Influential methods reports for group-randomized trials and related designs

Background. This article identifies the most influential methods reports for group-randomized trials and related designs published through 2020. Many interventions are delivered to participants in real or virtual groups or in groups defined by a shared interventionist so that there is an expectation for positive correlation among observations taken on participants in the same group. These interventions are typically evaluated using a group- or cluster-randomized trial, an individually randomized group treatment trial, or a stepped wedge group- or cluster-randomized trial. These trials face methodological issues beyond those encountered in the more familiar individually randomized controlled trial. Methods. PubMed was searched to identify candidate methods reports; that search was supplemented by reports known to the author. Candidate reports were reviewed by the author to include only those focused on the designs of interest. Citation counts and the relative citation ratio, a new bibliometric tool developed at the National Institutes of Health, were used to identify influential reports. The relative citation ratio measures influence at the article level by comparing the citation rate of the reference article to the citation rates of the articles cited by other articles that also cite the reference article. Results. In total, 1043 reports were identified that were published through 2020. However, 55 were deemed to be the most influential based on their relative citation ratio or their citation count using criteria specific to each of the three designs, with 32 group-randomized trial reports, 7 individually randomized group treatment trial reports, and 16 stepped wedge group-randomized trial reports. Many of the influential reports were early publications that drew attention to the issues that distinguish these designs from the more familiar individually randomized controlled trial. Others were textbooks that covered a wide range of issues for these designs. Others were “first reports” on analytic methods appropriate for a specific type of data (e.g. binary data, ordinal data), for features commonly encountered in these studies (e.g. unequal cluster size, attrition), or for important variations in study design (e.g. repeated measures, cohort versus cross-section). Many presented methods for sample size calculations. Others described how these designs could be applied to a new area (e.g. dissemination and implementation research). Among the reports with the highest relative citation ratios were the CONSORT statements for each design. Conclusions. Collectively, the influential reports address topics of great interest to investigators who might consider using one of these designs and need guidance on selecting the most appropriate design for their research question and on the best methods for design, analysis, and sample size.

Root Canal Disinfection Articles with the Highest Relative Citation Ratios. A Bibliometric Analysis from 1990 to 2019

The relative citation rate (RCR) is a normalized article-level metric useful to assess the impact of research articles. The objective of this bibliometric study is to identify and analyze, in root canal disinfection, the 100 articles having the highest RCRs in the period 1990–2019, then compare them with the top 100 articles most cited. A cross-sectional study was performed, and the search strategy ((Disinfection AND root canal) AND ((“1990/01/01”[Date-Publication]: “2019/12/31”[Date-Publication]))) relied on PubMed (n = 4294 documents), and article data were downloaded from the iCite database. The 100 articles with the highest RCRs and the top 100 cited were selected and evaluated in bibliometric terms. Among the 100 articles with the highest RCRs, there were no differences in the three decades for RCRs values, but there were in citations, being 2000–2009 the most cited. The USA was the predominant country (n = 30), followed by Brazil (n = 14). The most frequent study designs were reviews (n = 27) and in vitro (n = 25) and ex vivo (n = 24) studies. All subfields were well represented, although they varied over time. In 2010–2019, regenerative procedures and irrigation/disinfection techniques were predominant. Considering the RCR’s top 100 articles, 76 were common with the 100 most cited articles. Using the RCR metric allowed us to identify influential articles in root canal disinfection, a research field with topics of significance that fluctuate over time. Compared to citations, RCR reduces the time from publication to detection of its importance for the readership and could be a valid alternative to citation counts.

