Efficacy of bio- and neurofeedback for depression: a meta-analysis

Background For many years, biofeedback and neurofeedback have been implemented in the treatment of depression. However, the effectiveness of these techniques on depressive symptomatology is still controversial. Hence, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies extracted from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Embase. Methods Two different strings were considered for each of the two objectives of the study: A first group comprising studies patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and a second group including studies targeting depressive symptomatology reduction in other mental or medical conditions. Results In the first group of studies including patients with MDD, the within-group analyses yielded an effect size of Hedges' g = 0.717, while the between-group analysis an effect size of Hedges' g = 1.050. Moderator analyses indicate that treatment efficacy is only significant when accounting for experimental design, in favor of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in comparison to non RCTs, whereas the type of neurofeedback, trial design, year of publication, number of sessions, age, sex and quality of study did not influence treatment efficacy. In the second group of studies, a small but significant effect between groups was found (Hedges' g = 0.303) in favor of bio- and neurofeedback against control groups. Moderator analyses revealed that treatment efficacy was not moderated by any of the sociodemographic and clinical variables. Conclusions Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback and neurofeedback are associated with a reduction in self-reported depression. Despite the fact that the field has still a large room for improvement in terms of research quality, the results presented in this study suggests that both modalities may become relevant complementary strategies for the treatment of MDD and depressive symptomatology in the coming years.

Evaluating the Metrics of Research Performance in H-Index and Scientific Quality Index among Indian Dental Researchers

Aim: This study aimed to calculate the scientific output of researchers in selected branches of dentistry using h-index and scientific quality index. Methodology: Data were retrieved from the google scholar (2013-2018) in the eight departments of dentistry. The professors from the faculty of dentistry were randomly selected and among the scientific data were collected by the tool together with year of publication, number of citations, number of published papers, number of paper cited more than 10 times. It was analyzed by the H-index and newly proposed scientific quality index (SQI). Results: The SQI expresses mainly the qualitative features of scientific output, whereas the H-index is more influenced by its quantitative measures. Conclusion: The SQI might be considered as a novel marker of scientific yield quality, though the h-index is more grounded controlled by quantitative measures. Keywords: Citation, H-index,individual output, scientific quality index, Dentist.

Stumbling and Growing: A Bibliometric Study of Academic Publications of Palliative Care in Mainland China for 2010–2020

Background: Mainland China is facing increasing demand for palliative care and has launched related policies after 2010. Research and publications are important for sustainable development of palliative care, and should be encouraged by policy. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the development of palliative care-related publications in Mainland China in various aspects. Design: We searched Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Ovid MEDLINE, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure for publications from Mainland China for 2010–2020, with the topic words “hospice,” “palliative care,” “end-of-life care,” or “terminal care.” The publishing year, region, impacts, journals, publication types, and topics were analyzed. Results: A total of 3682 publications were identified, 754 of them (20.5%) published in Chinese core journals or international journals. The annual publication number and impact factor rose rapidly after 2016 and dropped again in 2020. There is no specialized palliative care journal in Mainland China. The publication numbers differed significantly between East and Western China and were closely linked to the economy ( R2 = 0.8120, P < .0001). The megacities Beijing and Shanghai comprised 2.6% of the total population of Mainland China but produced 22.6% of the publications. Palliative care in cancer patients was the most common topic (37.7% of the publications). Practical keywords such as “pain management” and “living will” gained popularity recently. Conclusions: Palliative care-related research and publication in Mainland China are growing in recent years. However, the early stage growth is unstable, with a conspicuous regional disparity. Policies should be designed, in an equitable manner, to encourage original research and publication of palliative care.

Focused Research on the Challenges and Productivity of Researchers in Nigerian Academic Institutions Without Funding

Background: The challenge of research funding constraints has brought to bear enormous pressure on researchers. Research productivity is relevant to prestige and career progression of academic staff. However, this study aimed to explore significant challenges associated with researchers’ productivity and the impact of non-funding of research in Nigerian research and tertiary institutions.Methods: This study adopted a qualitative exploratory design involving academics at various research and tertiary institutions across the six geographical regions in Nigeria. A semi-structured questionnaire was distributed electronically to all participants who consented to take part in this study. Exactly 4,159 questionnaires were administered and 2,350 were completely filled and returned. Pearson correlation matrices with logistic regression were used for data analysis and are presented in frequencies and percentages.Results: On challenges faced by respondents, 42.98% reported a lack of research funding, 17.11% mentioned brain drain challenge while 8.85% indicated a lack of motivation. Of the 23,927 publications reported, the number of those in sciences, engineering, and medical sciences averaged 9.6, 11.5, and 9.5 respectively. The average number of publications by women (10.8) was more than by men (9.7). Lecturers had the highest average research publication number (11.8) followed by researchers (10.2) and others (3.9). Men had the highest (11.9) average number of conferences compared to women (9.2). Participants in engineering had an average number of 13.8 conferences per respondents followed by those in education (11.2), sciences (11.1), and 10.9 for those in agricultural sciences. The result revealed a negative significant correlation between research publication and academic qualification at p &lt; 0.01. Positive significant correlation was observed between research productivity and discipline at p &lt; 0.05. Findings show that the combined influence of the independent variables on research productivity was significant using linear regression analysis.Conclusions: The failure to prioritize research has resulted in underdevelopment in Nigeria. It is therefore imperative that the federal government prioritize research and establish a functional Special Research Trust Fund to oversee research funding in Nigeria.

