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Article deals with evaluation method of scientific works by means of Citation Indexes and Impact Factor which are produced by Institute for Scientific Information of Philadelphia. It criticizes criteria of the usage of Impact factor and way of research workers evaluation.
In response to the lack of readily available multimedia rich medical knowledge sources to support medical education and patient care, we designed and implemented a web-based video publishing platform. In order to promote the development of high-quality, up-to-date educational content, we have devised a scalable structure that allows online submissions and continuous updating of video and accompanying textual descriptions. Our goal is to enable experts in varied medical domains to collaborate in the construction of a video library using an intuitive web-based interface. Neurologists at Stanford built a well-annotated neurology video collection that initially emphasized childhood and adult movement disorders. The collection may be accessed either as a stand-alone resource or as part of the Stanford Skolar MD, an integrated online medical knowledge provider. This manuscript discusses the design framework and implementation details of structured media content development. We present examples illustrating media data collection, content indexing using UMLS concepts, media storage, and web presentation.
Four adverse drug effect abstracting services, Adverse Drug Reaction Index, Clin-Alert, Current Drug Experience Literature, and Reactions were evaluated. Each service was evaluated in terms of the total number of articles cited, cost per citation, lag time, and time requirements for searches. The Adverse Drug Reaction Index was found to retrieve the most total and unique citations. Its potential disadvantages included the longest lag time and a high overall cost for the system. Reactions provided an alternative to this service, although it provided fewer total and unique citations. However, its overall costs is less, and the lag time is shorter. Clin-Alert ad Current Drug Experience Literature provided significantly fewer citations than the other services. Both services did retrieve unique citations.
Automated subject indexing and the coordination of indexing with natural language search interfaces could provide solutions to some of the information retrieval problems facing the medical field today. This paper describes the construction of such an interface using semantic net expansion and a clinical neuroscience thesaurus, which provided a specialized vocabulary for use in both automated indexing of MEDLINE articles and an "intelligent" front-end for database searching. Though reviewed by a domain expert, the thesaurus was successfully built by nonexperts utilizing a set of rules. We report on testing thesaurus content and semantic net accuracy using a database of selected MEDLINE article abstracts.
The purpose of this study was to measure the efficiency of simple searches in retrieving controlled evidence about specific primary health care quality improvement interventions and their effects. Searches were conducted to retrieve evidence on seven interventions and seven effect variables. Specific words and the closest Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) recommended by professional librarians were used to search the MEDLINE database. Searches were restricted to the MeSH publication type "randomized controlled trial." Two reviewers independently judged retrieved citations for relevancy to the selected interventions and effects. In selecting MeSH terms, the average agreement among librarians was 64.3% (+/-26.1) for interventions and 57.1% (+/-19.9) for effects. Analysis of the 755 retrieved reports showed that MeSH term searches had an overall recall rate of 58% while the same rate for textword searches was significantly lower (11%, p < .001). The difference in overall precision rates was nonsignificant (26% versus 33%, p = .15). In the group of MeSH searches, overall precision and recall was significantly lower for effects than for interventions (12% versus 52%, p < .001 and 41% versus 69%, p < .001). Two textwords appeared in more than 25% of the benchmark collection: reminder (25.7%) and cost (25.0%). The results of this study indicate that information needs for health care quality improvement cannot be met by simple literature searches. Certain MeSH terms and combinations of textwords yield moderately efficient recall and precision in literature searches for health care quality improvement. Clinicians and physician executives gaining direct access to bibliographic database could probably be better served by structured indexing of critical aspects of randomized controlled clinical trials: design, sample, interventions, and effects.
Research on the literature of dietetics, apart from the broader field of nutrition, has not been reported in the literature. The purpose of this bibliometric study was to identify the core journals of dietetics and to determine the extent of indexing coverage for these journals. The study was conducted as part of a larger project, the Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health, sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association. Citations appearing in three journals between 1995 and 1997 were analyzed by the methodology common to studies in the project. Results revealed that dietetic literature relies heavily on journal literature and on those journals that are from associated health sciences fields. Of the indexing services examined, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica and MEDLINE provided the most complete coverage of the literature. The study's findings have implications for those involved with the literature of dietetics.
