Male fertility: a review of the publications July — September 2021

The article provides an overview of the most significant publications on the topic of male infertility. The main selection criteria were considered the practical significance of the article, as well as the impact factor of the journal in which it was published according to the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). As a result, we formed a list of 10 articles published in the III quarter (July — September) of 2021. The review included articles concerning the following issues: the ability of oocytes to repair damaged DNA-chains of sperm cells, the effectiveness of ICSI in AZF-c microdeletions, the advanced paternal age, artificial intelligence in reproductive clinics, genetic causes of infertility, the effect of surgical treatment of varicocele concerning DNA fragmentation, the role of ICSI in the frequency of chromosomal abnormalities in offspring, the safety of COVID-19 vaccination for spermatogenesis, as well as the novel WHO 6 manual for semen investigation.

Una perspectiva hispánica sobre la actual investigación en comunicación (2014-2019)

Con respecto a la evaluación de los méritos curriculares de los investigadores, las crecientes exigencias institucionales han tenido mucha incidencia tanto en el volumen de trabajos que divulgan las revistas de comunicación, como en las pautas de publicación de los autores. Desde este planteamiento, el propósito del presente estudio consiste en caracterizar esta producción de una manera sistemática, objetiva y cuantitativa. Para ello, se practicó un análisis de contenido de una muestra probabilística de 2103 artículos, pertenecientes a las 7 cabeceras hispánicas de mayor impacto durante el sexenio 2014-2019, e indexadas en el repositorio de SCImago Journal Rank. Los resultados obtenidos refrendan el incremento constante del número de publicaciones, así como un descenso perceptible de su impacto en los últimos años. Del mismo modo, la autoría múltiple se ha convertido en una práctica modal que refleja, a su vez, un mayor protagonismo de investigadores frente a investigadoras entre los primeros autores de los trabajos; unos manuscritos que, a menudo, se traducen al inglés para estimular su internacionalización. En lo concerniente a la filiación, está vinculada al ámbito universitario español (con Madrid y Barcelona como epicentros) y a múltiples disciplinas. Por último, y pese a la existencia de programas de I+d+i a varios niveles (local, regional, nacional e internacional), se constata una insuficiente financiación adicional de la actividad científica. A este respecto, se confirma que el impacto de la investigación aumenta a medida que lo hacen los apoyos económicos, de ahí la conveniencia de disponer, o formar parte, de proyectos financiados.

Open access scientific journals: an analysis of the Directory of Open Access Journals

Introduction. The research aims to analyse the publishers, countries of publication, citation indexes, article processing charges, and their inter-relations, in the journals that make up the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), a global directory that offers scientific information in immediate and exclusive open access. Method. Bibliographic, quantitative, and inferential study of 9,005 journals in the DOAJ, focusing on publishers, countries of publication, article processing charges, and citation indexes. Analysis. Calculation of absolute and relative frequencies, measurement of central tendency, chi-squared test, and Mann-Whitney U test using the R statistical software (version 3.2.4) with a 95% confidence interval. Results. Brazil is the country with the largest number of titles (10.9%), followed by the United Kingdom, which has a greater number of titles with article processing charges fees averaging US$ 1,474 for those that are DOAJ No Seal and US$ 862 for those that are certified DOAJ Seal. Europe has the greatest number of open access titles (47.6%). The Hindawi Publishing Corporation, Elsevier, De Gruyter Open, BioMed Central, and Springer are the publishers with the greatest number of journals and a higher presence in citation indexes (Journal Citation Reports and SCImago Journal Rank). DOAJ Seal journals are correlated and more likely to have article processing charges fees. Conclusions. In the consolidation of open access journals, commercial publishers and countries with a tradition of scientific publishing continue to gather the majority of journals. Thus, the oligopoly of commercial scientific publishers is maintained.

Publisher Transparency among Communications and Library and Information Science Journals: Analysis and Recommendations

The principal goal of the research study is to analyze the transparency of a selection of academic journals based on an analysis model with 20 indicators grouped into 6 parameters. Given the evident interest in and commitment to transparency among quality academic journals and researchers’ difficulties in choosing journals that meet a set of criteria, we present indicators that may help researchers choose journals while also helping journals to consider what information from the editorial process to publish, or not, on their websites to attract authors in the highly competitive environment of today’s scholarly communication. To test the validity of the indicators, we analyze a small sample: the Spanish Communications and Library and Information Science journals listed in the Scimago Journal Rank. The results confirm that our analysis model is valid and can be extrapolated to other disciplines and journals.

Introducing a bibliometric index based on factor analysis

This work applies a factor analysis with VARIMAX rotation to develop a bibliometric indicator, named the Weighted Factor Index, in order to derive a new classification for journals belonging to a certain category, alternative to the one provided by the Journal Impact Factor. For this, 16 metrics from three different databases (Web of Science, Scopus and SCImago Journal Rank) are considered. The Weighed Factor Index entails the advantage of incorporating and summarizing information from all the indicators; so as to test its performance, it was applied to rank journals belonging to the category Information Science & Library Science.

