GMS Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie (Dec 2021)
Publikationsaktivität und Zitationshäufigkeit der in Deutschland tätigen Epidemiologen
Abstract
Introduction: Up to now, a more detailed analysis of the publication activities and citations of German epidemiology was hardly possible because the data required for this and, above all, the assignment of the authors to the subject “epidemiology” was not available. In the Stanford list of the 2% most frequently cited scientists published in 2020, individual information on the publication activities and citation indicators is made available for the first time. These are evaluated for epidemiologists working in Germany.Methods: The indicators “number of citations” (n-citations), “Hirsch index” (h-index) and “composite citation indicator” (c-score) are considered, the latter adjusting for co-authorship. The Stanford list of 2% includes around 160,000 scientists worldwide (citation class P1). In addition, further citation classes P2 to P9 with increasing citation frequency are considered, with the highest class P9 comprising the frequently cited scientists worldwide. The analysis focuses on the citations of epidemiologist compared to scientists from all disciplines and scientists who are assigned to medicine or health sciences in Germany.Results: For “all years” the citation class P1 contains approx. 8,800 scientists in German research institutions. These include around 3,600 medical/health scientists and 54 epidemiologists. The proportion of epidemiologists among German medical/health scientists is 1.5% in P1. It increases almost linearly in the higher citation classes P2 to P9 and reaches 18.2% in P9 for the “h-index” and the “number of citations”. In contrast, the “composite citation indicator” reaches a maximum of 5.6% in P8. If you only look at the citations for the year 2019, which better reflect the current development, you will find 68 (instead of 54) epidemiologists in P1, and their citation frequency increases even more, and the h-index in P9 for epidemiology reaches as much as 27,3% (instead of 18.2%). Comparison of epidemiologists with all scientists in Germany shows a similar pattern.Conclusion: The number of scientists working in epidemiology is very small compared to the total number of scientists in medicine or health sciences or even in all research areas in Germany. It is noticeable that the proportion of epidemiologists among the most frequently cited scientists is high, which reflects an above-average citation frequency. It should be noted that many of the frequently cited papers are based on large (often population-based) individual studies or international consortia of studies. Therefore, results with great statistical significance can be achieved, so that these publications appear in high-ranking journals. These studies usually have many co-authors. However, also with the “c-score”, which adjusts for the co-authorship, the strong position of epidemiology in the publication process is clearly recognizable, albeit less pronounced than with indices which give the same weight to all positions of the list of authors. Overall, German epidemiology plays a remarkably strong role in terms of citations.
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