Carcinogenesis Advance Access published online on June 4, 2007
Carcinogenesis, doi:10.1093/carcin/bgm129
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A Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Production in Cancer Molecular Epidemiology
1 Dipartimento di Oncologia, Biologia e Genetica, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
2 Units of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, National Cancer Research Institute, Genoa, Italy
3 Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, New York, New York, USA
4 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cincinnati, OH, USA
5 Molecular Epidemiology, National Cancer Research Institute, Genoa, Italy
Correspondence: Ugolini Donatella, Dipartimento di Oncologia, Biologia e Genetica, Istituto Nazionale per la ricerca sul cancro, Largo R. Benzi, 10, 16132 Genova, Italy, Phone: +39 010 5600071, Fax: +39 010 5600501, E-mail: donatella.ugolini{at}istge.it
Objectives: The main purpose of this research was to compare the scientific production in the field of cancer molecular epidemiology, among countries and to evaluate the publication trend between 1995 and 2004.
Methods: A bibliometric study was carried out searching the PubMed database with a combined search strategy based on the keywords listed in the Medical Subject Headings [MeSH] and a free text search. Only articles from a representative sub-set of 92 journals - accounting for 80% of papers identified –were selected for the analysis, and the resulting 13,240 abstracts were manually checked according to a list of basic inclusion criteria. The study evaluated the number of publications and the impact factor (IF) (mean and sum), absolute and normalized by country population and gross domestic product (GDP).
Results: A total of 3,842 citations were finally selected for the analysis. Thirty-seven per cent came from the EU (UK, Germany, Italy, France and Sweden ranking at the top), 31.6% from the US, and 9.7% from Japan. The highest mean IF was reported for Canada (6.3), US (5.9), Finland (5.8), and UK (5.2). Finland, Sweden, and Israel had the best ratio between scientific production and available resources. Genetic polymorphism, glutathione transferase, breast neoplasm, risk factors, case-control studies, and polymerase chain reaction were the most used keywords in each of the sub-groups evaluated, although inclusion criteria may have privileged studies dealing with exogenous carcinogens.
Conclusion: Cancer molecular epidemiology is an expanding area attracting an increasing interest. The identification of an operative definition is a necessary condition to give to this discipline a unique scientific identity.
Key Words: Epidemiology • molecular – Neoplasms – Publications – Bibliometrics
Received March 13, 2007; revised May 15, 2007; accepted May 20, 2007.