scholarly journals A survey of biomedical journals to detect editorial bias and nepotistic behavior

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. e3001133
Author(s):  
Alexandre Scanff ◽  
Florian Naudet ◽  
Ioana A. Cristea ◽  
David Moher ◽  
Dorothy V. M. Bishop ◽  
...  

Alongside the growing concerns regarding predatory journal growth, other questionable editorial practices have gained visibility recently. Among them, we explored the usefulness of the Percentage of Papers by the Most Prolific author (PPMP) and the Gini index (level of inequality in the distribution of authorship among authors) as tools to identify journals that may show favoritism in accepting articles by specific authors. We examined whether the PPMP, complemented by the Gini index, could be useful for identifying cases of potential editorial bias, using all articles in a sample of 5,468 biomedical journals indexed in the National Library of Medicine. For articles published between 2015 and 2019, the median PPMP was 2.9%, and 5% of journal exhibited a PPMP of 10.6% or more. Among the journals with the highest PPMP or Gini index values, where a few authors were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications, a random sample was manually examined, revealing that the most prolific author was part of the editorial board in 60 cases (61%). The papers by the most prolific authors were more likely to be accepted for publication within 3 weeks of their submission. Results of analysis on a subset of articles, excluding nonresearch articles, were consistent with those of the principal analysis. In most journals, publications are distributed across a large number of authors. Our results reveal a subset of journals where a few authors, often members of the editorial board, were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications. To enhance trust in their practices, journals need to be transparent about their editorial and peer review practices.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Scanff ◽  
Florian Naudet ◽  
Ioana Cristea ◽  
David Moher ◽  
Dorothy V M Bishop ◽  
...  

AbstractContextConvergent analyses in different disciplines support the use of the Percentage of Papers by the Most Prolific author (PPMP) as a red flag to identify journals that can be suspected of questionable editorial practices. We examined whether this index, complemented by the Gini index, could be useful for identifying cases of potential editorial bias, using a large sample of biomedical journals.MethodsWe extracted metadata for all biomedical journals referenced in the National Library of Medicine, with any attributed Broad Subject Terms, and at least 50 authored (i.e. by at least one author) articles between 2015 and 2019, identifying the most prolific author (i.e. the person who signed the most papers in each particular journal). We calculated the PPMP and the 2015-2019 Gini index for the distribution of articles across authors. When the relevant information was reported, we also computed the median publication lag (time between submission and acceptance) for articles authored by any of the most prolific authors and that for articles not authored by prolific authors. For outlier journals, defined as a PPMP or Gini index above the 95th percentile of their respective distributions, a random sample of 100 journals was selected and described in relation to status on the editorial board for the most prolific author.Results5 468 journals that published 4 986 335 papers between 2015 and 2019 were analysed. The PPMP 95th percentile was 10.6% (median 2.9%). The Gini index 95th percentile was 0.355 (median 0.183). Correlation between the two indices was 0.35 (95CI 0.33 to 0.37). Information on publication lag was available for 2 743 journals. We found that 277 journals (10.2%) had a median time lag to publication for articles by the most prolific author(s) that was shorter than 3 weeks, versus 51 (1.9%) journals with articles not authored by prolific author(s). Among the random sample of outlier journals, 98 provided information about their editorial board. Among these 98, the most prolific author was part of the editorial board in 60 cases (61%), among whom 25 (26% of the 98) were editors-in-chief.DiscussionIn most journals publications are distributed across a large number of authors. Our results reveal a subset of journals where a few authors, often members of the editorial board, were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications. The papers by these authors were more likely to be accepted for publication within 3 weeks of their submission. To enhance trust in their practices, journals need to be transparent about their editorial and peer review practices.


2020 ◽  
pp. 167-180
Author(s):  
Priyanki Vyas ◽  
Sandip Pathak ◽  
Mahendra Patel

This study endeavours to embrace a bibliometric analysis of the research publications of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) from 2008-2019. It is in this context that the present study aims to audit the exploration execution the research performance of PDPU based on the papers published in journals that have indexed in Scopus for as far back as eleven years. The total number of 931 publications has retrieved from the Scopus database. Amongst them, 64.44 % are research articles published in scholarly journals and 28.89 % in Conference proceedings. The paper also analyzed the publication trend of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University and found that from 2008 onwards there was a steady increase in the number of publications. The authors attempt to identify the current trends in research output by PDPU, which includes the most prolific authors, institutional collaborative works, research productivity in terms of publications, highest citations papers, most preferred publications, etc.… The research publications was found highest numbers of publications in the year 2019. Findings of this study also reveal that the “AIP Conference Proceedings” is the most preferred journal, and Mukhopadhyay, I, is the most prolific author and has made the highest number of publications.