Traditional Knowledge and Medicinal Importance of African Rosewood (Pterocarpus Erinaceus Poir, Fabaceae) Across Sociolinguistic Groups in Benin

Background Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. is a spontaneous species from the three ecological zones of Benin. It is multipurpose species integrated to the socio-economic and cultural livelihood of populations, especially in rural areas. This study examined the different uses made of the organs of Pterocarpus erinaceus in Benin in relation to sociolinguistic diversity with a view to highlighting the knowledge of local populations on Pterocarpus erinaceus and the threats to the species. Methods A total of 355 respondents, spread over 18 townships in Benin, were interviewed using a questionnaire. About 57 uses shared into 7 categories of use have been identified from the different sociolinguistic and socio-professional groups. Relative citation frequencies (FRC) of each habitat were then calculated for the description of habitat variation according to Ecological zones (EZ). In order to describe the diversification of the categories of uses and the organs / part of the tree, Principal component analyzes are carried out on the matrices comprising relative citation frequencies (FRC) grouping together the socio-demographic factors and the categories of use under the packages FactoMineR and factoextra Results This study revelated that the wood of Pterocarpus erinaceus is used (25.43%) in crafts, as charcoal, and service wood, while the leaves are mainly used (23.14%) as fodder and by traditional medecine. Concerning the roots and bark, they are used (27.14%) not only for evil spirits and bewitchment but also in animal medecine in cattle. About 60 diseases and symptoms are cured by the various organs of Pterocarpus erinaceus. These different uses of Pterocarpus erinaceus varied from one sociolinguistic group to another. Conclusion The study showed that all organs of Pterocarpus erinaceus are used in various forms of use for various purposes and make it an important species for rural communities. This result suggests the need to define conservation strategies for natural stands of Pterocarpus erinaceus for the sustainable management of the species.

Global Machine-learning Research: a scientometric assessment of global literature during 2009–18

The article provides a quantitative and qualitative analyses of global machine-learning research output (48,455 publications), using select bibliometric indicators, using Web of Science database for 2009–18 period. The various indicators used in this study are: average annual growth, citations per paper, international collaborative papers, relative citation index, activity index, top-productive countries, organizations, authors, journals, and highly cited papers. Machine learning (within the domain of artificial intelligence) as a subject of study has fast-emerged as a subject of intensive research. It registered average annual growth rate of 27.59% and averaged citation impact of 10.78 per paper. Among 138 participating countries, the USA and China were in top 10 most productive countries on the subject. Among top 10 countries, France and Canada were the leading countries in terms of average citation per paper and relative index. France and Australia were leading in terms of for their national-level share to international collaborative publications (64.95% and 63.95%, respectively). In terms of type of machine learning, supervised learning registered the largest publications’ share, followed by deep learning, semi-supervised learning and reinforced learning (0.89% share, 556 papers). Centre National De La Recherche Scientique, France (769 papers), Harvard University, USA (751 papers) and University of London, UK (729 papers) were the three most productive global research organizations. In contrast, University of Toronto, Canada, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and University of Oxford, UK were the three leading organizations in terms of citation per paper and relative citation index. Y. Zhang (246 papers), Y. Liu (204 papers) and J. Wang (203 papers) were leading in publication productivity in contrast to J. Li (12.52 and 1.03). L. Zhang (12.42 and 1.02) and J. Zhang (11.23 and 0.92) scored high in citation per paper and relative citation index on the subject. Neurocomputing (1310 papers), PLOS One (917 papers) and Expert Systems with Applications (861 papers) were the leading journals on this subject.

Co-Citation Percentile Rank and JYUcite: a new network-standardized output-level citation influence metric and its implementation using Dimensions API

Judging value of scholarly outputs quantitatively remains a difficult but unavoidable challenge. Most of the proposed solutions suffer from three fundamental shortcomings: they involve i) the concept of journal, in one way or another, ii) calculating arithmetic averages from extremely skewed distributions, and iii) binning data by calendar year. Here, we introduce a new metric Co-citation Percentile Rank (CPR), that relates the current citation rate of the target output taken at resolution of days since first citable, to the distribution of current citation rates of outputs in its co-citation set, as its percentile rank in that set. We explore some of its properties with an example dataset of all scholarly outputs from University of Jyväskylä spanning multiple years and disciplines. We also demonstrate how CPR can be efficiently implemented with Dimensions database API, and provide a publicly available web resource JYUcite, allowing anyone to retrieve CPR value for any output that has a DOI and is indexed in the Dimensions database. Finally, we discuss how CPR remedies failures of the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR), and remaining issues in situations where CPR too could potentially lead to biased judgement of value.