Scientific Research of Senior Italian Academics of Occupational Medicine: A Citation Analysis of Products Published During the Decade 2001–2010

Abstract

This article analyzes 10 years of scientific publications among senior Italian academics in occupational medicine by means of citation analysis. Articles published during the decade 2001-2010 were analyzed by means of Elsevier's Scopus. Scientific performance was assessed by means of 9 different indices (including total number of papers, total citations, h-index). Most papers were submitted to journals of allergy and respiratory medicine, biochemistry, and toxicology. Only 11.9% of the 1,689 papers were published in journals of occupational medicine. The authors' h-index was 10.1 (mean) and 9.5 (median) for the overall production. Productivity was associated with number of contributing authors. Most papers cover topics in the mainstream of other disciplines, evidencing that journals of occupational medicine do not play a primary role in the scientific panorama of medical sciences. This could imply consequences for the discipline.

The international contribution to occupational health research

“…First, it is possible that researchers are influenced by existing preferences within their own institution or country of where to publish. A study of published research by 29 senior Italian occupational health academics (11) identified that 12% of papers in the decade prior to 2010 were published in specialist occupational health journals, with more papers being published in other specialty journals such as respiratory medicine and toxicology. Of the 29 academics, 8 did not publish any papers in core occupational health journals during the period studied, with the percentage in core journals varying from 0-39%.…”

Assessing and Developing Early Careers in Academic Research: How Can We Improve the Current Systems?

“…4 A more recent investigation found that only 12% of EOH-related articles had actually published in the journals of occupational medicine. 5 To help more fairly assess the published work of Early Career Researchers (ECRs), therefore, I suggested that we adjust the widely-used H-Index score for career length (as originally proposed by Hirsch, but not included in his final calculation) 6 and multiply this by an author's overall citation density. 1 This represents one potential strategy arising from the increasingly common practice of examining and refining the main bibliometric components on which these metrics are based: namely, individual publications and article citations.…”