Author(s):  
Praveen Ranjan Srivastava ◽  
Dheeraj Sharma ◽  
Rohtak Haryana

Event Management is a well-established international journal in event, festival, and culture management, which published high-quality peer-reviewed research from the last 20 years. The current study represents a retrospective overview of the journal's publication journey over the previous 14 years from 2006-2020. This period was chosen due to the availability of data in Scopus. The number of publications and citations received by these publications globally has exhibited continuous growth, which signifies the journal's widespread presence. This paper also analyses the journal’s impact, its prominent topics, and its most prolific authors, including their affiliated institutions and countries. The multiple dimensionality scaling analysis classifies the publications of the journal into five broad clusters: namely Cluster 1 (“Event Management”), Cluster 2 (“Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality”), Cluster 3 (“Mega Events”), Cluster 4 (“Legacy Sports”) and Cluster 5 (“Economic feasibility”). The co-authorship networks among authors, institutions, countries, and topics unveil the collaboration structure among this journal's contributors. The results of the current study provide useful insights for the potential contributors and global audience of the journal and the editorial board of the journal in terms of emerging topics for research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghna Chhabra ◽  
Léo‐Paul Dana ◽  
Veland Ramadani ◽  
Monika Agarwal

Purpose This paper aims to examine the pattern of publications, using a bibliometric analysis of the Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy (JEC) for the period between 2007 and 2021. Design/methodology/approach The study uses relevant bibliometric metrics and procedures. The analysis covers mainly the number of articles published in JEC, most influential years in terms of the number of publications and citations, top productive countries, most prolific authors, most influential institutions, funding institutions, co-authorship trends, keywords co-occurrence, and vital themes of JEC articles between 2007 and 2021. Findings The journal’s influential impact in terms of citations has increased over time, with 83.62% of the published works receiving at least one citation. Léo-Paul Dana has been recognised as the most prolific author by virtue of his contribution of articles in JEC, and the maximum contribution to JEC comes from the USA, followed by Canada and the UK. University of Canterbury, New Zealand and La Trobe University, Australia were the leading contributing institutions. The study identified “indigenous entrepreneurs”, “gender”, “social entrepreneurship”, “education” and “innovation” as contemporary keywords in the study of enterprising communities. These issues present a clear opportunity for research-related topics for the JEC. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive piece in the journal’s history that provides a general overview of the journal's major trends and researchers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
International Committee Of Medical Journal Editors

These statements, which are published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in conjunction with the Vancouver standards, cover sorne of the legal, ethical, and practical aspects of the publication of research papers, and of the comments generated by them, in biomedical journals. Pollowing a definition of what constitutes a peer-reviewed journal, the roles of journal owners and editors are described, along with those of members of an editorial board, and procedural norms are set forth in connection with conflicts of interests, retractions or corrections, fraud, and breaches of confidentiality. Arnong the last topics explored are the problems involved in the dissemination of research results by the popular media, the handling of advertising within the journal, and the simultaneous acceptance of manuscripts whose authors have arrived at opposite conclusions regarding the results of a particular study.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-30
Author(s):  
Bakthavachalam Elango ◽  
James Hartley

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the bibliometric characteristics of papers published in a high impact journal World Psychiatry during the period 2006-2015. Design/methodology/approach The data for this study were obtained from Thompson Reuters’ “Web of Science”. Publication details were extracted for the journal title “World Psychiatry”. This study covers authorship patterns, annual growth, impact factors, document types, top contributors, international collaborations, highly cited papers and keyword analyses. Software programs such as “Histcite”, “intcoll.exe”, “Pajek” and “Leximancer” were used to analyze the publications. Findings More than half of the publications were by editorial materials and number of publications from low and middle income countries is very low when compared to proportion of editorial board members. Almost 40 per cent of papers came from the USA and editorial board members had considerable number of papers. Kings College London led the institutions. Originality/value Analysis of high impact journals in the field of psychiatry has been carried out in a very few. Hence, the results of this study will be useful to compare with other journals.


