Romero, AG; et al Measuring the contribution of clinical trials to Bibliometric indicators: Citations and Journal Impact Factor (R)(Article, English) PROCEEDINGS OF ISSI 2007: 11TH INTL CONF OF THE ISSI VOLS I AND II. 2007. p.300-304

[Eugene Garfield]

Email address: agr33 at salud.madrid.org

Author(s): Romero, AG (Romero, Antonio Garcia); Cortes, JN (Cortes, Jose 
Navarrete); Escudero, C (Escudero, Cristina); Lopez, JAF (Lopez, Juan 
Antonio Femandez); Moreno, JAC (Moreno, Juan Antonio Chaichio) 

Title: Measuring the contribution of clinical trials to Bibliometric 
indicators: Citations and Journal Impact Factor (R) 

Editor(s): TorresSalinas, D; Moed, HF 

Source: PROCEEDINGS OF ISSI 2007: 11TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE 
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SCIENTOMETRICS AND INFORMETRICS, VOLS I AND II 
300-304, 2007 

Language: English 
Document Type: Article 

Conference Title: 11th International Conference of the International-
Society-for-Scientrometrics-and-Informetrics 

Conference Date: JUN 25-27, 2007 
Conference Location: Madrid, SPAIN 

Conference Sponsors: Int Soc Scientrometr & Informetr, CSIC, Minist Educ & 
Ciencia, FECYT, Comunidad Madrid, Eugene Garfield Fdn, Thomson Sci, 
Elsevier, Journal Informetr, Scopus, Ayuntamiento Madrid, Sci Metrix, Univ 
Carlos III Madrid 

Author Keywords: clinical trials; citation; impact factor 

KeyWords Plus: MEDICAL JOURNALS; PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES 

Abstract: Clinical trials play a relevant role in the development of new 
drugs. After a clinical trial has been carried out, its results are 
usually published in scientific journals. These papers receive a 
significant number of citations that can affect the scores for indicators 
such as the Journal Impact Factor (R) or the h-index. However, there is a 
criticism with this practice especially because around 3/4 of the clinical 
trials are funded by industry that can use this channel to promote their 
products. In addition, the Frascati Manual (OECD) establishes that 
clinical trials must be considered as part of product development and not 
research activities. We have established two main research questions: (i) 
Are clinical trials cited significantly more than other papers? (ii) To 
what extent are Journal Impact Factors modified by citations to clinical 
trials? We use the database from Thomson-ISI Web of Science (R) jointly 
with Medline to answer these questions. Our preliminary results suggest 
the following remarks. Firstly, the clinical trials are significantly more 
cited than other papers. Secondly, the Impact Factors are significantly 
reduced if we do not take into account the clinical trials. We believe 
that this information could be useful for the Research Policy decision 
makers. 

Addresses: Agencia Lain Entralgo, Madrid, 28013 Spain. 

Publisher Name: INT SOC SCIENTOMETRICS & INFORMETRICS-ISSI 
Publisher Address: KATHOLIEKE UNIV LEUVEN, FACULTEIT E T E W, DEKENSTRAAT 
2, LEUVEN, B-3000, BELGIUM 

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