The potential effects and use of Chinese herbal medicine pine pollen (Pinus Pollen) : a bibliometric analysis of pharmacological and clinical studies

Objective: To conduct a comprehensive literature search and bibliometric analysis to identify the breadth and volume of pharmacological and clinical studies on pine pollen (Pinus Pollen), and to identify the potential effects and use of pine pollen. Methods: Three Chinese electronic databases and two English electronic databases were searched for pharmacological and clinical studies on pine pollen. Data were extracted and analyzed and included: publication year, authors, study type, pharmacological research topics or clinical diseases/conditions, usage and type of preparation, authors’ conclusions and adverse effects. Results: Of 239 publications identified, 180 were pharmacological studies, 37 were clinical trials and 22 were reviews. Numbers of publications increased particularly from 2004 onwards. The top 10 most frequent topics in pharmacological studies were immune regulation, anti-senility, anti-oxidation, liver protection, inhibiting prostate hyperplasia, inhibiting tumor cell proliferation, lowering blood glucose, lowering blood lipids, anti-fatigue, and improving intestinal function. The top 10 most frequent clinical diseases treated or where pine pollen was used as an adjuvant were bedsores, diaper dermatitis, hyperlipidemia, oral mucositis, eczema, hyperplasia of prostate, hypertension, prostatitis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and radiodermatitis. Eight trials reported no adverse events associated with pine pollen, one reported mild gastrointestinal reactions but symptoms disappeared without special management. Conclusion: There have been an increasing number of publications on pine pollen during the past 20 years. Pharmacological studies have shown many potential benefits and clinical studies have indicated some positive effects when it is either used as a single herb or as an adjuvant to treat disease. Its use as a topical agent especially for skin diseases was notable

Forest Ecosystem Services: An Analysis of Worldwide Research

The relevance of forests to sustain human well-being and the serious threats they face have led to a notable increase of research works on forest ecosystem services during the last few years. This paper analyses the worldwide research dynamics on forest ecosystem services in the period from 1998 to 2017. A bibliometric analysis of 4284 articles was conducted. The results showed that the number of published research articles has especially increased during the last five years. In total, 68.63% of the articles were published in this period. This research line experiences a growing trend superior to the general publishing trend on forest research. In spite of this increase, its relative significance within the forest research is still limited. The most productive subject areas corresponded to Environmental Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences and Social Sciences Economic topics are understudied. The scientific production is published in a wide range of journals. The three first publishing countries are United States, China and the United Kingdom. The most productive authors are attached to diverse research centres and their contributions are relatively recent. A high level of international cooperation has been observed between countries, institutions and authors. The findings of this study are useful for researchers since they give them an overview of the worldwide research trends on forest ecosystem services

COVID-19 publications: Database coverage, citations, readers, tweets, news, Facebook walls, Reddit posts

© 2020 The Authors. Published by MIT Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00066The COVID-19 pandemic requires a fast response from researchers to help address biological, medical and public health issues to minimize its impact. In this rapidly evolving context, scholars, professionals and the public may need to quickly identify important new studies. In response, this paper assesses the coverage of scholarly databases and impact indicators during 21 March to 18 April 2020. The rapidly increasing volume of research, is particularly accessible through Dimensions, and less through Scopus, the Web of Science, and PubMed. Google Scholar’s results included many false matches. A few COVID-19 papers from the 21,395 in Dimensions were already highly cited, with substantial news and social media attention. For this topic, in contrast to previous studies, there seems to be a high degree of convergence between articles shared in the social web and citation counts, at least in the short term. In particular, articles that are extensively tweeted on the day first indexed are likely to be highly read and relatively highly cited three weeks later. Researchers needing wide scope literature searches (rather than health focused PubMed or medRxiv searches) should start with Dimensions (or Google Scholar) and can use tweet and Mendeley reader counts as indicators of likely importance

Worldwide Research Trends on Wheat and Barley: A Bibliometric Comparative Analysis

