Development of biomedical publications on ametropia research in PubMed from 1845 to 2010:a bibliometric analysis

We have carried out a bibliometric analysis on the development of ametropia literature to determine its growth rule and tendency, and to provide the basis for the problems related to ametropia research. Literatures that contained the descriptors of ametropia in title or paper published before Nov. 10, 2010 in PubMed databases (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed) were selected. As bibliometric indicators of ametropia, biomedical journals referring to ophthalmology by ISSN were calculated. The principal bibliometric indicators: Price's and Bradford's laws were applied on the increase or dispersion of scientific literature, the participation index of languages and the journals. By means of manual coding, literatures were classified according to documents study and statistical analysis. The literatures cited in ametropia, astigmatism, myopia and hypermetropia had accumulated to 26475, which consists of Review (n =1560), Randomized Controlled Trial (n =776), Practice Guideline (n =10), Meta-Analysis (n=23), Letter (n=1222), Editorial (n =328), Clinical Trial ( n =1726) and Others (n=20830); and Humans (n=23073), Animals (n=1434) and Others ( n=1968). 1136 literatures were included in PubMed Central, 22384 in MEDLINE and 2955 in others. The ametropia literatures rose every 5 years which of the ametropia-year cumulated amount of the literatures had three periods: before 1900, slowly increasing from 1901 to 1950, rapidly rising from 1951 to 2010 (increased approximate exponentiation exponent). Sixty kinds of languages were listed in PubMed databases, of which English was dominant for aborting to ametropia research documents before 2010 (77.32%, 20471/26475). The document language of top eight accounted for 95.58% (English, German, French, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Chinese), and others for 4.42% (1171/26475). The SCI database includes 48 ophthalmologic journals and the impact factor of 39 journals is >= 1 on Thomson-Reuters in 2010. Of 48 ophthalmologic journals, there were 14785 documents (55.85%) of ametropia, astigmatism, myopia, and hypermetropia. Others were without exception. The bibliometric analysis results show that ametropia literature are increased progressively, approximate exponentiation Exponent during 1951-2010. In addition, ametropia research has become more popular since nearly half century.

Bibliometric analysis on retinoblastoma literatures in PubMed during 1929 to 2010

AIM: To determine the growth rule and tendency of retinoblastoma (Rb) literature, and to provide the basis for research of diagnosis, treatment and on Rb. METHODS: Bibliometric analyses were carried out on Rb literatures which contain the descriptors of Rb in their titles or texts from 1929 to 2010 in PubMed database (www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/Pubmed). The biomedical journals referring to Rb by using bibliometric indicators were calculated. The principal bibliometric indicators, i.e, Price's and Bradford's laws to the increase or distribution of scientific literature, the participation index of languages and the journals were applied. By means of manual coding, Rb documents were classified according to documents studied and to statistical analysis. RESULTS: During 1929-2010, there were 16162 literatures in the PubMed database including the word Rb. According to the literature type, it includes Review (n=2026), Randomized Controlled Trial (n = 7), Practice guideline (n = 3), meta-analysis (n = 4), letter (n = 215), editorial (n = 98), clinical trial (n = 115) and others (n = 13694). By the statistical analysis, its equation is near power index (y = 3.0477 x(2.6088), R(2) = 0.9666). From 1929 to 2010, Rb literatures in English were primarily dominant (90.71%) and the amount of the literature in Chinese ranked the fourth (1.37%). By searching PubMed, 1420 (8.8%) literatures covered were from 41 of 48 ophthalmological, and 406 (2.5%) literatures from 44 of 86 pediatrics journals that correlated with retinoblastoma (SCI-indexed). The data showed that the literatures of Rb were gradually increasing year by year and were approximate near power index during 1929-2010, and the document publishes published mainly in ophthalmological journals, and in English (90.71%), and showing that the study on Rb is a popular subject in the last half century. CONCLUSION: The literatures of Rb are gradually increasing, mainly English in ophthalmologic journals.