Impact and visibility of Norwegian, Finnish and Spanish journals in the fields of humanities

This article analyses the impact and visibility of scholarly journals in the humanities that are publishing in the national languages in Finland, Norway and Spain. Three types of publishers are considered: commercial publishers, scholarly society as publisher, and research organizations as publishers. Indicators of visibility and impact were obtained from Web of Science, SCOPUS, Google Metrics, Scimago Journal Rank and Journal Citation Report. The findings compiled show that in Spain the categories “History and Archaeology” and “Language and Literature” account for almost 70% of the journals analysed, while the other countries offer a more homogeneous distribution. In Finland, the scholarly society publisher is predominant, in Spain, research organization as publishers, mostly universities, have a greater weighting, while in Norway, the commercial publishers take centre stage. The results show that journals from Finland and Norway will have reduced possibilities in terms of impact and visibility, since the vernacular language appeals to a smaller readership. Conversely, the Spanish journals are more attractive for indexing in commercial databases. Distribution in open access ranges from 64 to 70% in Norwegian and Finish journals, and to 91% in Spanish journals. The existence of DOI range from 31 to 41% in Nordic journals to 60% in Spanish journals and has a more widespread bearing on the citations received in all three countries (journals with DOI and open access are cited more frequently).

Male fertility: a review of the publications from April – June 2021

The article provides an overview of the most significant publications on the topic of male infertility. The main selection criteria were considered the practical significance of the article, as well as the impact factor of the journal in which it was published, according to the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). As a result, a list of 10 works published in the II quarter (April – June) of 2021 was formed. The review includes articles on the following issues: the effectiveness of repeated micro-TESE in non-obstructive azoospermia, the role of COVID-19 in male fertility, the effect of testosterone therapy on spermatogenesis, testicular microlithiasis, electroejaculation as a method of obtaining spermatozoa, harm from carrying cell phones near the genitals, prediction of the effectiveness of intrauterine insemination, the effect of advanced paternal age on sperm aneuploidy, and the importance of the microbiome for male fertility.

EP.TU.169Gender Representation in the Authorship of Surgical Journals

Aims Despite the increase in female doctors graduating from medical schools internationally, gender disparity in surgery remains. This disparity is also evident in academic surgery. This study aims to quantify the extent of gender disparity in the authorship of articles in major surgical journals. Methods The Top 10 Surgical Journals were identified using SCImago Journal Rank indicator. Authorship details for papers published in 2019 were collected. Authors were assigned as female, male or unknown using Gender API software (Gender API, Germany). For each journal, the percentage of first author, last author, corresponding author and all authors split by gender was interrogated. Gender differences by publication type were also identified. Results 9 of the 10 journals had full names publicly available. Overall, 2414 manuscripts were interrogated which included 16,277 number of authors. Respectively, females and males accounted for 29.8% [22.9-34.9%] (N = 655) and 62.4% [56.3-70.2%] (N = 1419) of first authors, 20.6% [11.8-27.1%] (N = 453) and 74.2% [65.6-84.1%] (N = 1706) of last authors, 23.9% [14.9-29.6%] (N = 510) and 69.9% [60.5-79.3%] (N = 2341) of corresponding authors and in total 27% [19.4-31.6%] (N = 4298) and 65.5% [58.6-73.4%] (N = 9982) of all authors. The wide range in these results could be due to various factors. Conclusion This study has identified a gender imbalance in authorship positions, with the greatest difference observed in the most senior author position. Whether this is reflective of the current disparity observed in senior academic surgery positions or due to gender discrimination is unclear.

Association between the Rankings of Top Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics Journals and the Scholarly Reputations of Chief Editors

The scientometric indices, such as the journal Impact Factor (IF) or SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), often play a determining role while choosing a journal for possible publication. The Editor-in-Chief (EiC), also known as a lead editor or chief editor, usually decides the outcomes (e.g., accept, reject) of the submitted manuscripts taking the reviewer’s feedback into account. This study investigates the associations between the EiC’s scholarly reputation (i.e., citation-level metrics) and the rankings of top Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BCB) and Medical Informatics (MI) journals. I consider three scholarly indices (i.e., citation, h-index, and i-10 index) of the EiC and four scientometric indices (i.e., h5-index, h5-median, impact factor, and SJR) of various journals. To study the correlation between scientometric indices of the EiC and journal, I apply Spearman (ρ) and Kendall (τ) correlation coefficients. Moreover, I employ machine learning (ML) models for the journal’s SJR and IF predictions leveraging the EiC’s scholarly reputation indices. The analysis reveals no correlation between the EiC’s scholarly achievement and the journal’s quantitative metrics. ML models yield high prediction errors for SJR and IF estimations, which suggests that the EiC’s scholarly indices are not good representations of the journal rankings.

1289 Gender Representation in The Authorship of Surgical Journals

Introduction Despite the increase in female doctors graduating from medical schools internationally, gender disparity in surgery remains. This disparity is also evident in academic surgery. This study aims to quantify the extent of gender disparity in the authorship of articles in major surgical journals. Method The Top 10 Surgical Journals were identified using SCImago Journal Rank indicator. Authorship details for papers published in 2019 were collected. Authors were assigned as female, male or unknown using Gender API software (Gender API, Germany). For each journal, the percentage of first author, last author, corresponding author and all authors split by gender was interrogated. Gender differences by publication type were also identified. Results 9 of the 10 journals had full names publicly available. Overall, 2414 manuscripts were interrogated which included 16,277 number of authors. Respectively, females and males accounted for 29.8% [22.9-34.9%] (N = 655) and 62.4% [56.3-70.2%] (N = 1419) of first authors, 20.6% [11.8-27.1%] (N = 453) and 74.2% [65.6-84.1%] (N = 1706) of last authors, 23.9% [14.9-29.6%] (N = 510) and 69.9% [60.5-79.3%] (N = 2341) of corresponding authors and in total 27% [19.4-31.6%] (N = 4298) and 65.5% [58.6-73.4%] (N = 9982) of all authors. The wide range in these results could be a result of various factors. Conclusions This study has identified a gender imbalance in authorship positions, with the greatest difference observed in the most senior author position. Whether this is reflective of the current disparity observed in senior academic surgery positions or due to gender discrimination is unclear.