IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v72y2007i3d10.1007_s11192-007-1573-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The difference between highly and poorly cited medical articles in the journal Lancet

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald N. Kostoff

    (Office of Naval Research)

Abstract

Characteristics of highly and poorly cited research articles (with Abstracts) published in The Lancet over a three-year period were examined. These characteristics included numerical (numbers of authors, references, citations, Abstract words, journal pages), organizational (first author country, institution type, institution name), and medical (medical condition, study approach, study type, sample size, study outcome). Compared to the least cited articles, the most cited have three to five times the median number of authors per article, fifty to six hundred percent greater median number of references per article, 110 to 490 times the median number of citations per article, 2.5 to almost seven times the median number of Abstract words per article, and 2.5 to 3.5 times the median number of pages per article. The most cited articles’ medical themes emphasize breast cancer, diabetes, coronary circulation, and HIV immune system problems, focusing on large-scale clinical trials of drugs. The least cited articles’ themes essentially do not address the above medical issues, especially from a clinical trials perspective, cover a much broader range of topics, and have much more emphasis on social and reproductive health issues. Finally, for sample sizes of clinical trials specifically, those of the most cited articles ranged from a median of about 1500 to 2500, whereas those of the least cited articles ranged from 30 to 40.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald N. Kostoff, 2007. "The difference between highly and poorly cited medical articles in the journal Lancet," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(3), pages 513-520, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:72:y:2007:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-007-1573-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1573-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-007-1573-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-007-1573-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stanley D. Smith, 2004. "Is an Article in a Top Journal a Top Article?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 33(4), Winter.
    2. Christian Schloegl & Wolfgang G. Stock, 2004. "Impact and relevance of LIS journals: A scientometric analysis of international and German‐language LIS journals—Citation analysis versus reader survey," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 55(13), pages 1155-1168, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bornmann, Lutz & Haunschild, Robin & Mutz, Rüdiger, 2020. "Should citations be field-normalized in evaluative bibliometrics? An empirical analysis based on propensity score matching," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    2. André Andrian Padial & João Carlos Nabout & Tadeu Siqueira & Luis Mauricio Bini & José Alexandre Felizola Diniz-Filho, 2010. "Weak evidence for determinants of citation frequency in ecological articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(1), pages 1-12, October.
    3. Didegah, Fereshteh & Thelwall, Mike, 2013. "Which factors help authors produce the highest impact research? Collaboration, journal and document properties," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 861-873.
    4. Belkhouja, Mustapha & Yoon, Hyungseok (David), 2018. "How does openness influence the impact of a scholar’s research? An analysis of business scholars’ citations over their careers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10), pages 2037-2047.
    5. Mingyang Wang & Shi Li & Guangsheng Chen, 2017. "Detecting latent referential articles based on their vitality performance in the latest 2 years," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1557-1571, September.
    6. Uddin, Shahadat & Khan, Arif, 2016. "The impact of author-selected keywords on citation counts," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 1166-1177.
    7. Fuyuki Yoshikane, 2013. "Multiple regression analysis of a patent’s citation frequency and quantitative characteristics: the case of Japanese patents," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(1), pages 365-379, July.
    8. Ehsan Mohammadi & Mike Thelwall, 2013. "Assessing non-standard article impact using F1000 labels," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(2), pages 383-395, November.
    9. Juan Xie & Kaile Gong & Ying Cheng & Qing Ke, 2019. "The correlation between paper length and citations: a meta-analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 763-786, March.
    10. John N. Parker & Stefano Allesina & Christopher J. Lortie, 2013. "Characterizing a scientific elite (B): publication and citation patterns of the most highly cited scientists in environmental science and ecology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 469-480, February.
    11. Hou, Li & Wu, Qiang & Xie, Yundong, 2024. "Does open identity of peer reviewers positively relate to citations?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    12. Li, Xin & Ma, Xiaodi & Feng, Ye, 2024. "Early identification of breakthrough research from sleeping beauties using machine learning," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    13. Liang, Liming & Zhong, Zhen & Rousseau, Ronald, 2015. "Uncited papers, uncited authors and uncited topics: A case study in library and information science," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 50-58.
    14. Antonio García Romero & José Navarrete Cortés & Cristina Escudero & Juan Antonio Fernández López & Juan Antonio Chaichío Moreno, 2009. "Measuring the influence of clinical trials citations on several bibliometric indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(3), pages 747-760, September.