Collaboration enhances career progression in academic science, especially for female researchers

Collaboration and diversity are increasingly promoted in science. Yet how collaborations influence academic career progression, and whether this differs by gender, remains largely unknown. Here, we use co-authorship ego networks to quantify collaboration behaviour and career progression of a cohort of contributors to biennial International Society of Behavioral Ecology meetings (1992, 1994, 1996). Among this cohort, women were slower and less likely to become a principal investigator (PI; approximated by having at least three last-author publications) and published fewer papers over fewer years (i.e. had shorter academic careers) than men. After adjusting for publication number, women also had fewer collaborators (lower adjusted network size) and published fewer times with each co-author (lower adjusted tie strength), albeit more often with the same group of collaborators (higher adjusted clustering coefficient). Authors with stronger networks were more likely to become a PI, and those with less clustered networks did so more quickly. Women, however, showed a stronger positive relationship with adjusted network size (increased career length) and adjusted tie strength (increased likelihood to become a PI). Finally, early-career network characteristics correlated with career length. Our results suggest that large and varied collaboration networks are positively correlated with career progression, especially for women.

Health research in the state of Odisha, India: a 10-year bibliometric analysis (2011-2021)

Background: Bibliometric analyses are an important tool for evaluating health research outputs in terms of their distribution, trends, actors, focus, and funding sources. The transition from Millennium to sustainable development goals have led to a gradual shift in health policy and possibly the research priorities of low-income settings in the Empowered Action Group (EAG) states, lagging in socio-economic and health parameters, also ranking low on innovations and research. This study was aimed to describe the recent trends, quantity, type, focus and sources of health-related research in the EAG state of Odisha, India.Materials and Methods: Peer reviewed published original research articles which were related to human health, published between 1st Jan 2011 and 31st Dec 2020 and where the study population were residents of Odisha, or study site was in Odisha, exclusively or partially were analyzed. Publication characteristics were tabulated, including title, journal name, open access, date of publication, number of authors, designation of the authors, number of institutes involved, name of institute of first author. Details of study setting, study site, ethical clearance, funding source were also collected.Results: The study identified 2285 articles from database searches and included 666 articles after screening for the bibliometric analysis. Most of the manuscripts had between 3-6 authors (43.5%). Two institutes from the state, ICMR-RMRC and KIIT, together contributed to over 22.4% of the published manuscripts as lead authors. Nearly 45.9% studies were community based while 45.3% were hospital based. While most of the published work was on infectious diseases, the proportion came down with time between 2011 and 2020. An overwhelming majority of studies were observational in nature and less than 10% were experimental in design. Conclusions: The analysis shows a substantial increase in the number of publications in this decade. Priority setting of health care problems, increased funding and capacity building can give a much-necessitated impetus to more quality and evidence-based research for aiding policy implementation and improvement of overall health of Odisha.

Publication activity of chief and consultant general/visceral surgeons in German university hospitals—a ten-year analysis

Purpose The publication activity of 38 German general/visceral surgery university departments, documented by first or last authorship from staff surgeons (chief and consultants), was evaluated. Methods The observation period extended from 2007 to 2017 and all PubMed-listed publications were considered. Impact factor (IF) was evaluated through the publishing journal’s 5-year IF in 2016, as was the IF for each individual publication. Ranking was expressed in quartiles. Results The staff surgeons of the 38 departments comprised 442 surgeons, of which only 351 (79.4%) were active as first or last authors. Four thousand six hundred and ninety-nine publications published in 702 journals were recorded. The four leading departments in publication number published as much as the last 20 departments (1330 vs. 1336 publications, respectively). The mean of the first (most active) department quartile was 19.6 publications, the second 15.4, the third 11.0, and the last quartile 7.6 per publishing surgeon. The total cumulative impact factor was 14,130. When examining the mean number of publications per publishing surgeons per the 10 year period, the mean of the first quartile was 57.9 cumulative IF, the second 45.0, the third 29.5, and the fourth quartile 17.1. With 352 (7.5%) publications, the most frequently used journal was Chirurg, followed by Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery with 274 (5.8%) publications. Pancreas-related topics led in terms of publication number and IF generated per individual publication. Conclusion A significant difference in publication performance of individual departments was apparent that cannot be explained by staff number. This indicates that there are as yet unknown factors responsible for minor publication activity in many university departments.