Grain cereals such as wheat, barley, rice, and maize are the nutritional basis of humans and animals worldwide. Thus, these crop plants are essential in terms of global food security. We conducted a bibliometric assessment of scientific documents and patents related to wheat and barley through the Scopus database. The number of documents published per year, their affiliation and corresponding scientific areas, the publishing journals, document types and languages were metricized. The main keywords included in research publications concerning these crops were also analysed globally and clustered in thematic groups. In the case of keywords related to agronomy or genetics and molecular biology, we considered documents dated up to 1999, and from 2000 to 2018, separately. Comparison of the results obtained for wheat and barley revealed some remarkable different trends, for which the underlying reasons are further discussed

The Sustainable Management of Metals: An Analysis of Global Research

The objective of this study was to analyze research trends in the field of sustainable management of metals on a global level between 1993 and 2017. To do so, a bibliometric analysis was carried out on a total of 6967 articles. The results revealed the growing interest in this research field, particularly over the last five year-period during which 63% of all articles were published. The three journals in which most articles had been published were the Journal of Cleaner Production, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, and Chemsuschem. The countries that published the most articles were China, the United States, India, Germany, and the United Kingdom. A sizeable network of collaboration has been established between countries for the joint publication of studies. The main lines of research have been focused on metal decontamination in water and soil, waste management oriented towards reuse and recycling, and the innovation of processes for cleaner and more efficient production. The results revealed the need for comprehensive studies that integrate different disciplines within the same analytical framework, and to promote research that contributes to the different dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social)

BIBLIOMETIRC ANALYSIS OF SICKLE CELL ANAEMIA LITERATURE ON NIGERIA LISTED IN PUBMED BETWEEN 2006 AND 2016

This paper analysed Sickle cell anaemia literature on Nigeria listed in PubMed to understand the research performance of medical researchers on sickle cell anaemia literature on Nigeria. Data covering the period of 2006-2016 were collected from the PubMed, a citation database developed by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).The search strategy used was ((sickle cell anaemia) OR (sickle cell anemia)) AND Nigeria AND (( 2006/01/01 [PDat] : 2016/12/31 [PDat])), bearing in mind variance in spelling (anaemia and anemia), which retrieved 326 sickle cell literature on Nigeria between 2006 and 2016. Article productivity increased between 2006 and 2010. However, there was a drastic drop in article publication between 2010 and 2011 as well as between 2013 and 2015. The degree of collaboration ranged between 0.85 and 1. University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria, had the highest number of contributing authors. Authors published more in journals located in Nigeria, with Nigeria Journal of Clinical Practice being the most prolific publication outlet for authors publishing sickle cell anaemia literature on Nigeria

Analysis and Visualization Data of Covid-19 Based on Scopus

This study analyzes the amount of documentation about COVID-19 by year, publication source, institution, country, type of document, and funding agency and maps it based on keywords. The research data was obtained through the Scopus database with the keywords novel corona virus or corona virus 2019 or covid 2019 and covid 19, which were further explored. For mapping, the Covid 19 data, the VOSviewer software was used. The findings show that there are 723 covid 19 documents, 569 of which can be accessed openly and 154 can be accessed by subscription. Most of the COVID-19 data published in the Journal of The American College of Radiology with the subject categories discussed were radiology, nuclear medicine, and imaging. Huazhong University of Science and Technology is the most productive institution in producing covid 19 data. China is the country that produces the most covid data. The most type of Covid 19 data documents are articles with the most medicine subject category. Most of the funding sponsors were awarded by the National Science Foundation of China. The visualization of the covid 19 data was mapped into 5 clusters with the most groups from each cluster being cluster 1 being severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, cluster 2 coronavirus disease 2019, cluster 3 fever (fever), cluster 4 epidemiology, cluster 5 disease severity

Chinese journals: a guide for epidemiologists.