    15. Michael S. Patterson & Simon Harris, 2009. "The relationship between reviewers’ quality-scores and number of citations for papers published in the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology from 2003–2005," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(2), pages 343-349, August.
    16. María Bordons & Javier Aparicio & Rodrigo Costas, 2013. "Heterogeneity of collaboration and its relationship with research impact in a biomedical field," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(2), pages 443-466, August.
    17. Mike Thelwall, 2016. "Interpreting correlations between citation counts and other indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(1), pages 337-347, July.
    18. Thomas R. Anderson & Robin K. S. Hankin & Peter D. Killworth, 2008. "Beyond the Durfee square: Enhancing the h-index to score total publication output," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 76(3), pages 577-588, September.
    19. Li, Xin & Wen, Yang & Jiang, Jiaojiao & Daim, Tugrul & Huang, Lucheng, 2022. "Identifying potential breakthrough research: A machine learning method using scientific papers and Twitter data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    20. Sepideh Fahimifar & Khadijeh Mousavi & Fatemeh Mozaffari & Marcel Ausloos, 2023. "Identification of the most important external features of highly cited scholarly papers through 3 (i.e., Ridge, Lasso, and Boruta) feature selection data mining methods," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 3685-3712, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Currie, Russell R. & Pandher, Gurupdesh S., 2011. "Finance journal rankings and tiers: An Active Scholar Assessment methodology," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 7-20, January.
    2. Walters, William H., 2017. "Do subjective journal ratings represent whole journals or typical articles? Unweighted or weighted citation impact?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 730-744.
    3. Nianhang Xu & Winnie P. H. Poon & Kam C. Chan, 2014. "Contributing Institutions and Authors in International Business Research: A Quality-Based Assessment," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(5), pages 735-755, October.
    4. Meyer, Matthias & Waldkirch, Rüdiger W. & Duscher, Irina & Just, Alexander, 2018. "Drivers of citations: An analysis of publications in “top” accounting journals," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 24-46.
    5. Daniel E. O'Leary, 2009. "Downloads and citations in Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1‐2), pages 21-31, January.
    6. Kam C. Chan & Anna Fung & Hung-Gay Fung & Jot Yau, 2016. "A Citation Analysis of Business Ethics Research: A Global Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 557-573, July.
    7. Remigiusz Sapa, 2007. "International contribution to library and information science in Poland: A bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 71(3), pages 473-493, June.
    8. Holsapple, Clyde W. & Lee-Post, Anita, 2010. "Behavior-based analysis of knowledge dissemination channels in operations management," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 167-178, June.
    9. Currie, Russell R. & Pandher, Gurupdesh S., 2020. "Finance journal rankings: Active scholar assessment revisited," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    10. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    11. Nicholas V. Olijnyk, 2015. "An algorithmic historiography of the Ebola research specialty: mapping the science behind Ebola," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 623-643, October.
    12. Emanuel Kulczycki & Ewa A. Rozkosz, 2017. "Does an expert-based evaluation allow us to go beyond the Impact Factor? Experiences from building a ranking of national journals in Poland," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(1), pages 417-442, April.
    13. Liao, Chien Hsiang & Yen, Hsiuju Rebecca, 2012. "Quantifying the degree of research collaboration: A comparative study of collaborative measures," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 27-33.
    14. Chan, Kam C. & Chang, Chih-Hsiang & Chang, Yuanchen, 2013. "Ranking of finance journals: Some Google Scholar citation perspectives," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 241-250.
    15. Antonio Ferrara & Andrea Bonaccorsi, 2016. "How robust is journal rating in Humanities and Social Sciences? Evidence from a large-scale, multi-method exercise," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 279-291.
    16. Roberto Fernández‐Gago & Laura Cabeza‐García & José‐Luis Godos‐Díez, 2020. "How significant is corporate social responsibility to business research?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1809-1817, July.
    17. Wai Ching Poon & Gareth D. Leeves, 2017. "Is there gender gap unequivocally? Evidence from research output 1958–2008," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1687-1701, June.
    18. Ehsan Mohammadi & Mike Thelwall & Stefanie Haustein & Vincent Larivière, 2015. "Who reads research articles? An altmetrics analysis of Mendeley user categories," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(9), pages 1832-1846, September.
    19. A. Abrizah & A. N. Zainab & K. Kiran & R. G. Raj, 2013. "LIS journals scientific impact and subject categorization: a comparison between Web of Science and Scopus," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 721-740, February.
    20. Millet-Reyes, Benedicte, 2013. "The impact of citations in International Finance," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 129-139.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:72:y:2007:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-007-1573-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.