Patrones de comunicación e impacto de la producción científica cubana en salud pública

[EN] Objective: to characterize the Cuban pattern of scientific communication in public health in Scopus database on the basis of the output and collaboration patterns and their influence on the impact of publications.Methods: bibliometric indicators of output, visibility and collaboration taken from SCImago Institutions Rankings and SCImago Journal and Country Rank portals were used, according to Scopus database, in the Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health category in 2003-2011 period.Results: the communication pattern showed an increasing tendency of the scientific output, with great leadership of Cuban authors and poor national and international collaboration. This increase did not have a higher impact on the international community; 7.22 % of documents were published in high impact journals and 2.16 % were among excellence documents. The excellence output with leadership was almost non-existent. Seventy five percent of the output was seen in low impact journals (fourth quartile) and most of it in national journals. The English output accounted for less than 30% of the total amount but had higher impact than the Spanish articles.Conclusions: the pattern of Cuban scientific communication in public health was characterized, in which low number of English publications, of publications in high impact journals and poor national and international collaborations are factors that may influence on the low scientific impact. These results can be used to supplement the assessment of research in public health within the tenth basic function of this specialty.[ES] Objetivo: caracterizar el patrón cubano de comunicación científica en salud pública en la base de datos Scopus a partir de los patrones de producción y colaboración y su influencia en el impacto de las publicaciones.Métodos: se aplicaron indicadores bibliométricos de producción, visibilidad y colaboración extraídos de los portales SCImago Institutions Rankings y SCImago Journal and Country Rank a partir de datos de Scopus, categoría Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, período 2003-2011.Resultados: el patrón de comunicación presentó una tendencia al incremento de la producción científica con un alto liderazgo de autores cubanos y escasa colaboración nacional e internacional. Este incremento no repercutió en un mayor impacto en la comunidad internacional; el 7,22 % de los documentos aparecieron en revistas de alto impacto, y el 2,16 % entre los documentos de excelencia. La producción de excelencia con liderazgo fue casi inexistente. El 75 % de la producción se ubicó en revistas de bajo impacto (cuarto cuartil) y la mayoría en revistas nacionales. La producción en inglés representó menos del 30 % del total y alcanzaron mayor impacto que los artículos en español.Conclusiones: se caracterizó el patrón de comunicación científica cubano en salud pública, donde la poca publicación en inglés, en revistas de alto impacto y la insuficiente colaboración nacional e internacional son factores que pudieran estar influenciando en el bajo impacto científico. Estos resultados pueden utilizarse como complemento de la evaluación de la investigación en salud pública en el marco de su décima función esencial. Palabras clave: salud pública, evaluación de la investigación, funciones esenciales de la salud pública, cienciometría, bases de datos, indicadores bibliométricos, colaboración científica, revistas, SCImago Journal and Country Rank, SCImago Institutions Rankings.Peer reviewe

Influential journals in health research: a bibliometric study.

BackgroundThere is a wide range of intellectual work written about health research, which has been shaped by the evolution of diseases. This study aims to identify the leading journals over the last 25 years (1990-2014) according to a wide range of bibliometric indicators.MethodsThe study develops a bibliometric overview of all the journals that are currently indexed in Web of Science (WoS) database in any of the four categories connected to health research. The work classifies health research in nine subfields: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health Management and Economics, Health Promotion and Health Behavior, Epidemiology, Health Policy and Services, Medicine, Health Informatics, Engineering and Technology, and Primary Care.ResultsThe results indicate a wide dispersion between categories being the American Journal of Epidemiology, Environmental Health Perspectives, American Journal of Public Health, and Social Science & Medicine, the journals that have received the highest number of citations over the last 25 years. According to other indicators such as the h-index and the citations per paper, some other journals such as the Annual Review of Public Health and Medical Care, obtain better results which show the wide diversity and profiles of outlets available in the scientific community. The results are grouped and studied according to the nine subfields in order to identify the leading journals in each specific sub discipline of health.ConclusionsThe work identifies the leading journals in health research through a bibliometric approach. The analysis shows a deep overview of the results of health journals. It is worth noting that many journals have entered the WoS database during the last years, in many cases to fill some specific niche that has emerged in the literature, although the most popular ones have been in the database for a long time