A test of the performance of an automatic indexing procedure based on the processing of the full text of medical journal articles shows results comparable to those achieved using Excerpta Medica and MEDLARS manual indexing. A file of nineteen documents was partitioned by sixteen questions, for each of which two search strategies in each indexing language were formulated. The results were compared to ideal answers chosen by a fourth-year medical student who read the entire file and posed the questions.
The concept of MEDLARS as a publication/retrieval system was the product of several forces operating during the fifteen years prior to 1961. These included the overriding imperative of medical index publication, the Welch Medical Indexing Research Project, a drive to master the theory of medical subject headings, the innovative impact of coordinate indexing, and the confidence produced by the success of the Index Mechanization Project. By virtue of this experience, MEDLARS became a prime example of a well-understood enterprise seeking a computer application, a circumstance which augured of its success.
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BACKGROUND: Injury in the home is extremely common, accounting for around a third of all injuries. The majority of injuries of children under five and people aged 75 and over occur at home. Multi-factorial injury prevention interventions have been shown to reduce injuries in the home. However, few studies have focussed specifically on the impact of physical adaptations to the home environment and the effectiveness of such intervention needs to be ascertained. OBJECTIVES: To review the evidence for the effect on injuries of modification of the home environment with a primary focus on interventions to reduce physical hazards. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the following databases: APId, ASSIA, British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Cochrane Library databases, Dissertation Abstracts, EMBASE, HealthSTAR, ICONDA, ISI Science (and Social Science) Citation Index, MEDLINE, National Research Register, PREMEDLINE, SIGLE and Urbadisk. Conference proceedings and reference lists were scanned. Experts in the field and trialists were contacted. Searches were not restricted to English language. Handsearching of relevant journals was not conducted. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials, non-randomised controlled trials, controlled before-and-after studies and interrupted time series studies. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: All abstracts were screened by two reviewers for relevance, outcome and design. Two reviewers independently evaluated methodological quality and extracted data from each eligible study. MAIN RESULTS: We found 28 published trials and one unpublished study. Trials were not sufficiently similar to allow for the combination of data by statistical analyses, so this review takes a narrative form. Studies were divided into three groups based on the primary population sample: children, older people and the general population. None of the 11 childhood studies demonstrated a reduction in injuries that might have been due to environmental adaptation in the home. One study reported a reduction in injuries and in hazards but the two could not be linked. The majority of studies used hazard reduction as the outcome. Of the 15 studies in older people, none demonstrated a reduction in injuries due to hazard reduction, although two demonstrated a reduction in falls that could be due to hazard reduction. In the mixed age group there were two trials; neither demonstrated an effect on injuries. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient evidence to determine the effects of interventions to modify environmental home hazards. Further interventions to reduce hazards in the home should be evaluated by adequately designed randomised controlled trials measuring injury outcomes. Recruitment of large study samples to measure effect may be a major consideration for future trials.
BACKGROUND: PubMed is the most widely used method for searches of the medical literature, but fails to identify many relevant articles. Electronic citation tracking offers an alternative search method. METHODS: Articles investigating the role of depression in the aetiology and prognosis of coronary heart disease were sought through two methods: a) PubMed, and b) citation tracking where Science Citation Index was searched for all articles which cited ("forward citation tracking") or were cited by ("backward citation tracking") any of the articles in an index review. The number and quality of eligible articles identified by the two methods were compared. RESULTS: 50 articles that were not already included in the index review met our inclusion criteria; 11 were identified through Science Citation Index alone, 8 through PubMed alone, and 31 through both methods. Articles identified by Science Citation Index alone were published in higher impact factor journals, were larger and were less likely to show a positive association. CONCLUSION: Science Citation Index identified more eligible articles than PubMed, and these differed qualitatively. Failing to use citation tracking in a systematic review of observational studies may result in bias.
