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The definition and calibration of biomedical subfields

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  • G. Lewison

    (The Wellcome Trust)

Abstract

This paper first explains the need to define subfields of science by means of “filters” that selectively retrieve papers from a database, and then describes how such filters are constructed and calibrated. Good filters should have precision and recall of the order of 90% so as to be representative of a subfield; they are created by an interactive partnership between an expert in the subject and a bibliometrician. They are based primarily on the use of title keywords, often in combination rather than singly, and specialist journals. Their calibration depends on experts marking lists of papers extracted by the filter as relevant, don't know or not relevant. This allows the actual size of a subfield to be estimated and hence the relative importance accorded to it within a major field of science. It permits organisations and countries to see their contributions to individual scientific subfields in detail.

Suggested Citation

  • G. Lewison, 1999. "The definition and calibration of biomedical subfields," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 46(3), pages 529-537, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:46:y:1999:i:3:d:10.1007_bf02459609
    DOI: 10.1007/BF02459609
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Grant Lewison, 1996. "The definition of biomedical research subfields with title keywords and application to the analysis of research outputs," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 25-36, April.
    2. Bourke, Paul & Butler, Linda, 1998. "Institutions and the map of science: matching university departments and fields of research," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 711-718, February.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Grant Lewison & Guillermo Paraje, 2004. "The classification of biomedical journals by research level," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(2), pages 145-157, June.
    2. Pedro Cosme Vieira & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2010. "Are finance, management, and marketing autonomous fields of scientific research? An analysis based on journal citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(3), pages 627-646, December.
    3. Ajay Aggarwal & Preeti Patel & Grant Lewison & Abdulkarim Ekzayez & Adam Coutts & Fouad M Fouad & Omar Shamieh & Rita Giacaman & Tezer Kutluk & Rima Abdul Khalek & Mark Lawler & Peter Boyle & Diana Sa, 2020. "The Profile of Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Analyzing the NCD burden, research outputs and international research collaboration," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, April.
    4. Grit Laudel, 2003. "Studying the brain drain: Can bibliometric methods help?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 57(2), pages 215-237, June.
    5. Grant Lewison, 2002. "Researchers" and users" perceptions of the relative standing of biomedical papers in different journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 53(2), pages 229-240, February.
    6. Bryn Lander, 2013. "Sectoral collaboration in biomedical research and development," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(1), pages 343-357, January.
    7. Elena Pallari & Grant Lewison, 2022. "Cardiovascular and cancer risk factors analysis for 2001–2020 from the global research output and European newspapers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(9), pages 5159-5174, September.
    8. Carmen López-Illescas & Ed C.M. Noyons & Martijn S. Visser & Félix De Moya-Anegón & Henk F. Moed, 2009. "Expansion of scientific journal categories using reference analysis: How can it be done and does it make a difference?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(3), pages 473-490, June.
    9. Jacqueline Leta & Grant Lewison, 2003. "The contribution of women in Brazilian science: A case study in astronomy, immunology and oceanography," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 57(3), pages 339-353, July.
    10. Rons, Nadine, 2018. "Bibliometric approximation of a scientific specialty by combining key sources, title words, authors and references," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 113-132.

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