Bibliometric analysis of regional Latin America's scientific output in Public Health through SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Background: In the greater framework of the essential functions of Public Health, our focus is on a systematic, objective, external evaluation of Latin American scientific output, to compare its publications in the area of Public Health with those of other major geographic zones. We aim to describe the regional distribution of output in Public Health, and the level of visibility and specialization, for Latin America; it can then be characterized and compared in the international context. Methods: The primary source of information was the Scopus database, using the category “Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health”, in the period 1996–2011. Data were obtained through the portal of SCImago Journal and Country Rank. Using a set of qualitative (citation-based), quantitative (document recount) and collaborative (authors from more than one country) indicators, we derived complementary data. The methodology serves as an analytical tool for researchers and scientific policy-makers. Results: The contribution of Latin America to the arsenal of world science lies more or less midway on the international scale in terms of its output and visibility. Revealed as its greatest strengths are the high level of specialization in Public Health and the sustained growth of output. The main limitations identified were a relative decrease in collaboration and low visibility. Conclusions: Collaboration is a key factor behind the development of scientific activity in Latin America. Although this finding can be useful for formulating research policy in Latin American countries, it also underlines the need for further research into patterns of scientific communication in this region, to arrive at more specific recommendations.We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)

Cuban scientific production in Medicine and Public Health: Scopus 2003-2011

El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la evolución del volumen y la visibilidad de la producción científica cubana en Salud Pública y en Medicina para determinar si siguen los mismos patrones de comunicación, y recomendar buenas prácticas de publicación. Se aplicaron indicadores bibliométricos de volumen, visibilidad y colaboración extraídos del portal SCImago Institutions Rankings a partir de datos de Scopus, para el área temática Medicine y la categoría Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, período 2003-2011. Cuba tiene una posición relativamente alta en los rankings de volumen de producción científica tanto en Medicina como en Salud Pública en los contextos internacionales y regionales, mientras que en impacto está entre los últimos países. La tendencia de la producción es al crecimiento, aunque en Salud Pública es más acelerado. El liderazgo es alto, pero la colaboración internacional está por debajo de lo esperado. La publicación en revistas de alto impacto (primer cuartil) y los artículos en el 10% más citado (excelencia) son escasos. Se concluye que el volumen y el impacto de la publicación no están acorde al potencial científico de salud cubana. Se recomienda incrementar la colaboración científica, la publicación de artículos en revistas de alto impacto, la preparación de los recursos humanos y seguir las recomendaciones internacionales sobre las buenas prácticas de edición y publicación científica.The aim of this study was to analyze the evolution of the quantity and visibility of Cuban scientific production in Public Health and Medicine to determine if they follow the same patterns of scientific communication and the recommended best practices for publication. Bibliometric indicators of quantity, visibility and cooperation were extracted from the SCImago Institutions Rankings website, which is based on Scopus data, in the field of Medicine and category of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health from 2003 to 2011.Cubahas a relatively high position in the rankings of scientific production in both Medicine and Public Health within the international and regional contexts, but its impact is ranked among the last countries. The production trend of both fields has increased, but public health is increasing faster. Leadership is high, but international collaboration is below expectations. Publication in high impact journals (first quartile) and articles in the set 10% most cited documents (excellence) are scarce. Thus, it may be concluded that the volume and impact of publication are not in accordance with the scientific potential of Cuban health. We recommend increasing scientific cooperation, publishing articles in high impact journals, training human resources and following the international recommendations for good editorial and scientific publication practices

How Climate Effects the Tick Vector of Lyme Disease: A Critical and Systematic Review of the Literature

Background Lyme disease (LD) is a common vector-borne disease in North America. Understanding the causes behind inter-annual fluctuations of LD incidence can help warn healthcare providers of upcoming outbreaks. Objective Identifying what specific climate variables affects the vector, Ixodes scapularis ticks, and ultimately LD incidence. Methods A systematic review was carried out to understand how climate variables affect the tick population variables that are related to LD. Results Twenty-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Risk of bias was generally rated “low” or “probably low” and quality of evidence was rated “moderate”. Strength of evidence was assessed for tick abundance, a proxy for LD. The relationship with climatic moisture was rated as “sufficient”, but was rated “inadequate” for temperature and temperature+moisture. A positive, moderate-strong relationship between prior climatic moisture and tick abundance (r=0.82; r2=0.56–0.64) was observed in 50% of studies. The relationship was observed in 75% of nymph-only abundance studies. While relationships were observed between tick abundance and temperature (70% of studies, r=(-0.89)–0.93; r2=(-0.56)–0.34) and temperature+moisture (38% of studies, 75% negative relationships), direction and magnitude could not be determined. Conclusion Higher climatic moisture (yearly or 0.5–2 years prior) increases tick abundance and, by proxy, LD incidence. Nymph-only abundance studies, a more accurate proxy, was more likely to show this relationship. Climate change is predicted to increase precipitation in Northeast US/Canada, which appears likely to increase LD incidence

