Visibility of medical informatics regarding bibliometric indices and databases
2011

Impact of New Bibliometric Indices on Medical Informatics Visibility

publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Spreckelsen Cord, Deserno Thomas M, Spitzer Klaus

Primary Institution: Institute for Medical Informatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

Hypothesis

The new bibliometric indices may change the relative bibliometric visibility of Medical Informatics research compared to a high-impact benchmark.

Conclusion

The visibility of Medical Informatics is significantly affected by new bibliometric indices, with interdisciplinary research benefiting the most.

Supporting Evidence

  • The bibliometric visibility of Medical Informatics is influenced by the choice of citation databases.
  • Interdisciplinary research focus improves visibility in bibliometric indices.
  • New bibliometric indices provide a more nuanced view of research impact.

Takeaway

This study looks at how new ways to measure research impact can change how we see the importance of Medical Informatics. It shows that working with other fields can help make this area more visible.

Methodology

The study compared bibliometric indices and journal coverage using three sets of journals related to Medical Informatics and Internal Medicine.

Potential Biases

Potential bias due to reliance on name strings for author indices, which may misattribute citations.

Limitations

The study did not exclude special types of publication when retrieving paper counts, which may have affected the results.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1186/1472-6947-11-24

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