Author(s):  
Oksana Sereda

The article deals with the journalistic achievements of the Ukrainian artist, local historian and publicist Hryhoriy Smolsky, analyzes the problems and genre of his articles in the Lviv press during the 1920s and 1970s. The long and thorny path of H. Smolsky to art was revealed. It is highlighted that this artist managed to restore his historical and artistic studios in Lviv only at the age of 28 years due to the then military situation in the Western Ukraine. It is emphasized that H. Smolsky was one of the five first students of the O. Novakivsky Art School and this was the defining moment in the formation of his artistic priorities. It became clear that the young artist’s collaboration with the Lviv press began in the late 1920s — he was part of the editorial board of «Literaturni Visti» and published two reviews on its pages. His publications about the history of the beginning and activities of the O. Novakivsky’s Art School in the «Novy Chas» newspaper and the «Svit» journal were rediscovered. It is accentuated on another facet of H. Smolsky’s talent — the writing of travel notes, which appeared in the 1930s in the «Dilo» and «Nazustrich» periodicals. It is highlighted that these features comprehensively revealed the artist’s journalistic talent. The H. Smolsky’s articles written during the German occupation, specifically in the «Lvivski Visti» diaries, were also introduced into the scholarly circulation and analyzed. It is revealed that with the advent of Soviet rule, the artist kept «silent» for 15 years and was not present in artistic life. A number of publications by H. Smolsky of the late 1950s and 1970s were studied. They prove that the author was able to maintain his socio-cultural position even in the conditions of the rigid ideological framework. The artist’s significant contribution in illuminating the history of the O. Novakivsky Art School’s achievements is highlighted. It is summarized that H. Smolsky is a talented publicist, and although his journalistic legacy (rediscovered today) has only 22 articles, those are an important source of study of the Ukrainian artistic environment of Galicia in the 1920s–1940s. Key words: H. Smolsky, journal, article, art, O. Novakivsky Art School.


Author(s):  
آمنة المداني

Throughout this work, the general characteristics of the Maghreb Journal of Documentation and Information have been introduced since its’ establishment in 1983 to 2020. The Maghreb Journal of Documentation and Information is published annually by the Higher Institute of Documentation. The researchers have used the bibliometric approach in order to quantify the frequency of publications and to review the percentage of articles’ productivity and their distribution during the years of publications. The study found that there is an average of 447 articles published by 572 authors in 29 issues over a period of 24 years from the actual publications, without considering the years of interruption. It is worth to mention that the journal was resuming its activities and functions after each interruption, especially after the scientific events to publish their activities or after changing its directing members. Moreover, in order to clarify the direction of the journal and its editorial board, the bibliometric approach has also helped to extract the sub-topics presented by the publications, as it is the only journal specialised in the information science in Tunisia. In addition, besides studying of the linguistic writing choices of the authors; the study focused on the Influence of the French language in writings to understand the general cultural and social framework that made the Arabic language ranked as a second language in number of publications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Thivya Janen

Universities play a vital role in the research and development of a country. A scientometric analysis is an essential tool used by the administrators, funding agencies, government, and researchers to know the publication trend on a topic, institution, author, journal, etc. This study analyses pattern of articles published by the University of Jaffna (UoJ) during 2000-2019; identifies publication growth rate, most prolific authors and their citation impact, communication pattern in terms of type of documents, journal publishing country and impact factor of these journals and also the international collaboration. Analysis of the data indicates, there are 293 articles were published in WOS indexed journals. The publication growth rate indicates that there is a consistent growth in the number of publications after 2014. It was found that multi-authorship dominates among UoJ researchers. A high number of publications were on Multidisciplinary Sciences. The UoJ collaborated with different countries; among them 59 articles were published with United Kingdom. Among the highly cited top 10 publications, an article authored by Ravirajan P received a high number of citations of 480. Among the funding agencies National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka funded for 24 publications, while UoJ funded for 16 and among the international funding agencies UK Research Innovation (UKRI) funded for 7 publications during the study period.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 894-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinyu Chen ◽  
Xindong Ye ◽  
Min Chen ◽  
Ye Liang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the papers published on urban education and analyze the characteristics of these papers to contribute to the urban education research over the recent years. Design/methodology/approach Researchers generated a comprehensive list of the articles published between 2010 and 2017 in the field of “urban education” by searching the Social Sciences Citation Index database, using the keywords of “urban” and “education.” As an additional criterion, all the articles published between 2010 and 2017 in the journals of Urban Education and Education and Urban Society were included. Findings There are a total of 2,123 publications that were checked and retrieved in the field of “urban education” between 2010 and 2017. Although the number of publications differs year by year, the sum of the citations received the increase from year to year on a regular basis. There are 35 articles that were cited more than h-index, as h-classics in this field for this period and top 10 of these h-classics are reported in this study. Urban Education and Education and Urban Society were revealed as the most prominent journals in the field of urban education. Also, the results show that the most cited articles, the most prolific authors and organizations, and top journals in this field are from the USA. Research limitations/implications The scope of this study is not extensive enough, and the data obtained are not comprehensive enough. The survey was limited to the keyword of “urban education” in the fields of title, abstract, author keywords and keywords plus. Practical implications This bibliometric analysis contributes to the literature of urban education through a historical perspective. Results show that the “urban education” field attracts more attention of the researchers and the impacts of these publications are increasing from year to year. Also, there is a prevalence of the USA in the field of urban education. Originality/value The information presented in this paper provides insight into the development of urban education research over the recent years. The data obtained in this study can be used as a reference for future researchers in urban education.


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