Chinese journals in epidemiology, preventive medicine and public health contain much that is of potential international interest. However, few non-Chinese speakers are acquainted with this literature. This article therefore provides an overview of the contemporary scene in Chinese biomedical journal publication, Chinese bibliographic databases and Chinese journals in epidemiology, preventive medicine and public health. The challenge of switching to English as the medium of publication, the development of publishing bibliometric data from Chinese databases, the prospect of an Open Access publication model in China, the issue of language bias in literature reviews and the quality of Chinese journals are discussed. Epidemiologists are encouraged to search the Chinese bibliographic databases for Chinese journal articles.Published versio

Evidence Base of Clinical Studies on Qi Gong: A Bibliometric Analysis

© 2020 The Authors Objective: This bibliometric study aimed to systematically and comprehensively summarize the volume, breadth and evidence for clinical research on Qigong. And this bibliometric analysis also can provide the evidence of this field. Design: Bibliometric analysis. Methods: All types of primary and secondary studies on humans were included: systematic reviews, randomized clinical trials, non-randomized controlled clinical studies, case series and case reports. Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, Chinese Academic Conference Papers Database and Chinese Dissertation Database, PubMed and the Cochrane Library were searched from the date of inception to December 10, 2018. Bibliometric information, such as publication information, disease/condition, Qigong intervention and research results were extracted and analyzed. Results: A total of 886 clinical studies were identified: including 47 systematic reviews, 705 randomized clinical trials, 116 non-randomized controlled clinical studies, 12 case series and 6 case reports. The studies were conducted in 14 countries. The top 15 diseases/conditions studied were: diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, stroke, cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, insomnia, knee osteoarthritis, low back pain, and osteoporosis, Coronary heart disease, breast cancer, periarthritis of shoulder, depression, metabolic syndrome. Of the various Qigong exercises reported in these 886 clinical studies, Ba Duan Jin was the most frequently researched in 492 (55.5%) studies, followed by Health Qigong 107 (12.1%), Dao Yin Shu 85 (9.6%), Wu Qin Xi 67 (7.6%) and Yi Jin Jing 66 (7.4%). The most frequently used comparisons in randomized trials were maintaining normal way of life unchanged 149 (18.1%), the remaining controls included conventional treatment, mainly western medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, health education, psychological therapy, Yoga, Tai Chi and other non-drug therapy. The most frequently reported outcomes were physical function, quality of life, symptoms, pain and mental health indicators. Beneficial results from practicing Qigong were reported in 97% of studies. Conclusions: Qigong research publications have been increasing gradually. Reports on study types, participants, Qigong Intervention, and outcomes are diverse and inconsistent. There is an urgent need to develop a set of reporting standards for various interventions of Qigong. Further trials of high methodological quality with sufficient sample size and real world studies are needed to verify the effects of Qigong in health and disease management

A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization of the Scientific Publications of Universities: A Study of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences during 1992-2018

The evaluation of universities from different perspectives is important for their scientific development. Analyzing the scientific papers of a university under the bibliometric approach is one main evaluative approach. The aim of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis and visualization of papers published by Hamadan University of Medical Science (HUMS), Iran, during 1992-2018. This study used bibliometric and visualization techniques. Scopus database was used for data collection. 3753 papers were retrieved by applying Affiliation Search in Scopus advanced search section. Excel and VOSviewer software packages were used for data analysis and bibliometric indicator extraction. An increasing trend was seen in the numbers of HUMS's published papers and received citations. The highest rate of collaboration in national level was with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Internationally, HUMS's researchers had the highest collaboration with the authors from the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, respectively. All highly-cited papers were published in high level Q1 journals. Term clustering demonstrated four main clusters: epidemiological studies, laboratory studies, pharmacological studies, and microbiological studies. The results of this study can be beneficial to the policy-makers of this university. In addition, researchers and bibliometricians can use this study as a pattern for studying and visualizing the bibliometric indicators of other universities and research institutions