The Trend of Scientific Productions on the Use of Herbal Medicines in Metabolic Disorders in the Middle East Countries

Context: Prevalence of metabolic disorders, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), dyslipidemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and osteoporosis has been increased. Herbal medicine is an accessible, safe, and low-cost option in managing and caring for metabolic disorders. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of global scientific productions in herbal medications and metabolic disorders in the Middle East countries. Study Selection: Our search terms were “diabetes”, “dyslipidemia”, “obesity”, “osteoporosis”, “metabolic syndrome”, “herb”, and “herbal medicine” in Middle East countries through the Scopus database until January 2020. We analyzed the data regarding publication year, main journal, geographical distribution, document type, subject area, co-authorship network, the h-index of citations by Scopus analysis tools, Visualizing Scientific Landscapes (VOSviewer) version 1.6.4, and SPSS version 15. Results: Among 6408 global publications, most of the papers (> 85%) were original articles, and mostly (44.26%) were about dyslipidemia. A significant time-trend was shown in the number of documents (P < 0.001), mostly in 2019. Medicine and pharmacology were subject areas in > 80% of papers. The top country in the global publication number was Iran. The highest cited papers in dyslipidemia, obesity and osteoporosis were original articles from Turkey and Egypt, but in T2DM and MetS the highest cited paper was a review article from Iran. The top sources were “Phytotherapy Research” and “the Journal of Ethnopharmacology”. The top institutes were from Egypt, Iran, and Saudi Arabia and the principal author in the co-authorship network assessment was from Iran. Conclusions: The time-trend growth in producing scholarly papers in the studied disorders is appreciated, but more evidence-based articles are still needed.

Publication analysis in Bay for Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation Nations

Background: Research output provides an insight into the development of the scientific capability of a country. Budget allocation for research and development (R&D) is directly proportional to the research output of a country. While developed countries spend a significant percentage of their GDP on R&D, developing countries do not have enough resources to invest in R&D. Countries in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Nations has received significantly less attention from outside the region in studying R&D and research publication scenario of the region. The research output of BIMSTEC countries was analyzed using various metrics in this paper. Methods: Data on citation per paper, Field Weight Citation Impact (FWCI), paper per researcher, collaborative publications, and output in top 10 percent journals was extracted from one of the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, Scopus and its affiliate SciVal, for a period of 6 years between 2012-2017. Percentage of R&D spend, researchers per million population, and total scientific output were extracted from World Bank data. Results: India and Thailand have a higher quantum of publications compared to other countries. Subjects like clinical, technology, Computer Science have a larger publication number as compared to other subject areas like Social Science, Arts, Education, Law, and Physiology. The researcher population and research spend of a nation have an evident implication on the publication though no direct relation can be derived. Conclusion: Huge disparities in terms of percentage of research spent, research output, papers per researcher, and output with national and international authorship differ for countries. Higher research spent and publication count are not positively correlated with better FWCI.

Audit and tax in the context of emerging technologies: A retrospective analysis, current trends, and future opportunities

This study aims to review the existing literature on audit and tax in the context of emerging technologies, besides providing future research agenda. A meta literature approach by combining bibliometric and content analysis was adopted to analyze 154 relevant English articles published in Scopus indexed journals, published over the last 35 years. Using RStudio, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. Quantitative findings reveal that the USA is the top contributor and the most cited in the world. Brigham Young University, on the institutional level, is the most relevant affiliation. Concerning publication number, the Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting is the most relevant source. At the same time, the most cited source is the Decision Sciences journal. While the most prolific author is Miklos Vasarhelyi. Moreover, the emerging technologies, including big data, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, have significantly drawn accounting scholars interest from 2015 and thereafter. From the perspective of qualitative findings, the main focus shows that employing advanced technologies offers promising opportunities to mitigate the risk of tax evasion and enhance the auditors' efficiency. The content analysis reports two mainstreams tax and audit; each one is classified into three sub-streams, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. This study contributes to present a clear and coherent understanding of the relevant exact literature and propose future research. However, the study review confines only on audit and tax fields, relying on the Scopus database.