A bibliometric analysis of worldwide trends in research productivity in microbiology

Abstract number: 1134_02_73

Vergidis P., Karavasiou A., Paraschakis K., Bliziotis I., Papastamataki P., Falagas M.

Background:

Microbiology contributes significantly to the understanding and control of infectious diseases and has always been a field of extensive research. However, the literature lacks studies estimating the quantity and quality of worldwide research production. We evaluated the contribution of different world regions in research production in the field of Microbiology.

Methods:

Using the Medline database we retrieved articles from 64 journals included in the ‘Microbiology’ category of the ‘Journal Citation Reports’ database of the Institute for Scientific Information for the period 1995–2002. The world was divided into 9 regions based on geographic, economic and scientific criteria. Using an elaborate retrieval system we obtained data on published articles from different world regions. In our evaluation we introduced an estimate of both quantity and quality of research produced from each world region per year using: (1) the total number of publications, (2) the mean impact factor of publications, and (3) the product of the above two parameters.

Results:

Data on the country of origin of the research was available for 76,118 out of 77,080 retrieved articles (98.8%). Western Europe exceeds all other world regions in research production for the period studied, with USA ranking second (table). The difference in production between these two regions increased gradually from 1995 to 2002. However, the mean impact factor for articles published in microbiology journals was highest for the USA (3.34), while it was 2.79 for Western Europe and 2.31 for the rest of the world (7 regions combined).

Number of microbiology articles multiplied by the impact factor of the corresponding journal.

Conclusions:

USA and Western Europe make up a striking 78% of the world's research production in terms of both quantity and quality. All world regions have increased their research production during the period studied. The highest increase was achieved by Asia (excluding Japan), Latin America, and Eastern Europe.