIGHER E 23 : 25 1998 

NAVARRO A
Where does research occur in geriatrics and gerontology? 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY 53 : 1058 DOI 10.1111/j.1532-
5415.2005.53311.x 2005 

NEWMAN MEJ
Power laws, Pareto distributions and Zipf's law 
CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS 46 : 323 DOI 10.1080/00107510500052444 2005 

NIEMINEN P
Statistically significant papers in psychiatry were cited more often than 
others 
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY 60 : 939 DOI 
10.1016/j.jclinepi.2006.11.014 2007 

NIEMINEN P
The use of bibliometric data in evaluating research on therapeutic 
community for addictions and in psychiatry 
SUBSTANCE USE & MISUSE 32 : 555 1997 

NOYONS ECM
Combining mapping and citation analysis for evaluative bibliometric 
purposes: A bibliometric study 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE 50 : 115 1999 

OELRICH B
A Bibliometric evaluation of publications in Urological journals among 
European Union countries between 2000-2005 
EUROPEAN UROLOGY 52 : 1238 DOI 10.1016/j.eururo.2007.06.050 2007 

OPPENHEIM C
The correlation between citation counts and the 1992 research assessment 
exercise ratings for British research in genetics, anatomy and archaeology 
JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION 53 : 477 1997 

RAAN AFJ
SCIENTOMETRICS 36 : 397 1996 

SCHOONBAERT D
Citation patterns in tropical medicine journals 
TROPICAL MEDICINE & INTERNATIONAL HEALTH 9 : 1142 2004 

SCHOONBAERT D
Citation analysis for measuring the value of scientific publications: 
Quality assessment tool or comedy of errors? 
TROPICAL MEDICINE & INTERNATIONAL HEALTH 1 : 739 1996 

SCHUBERT A
The weight of author self-citations. A fractional approach to self-
citation counting 
SCIENTOMETRICS 67 : 503 DOI 10.1556/Scient.67.2006.3.11 2006 

SCHUMMER J
The global institutionalization of nanotechnology research: A bibliometric 
approach to the assessment of science policy 
SCIENTOMETRICS 70 : 669 DOI 10.1007/s11192-007-0307-1 2007
 
SEGLEN PO
Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating 
research 
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL 314 : 498 1997 

SHADISH WR
AUTHOR JUDGMENTS ABOUT WORKS THEY CITE - 3 STUDIES FROM PSYCHOLOGY 
JOURNALS 
SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE 25 : 477 1995 

SKRAM U
Scandinavian research in anaesthesiology 1981-2000: visibility and impact 
in EU and world context 
ACTA ANAESTHESIOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA 48 : 1006 DOI 10.1111/j.1399-
6576.2004.00447.x 2004 

THIJS B
The influence of author self-citations on bibliometric meso-indicators. 
The case of European universities 
SCIENTOMETRICS 66 : 71 DOI 10.1007/s11192-006-0006-3 2005 

TSAY MY
Journals of general & internal medicine and surgery: An analysis and 
comparison of citation 
SCIENTOMETRICS 64 : 17 2005 

UGOLINI D
Oncological research overview in the European Union. A 5-year survey 
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER 39 : 1888 DOI 10.1016/S0959-8049(03)00431-3 
2003 

UGOLINI D
Assessing oncological productivity: is one method sufficient? 
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER 38 : 1121 2002 

VANRAAN AFJ
Bibliometric statistical properties of the 100 largest European research 
universities: Prevalent scaling rules in the science system 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
59 : 461 DOI 10.1002/asi.20761 2008 

WALLIN JA
BRIT J PSYCHIAT 190 : 314 2007 

WALTER G
Counting on citations: a flawed way to measure quality 
MEDICAL JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIA 178 : 280 2003 

WEBSTER TJ
A principal component analysis of the US News & World Report tier rankings 
of colleges and universities 
ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION REVIEW 20 : 235 2001 

WEINGART P
Impact of bibliometrics upon the science system: Inadvertent consequences? 
SCIENTOMETRICS 62 : 117 2005