Benchmarking scientific performance by decomposing leadership of Cuban and Latin American institutions in Public Health

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Scientometrics. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1831-z”.Comparative benchmarking with bibliometric indicators can be an aid in decision-making with regard to research management. This study aims to characterize scientific performance in a domain (Public Health) by the institutions of a country (Cuba), taking as reference world output and regional output (other Latin American centers) during the period 2003–2012. A new approach is used here to assess to what extent the leadership of a specific institution can change its citation impact. Cuba was found to have a high level of specialization and scientific leadership that does not match the low international visibility of Cuban institutions. This leading output appears mainly in non-collaborative papers, in national journals; publication in English is very scarce and the rate of international collaboration is very low. The Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kouri stands out, alone, as a national reference. Meanwhile, at the regional level, Latin American institutions deserving mention for their high autonomy in normalized citation would include Universidad de Buenos Aires (ARG), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (BRA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas y Te´cnicas (ARG), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (BRA) and the Centro de Pesquisas Rene Rachou (BRA). We identify a crucial aspect that can give rise to misinterpretations of data: a high share of leadership cannot be considered positive for institutions when it is mainly associated with a high proportion of non-collaborative papers and a very low level of performance. Because leadership might be questionable in some cases, we propose future studies to ensure a better interpretation of findings.This work was made possible through financing by the scholarship funds for international mobility between Andalusian and IberoAmerican Universities and the SCImago GroupPeer reviewe

The Research Space: using the career paths of scholars to predict the evolution of the research output of individuals, institutions, and nations

In recent years scholars have built maps of science by connecting the academic fields that cite each other, are cited together, or that cite a similar literature. But since scholars cannot always publish in the fields they cite, or that cite them, these science maps are only rough proxies for the potential of a scholar, organization, or country, to enter a new academic field. Here we use a large dataset of scholarly publications disambiguated at the individual level to create a map of science-or research space-where links connect pairs of fields based on the probability that an individual has published in both of them. We find that the research space is a significantly more accurate predictor of the fields that individuals and organizations will enter in the future than citation based science maps. At the country level, however, the research space and citations based science maps are equally accurate. These findings show that data on career trajectories-the set of fields that individuals have previously published in-provide more accurate predictors of future research output for more focalized units-such as individuals or organizations-than citation based science maps

Public Exposure to Outdoor Bioaerosols in Particulate Matter in Las Vegas: Daily and Seasonal Variations

Bioaerosols are airborne particles of biological origin including viruses, bacteria, pollen, fungi, and fragments of their metabolic products. Bioaerosol exposure may represent a health risk, in particular for risk groups such as immunosuppressed persons, and those suffering from allergies or respiratory diseases. Bioaerosols of sizes This study seeks to assess outdoor bioaerosol number concentrations and size distributions in Las Vegas, NV, as the first step in understanding their health risks. PM2.5 and PM10 were collected on black polycarbonate filters for 24-hour duration using MiniVol air samplers on UNLV campus in the spring and fall of 2017. Bioaerosols in these samples were counted by a direct-stain fluorescence microscopic (DS-FM) method. The size of each particle was also measured, on a daily basis, from which the bioaerosol number concentrations, were determined. DS-FM results were analyzed by statistical methods to examine if there were significant differences between spring and fall with respect to bioaerosol number concentration and size distribution. The samples were also classified by wind conditions to explain the day-to- day variability. A significant difference was found between the means of bioaerosol concentrations during spring and fall for both PM2.5 and PM10. Bioaerosols of 1 - 2.5 μm diameter were found to be the most common and peaked in PM10 samples collected during the fall. Windier conditions corresponded to higher concentrations of bioaerosols for both PM10 and PM2.5.This study could be a catalyst for further research on the bioaerosol-public health linkage, which would help refine the National Ambient Air Quality Standards to reduce adverse health outcomes