Hepatology at the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara, Fray Antonio Alcalde (HCGFAA) in the last 25 years and its international scientific productivity

Abstract

Introduction and Objectives: With the creation of the Doctorate Program in Molecular Biology in Medicine, the first clinical and molecular hepatology research studies began at the HCGFAA in 1998. SCOPUS uses the H-Index to assess researchers' quality and scientific productivity; however, this parameter does not evaluate co-authorship, first author, or corresponding author. This bibliometric study aimed to evaluate the scientific productivity of the Department of Genomic Medicine in Hepatology-HCGFAA (Jalisco) and its current ranking in Mexico. Materials and methods: We searched the CONAHCYT database and selected the active hepatology researchers according to the platform's classification categories (July 2022). Subsequently, we recollected SCOPUS's H-Index and estimated the co-author's number (collaboration index) per article, first author and corresponding author. Results: We identified 31 hepatology researchers in the National Researchers' System (SNI): 18 level I, 5 level II, and 7 level III categories. A 78% of them are located in: Mexico City (13), Jalisco (7), and Nuevo Leon (4). The average number of scientific publications/H-Index was 20/7.6 in the SNI researchers' level I, SNI II 24/9.4, and SNI III 142/31. A 29% of SNI I researchers' publications belonged to the first author and corresponding author articles, SNI II had 36%, and SNI III had 43%. The maximum number of authors per article ranged from 3 to 1055. The average of international citations in the SNI I category was 271, SNI II 619, and SNI III 3566. Conclusions: The data shows a consolidation of hepatology at HCGFAA in Jalisco, as well as in Mexico City and Nuevo Leon. The bibliometric parameters allowed us to evaluate the researcher's contribution as the first or corresponding author. It also revealed that cases with many co-authorships and highly cited articles in first-quartile journals are related to the consensus, pharmaceutical industry, and epidemiological studies.