A bibliometric analysis of highly cited publications in Web of Science category of emergency medicine

The highly cited publications in the Web of Science category of emergency medicine were identified and analysed. Articles that have been cited 100 or more times from Web of Science Core Collection since publication year to the end of 2019 were assessed regarding their distribution in indexed journals. Six publication indicators were applied to compare the publication performance of countries and institutes. The Y-index was applied to assess publication quantity and the characteristics of contribution to highly cited authors. Words used in the highly cited articles were analysed. Citation histories of the most frequently cited articles and the most impact articles were also compared. Results showed that the USA ranked top in the six publication indicators. The University of California Davis in the USA was the most independent institute.

The Need for a Code of Conduct for Research Funders

In addition to a code of conduct for researchers, it is desirable to implement a code of conduct for funders of research. This is because researchers often behave unethically as a result of direct and/or indirect pressure from funders. The paper provides an expansion of the first proposal for such a code of conduct and includes several elements such as “policy relevant research should not be contracted and supervised by a client with an interest in the outcomes”, and “policy relevant research should always be examined by an independent institute”.