This paper describes the development of regional hospital input price indexes that is consistent with the general methodology used for the National Hospital Input Price Index. The feasibility of developing regional indexes was investigated because individuals inquired whether different regions experienced different rates of increase in hospital input prices. The regional indexes incorporate variations in cost-share weights (the amount an expense category contributes to total spending) associated with hospital type and location, and variations in the rate of input price increases for various regions. We found that between 1972 and 1979 none of the regional price indexes increased at average annual rates significantly different from the national rate. For the more recent period 1977 through 1979, the increase in one Census Region was significantly below the national rate. Further analyses indicated that variations in cost-share weights for various types of hospitals produced no substantial variations in the regional price indexes relative to the national index. We consider these findings preliminary because of limitations in the availability of current, relevant, and reliable data, especially for local area wage rate increases.
Low priced shareware packages may be adequate for those whose main need is to index a collection of articles read in journals. Those who search the literature electronically will need a package able to import mass data. Pro-Cite is set up for bibliographic functions only, but Reference File and Notebook II can be used to index any kind of collection, with Reference File having the advantage of being memory-resident. Other reference filing databases being considered for purchase could be measured against those reviewed here.
This paper reviews the state of the art in processing medical language data. The area is divided into the topics: (1) morphologic analysis, (2) syntactic analysis, (3) semantic analysis, and (4) pragmatics. Additional attention is given to medical nomenclatures and classifications as the bases of (automated) indexing procedures which are required whenever medical information is formalized. These topics are completed by an evaluation of related data structures and methods used to organize language-based medical knowledge.
This second part of a two-part paper describes how the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Library implemented a bibliographic control system for a medical illustrations collection. Discussed are the staffing of the project, the design of formats and computer programs, further design changes, the input process, quality evaluation of the illustrations, and production and distribution of the control products (printed indexes and microfiche replicas). The report ends with a note on the applicability of the UCSF system to other libraries, and some benefits of the project.
The scope of this study is a comparison of three functional classifications: the New York Heart Association classification, the Duke University classification, and the specific activity scale we propose. The NYHA classification is subjective, difficult to reproduce and poorly correlated to the functional capacity measured ergometrically (duration of exercise and/or VO2). A new classification must therefore be proposed. A specific activity scale adapted to our national requirements appears to be the best solution. Our study covered 15 successive days. All patients suffering from congestive heart failure who were examined over this period were included. 700 liberal cardiologists took part in this study. 2353 patients were reviewed, mean age 69 (58% male, 42% female). Heart failure was of an ichaemic origin in 37% of cases, idiopathic in 25% and due to hypertension in 25%. Symptomatology was left sided in most cases. Among NYHA Class IV patients, 75% belonged to Class IV of the specific activity scale (SAS) (23% Class III, 1% Class II), and 88% of the Duke classification (10% Class III, 1% Class II). For NYHA Class III patients, 80% were SAS Class III (5% Class IV, 13% Class II), and only 38% (42% Class IV and 16% Class II) of the Duke classification. Regarding NYHA Class II patients, 74% were SAS Class II (21% Class III and 4% Class I), and 26% of the Duke classification (39% Class I, 29% Class III and 3.6% Class IV). Finally, among NYHA Class I patients, 60% were SAS Class I (34% Class II, 5% Class III), and 74% of the Duke classification (11% Class II and 13% Class III).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Guidelines for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of conducting a search of scientific literature are presented. Initial leads can be gained by contacting a local expert or consulting a textbook. An impression of advances being made in a particular field can be gained efficiently by scanning weekly issues of Current Contents, containing the tables of contents of most scientific journals. Recent review articles on most topics can usually be found listed in the Index Medicus. With at least one significant reference dealing with a specific topic of interest, the Science Citation Index may be used to identify articles published during a particular indexing period which cited the article as a reference. Practical guidelines are also presented for establishing a simple but comprehensive personal system for filing and retrieving on demand reprints, pamphlets, and notes.
This evaluation examined the diffusion of an innovation entitled the Coalition Index: A Guide to School Health Education Materials. After distributing the Index to a sample of school district health coordinators (n = 39), interviews were completed with 92% of coordinators about their perceptions of the Index and their concern for organizing health resources within their professional role. A one-year follow-up interview was conducted to determine levels of implementation and diffusion. Coordinators responded favorably to the Index as an innovation. Concern scores were limited to those relating to self-management and task-management. Moreover, concern scores demonstrated significant, positive associations (p less than .01) with current use of the Index, and 49% of coordinators were users of the innovation one year after introduction. Results are discussed as they relate to diffusion of innovation stages.