Growth and development of biofeedback: a bibliographic analysis

A computerized search was performed, and a bibliography was prepared on the subject of biofeedback covering the years from 1964 to 1985. Growth curves were produced for various publication media. The search produced references to 2,431 journal articles, 102 books, 79 popular magazine articles, and 551 doctoral dissertations. The journal articles were sorted according to the country of publication, language, and primary topic of the journal. Citations were found from 35 countries, written in 18 languages. All the media studied showed a period of rapid growth during the early to middle 1970s, but there was a tendency for leveling off or slight decline during the early 1980s. Publication of articles in medical journals has shown the greatest growth, and more articles are published yearly in medical journals than in journals of any other discipline or all specialty journals combined. Publication in psychological journals has shown a decline since 1977. Dental, nursing, and educational journals have shown a low rate of publication of biofeedback articles, indicating little or no growth.     

Growth and development of biofeedback: a bibliographic update

Computerized literature searching techniques were used to examine publication patterns in the worldwide biofeedback literature. Searches were completed in the United States and in Japan for the years 1985 through 1987. The results were used to update the results of an earlier study that covered the years from 1964 through 1984. Publication growth curves were generated for several media, including scientific journal articles, books, doctoral dissertations, and popular magazine articles. Although publication of information about biofeedback remains active worldwide, there has been a declining trend in effect for the past several years. The American database grossly underestimated the number of Japanese biofeedback articles, and it is likely that the literatures of other countries outside of North America were similarly underestimated. Possible explanations for the various trends noted are discussed.     

Growth and development of biofeedback: A bibliographic update

Computerized literature searching techniques were used to examine publication patterns in the worldwide biofeedback literature. Searches were completed in the United States and in Japan for the years 1985 through 1987. The results were used to update the results of an earlier study (Hatch & Riley, 1985) that covered the years from 1964 through 1984. Publication growth curves were generated for several media, including scientific journal articles, books, doctoral dissertations, and popular magazine articles. Although publication of information about biofeedback remains active worldwide, there has been a declining trend in effect for the past several years. The American database grossly underestimated the number of Japanese biofeedback articles, and it is likely that the literatures of other countries outside of North America were similarly underestimated. Possible explanations for the various trends noted are discussed.These results were presented in part at the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Margaret Cyr-Provost in preparing the data for analysis.     

Disclosure of Financial Conflicts of Interests in Interventions to Improve Child Psychosocial Health: A Cross-Sectional Study

Academic journals increasingly request a full disclosure of financial conflict of interest (CoI). The Committee for Publication Ethics provides editors with guidance about the course of action in the case of suspected non-disclosure. No prior study has examined the extent to which journal articles on psychosocial interventions disclose CoI, and how journal editors process requests to examine suspected undisclosed CoI. Four internationally disseminated psychosocial interventions were examined. 136 articles related to an intervention, co-authored by intervention developers and published in health sciences journals were retrieved as requiring a CoI statement. Two editors refused consent to be included in the study. COI disclosures and editor responses were coded for 134 articles. Overall, 92/134 (71%) of all articles were found to have absent, incomplete or partly misleading CoI disclosures. Disclosure rates for the four programs varied significantly between 11% and 73%. Journal editors were contacted about 92 published articles with no CoI disclosure or a disclosure that was considered problematic. In 65/92 (71%) of all cases the editors published an ‘erratum’ or ‘corrigendum’. In 16 of these cases the journal had mishandled a submitted disclosure. The most frequent reason for non-publication of an erratum was that the journal had no disclosure policy at the time of the publication (16 cases). Consumers of research on psychosocial interventions published in peer-reviewed journals cannot currently assume that CoI disclosures are adequate and complete. More efforts are needed to achieve transparency.     

A survey of biomedical journals to detect editorial bias and nepotistic behavior

Alongside the growing concerns regarding predatory journal growth, other questionable editorial practices have gained visibility recently. Among them, we explored the usefulness of the Percentage of Papers by the Most Prolific author (PPMP) and the Gini index (level of inequality in the distribution of authorship among authors) as tools to identify journals that may show favoritism in accepting articles by specific authors. We examined whether the PPMP, complemented by the Gini index, could be useful for identifying cases of potential editorial bias, using all articles in a sample of 5,468 biomedical journals indexed in the National Library of Medicine. For articles published between 2015 and 2019, the median PPMP was 2.9%, and 5% of journal exhibited a PPMP of 10.6% or more. Among the journals with the highest PPMP or Gini index values, where a few authors were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications, a random sample was manually examined, revealing that the most prolific author was part of the editorial board in 60 cases (61%). The papers by the most prolific authors were more likely to be accepted for publication within 3 weeks of their submission. Results of analysis on a subset of articles, excluding nonresearch articles, were consistent with those of the principal analysis. In most journals, publications are distributed across a large number of authors. Our results reveal a subset of journals where a few authors, often members of the editorial board, were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications. To enhance trust in their practices, journals need to be transparent about their editorial and peer review practices.

Alongside the growing concerns regarding predatory journal growth, other questionable editorial practices have gained visibility recently. This study explores the relationship between hyper-prolific authors and a journal’s editorial team, finding a subset of journals where a few authors, often members of the editorial board, were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications.     

Considerations for conducting research in agricultural biotechnology

Science has shown its increased vulnerability because of two recent high-profile articles published in major journals on corn produced through biotechnology: a laboratory report suggesting profound consequences to monarch butterfly populations due to Bt corn pollen and a report suggesting transgenic introgression into Mexican maize. While both studies have been widely regarded as having flawed methodology, publishing these studies has created great consternation in the scientific community, regulatory agencies and the general public. There are roles and responsibilities of scientists, scientific journals, the public media, public agencies, and those who oppose or advocate a specific technology, and serious consequences when those roles and responsibilities go awry. Modern communication may exacerbate the flow of misinformation and easily lead to a decline in public confidence about biotechnology and science. However, common sense tells us that scientific inquiry and the publication and reporting of results should be performed with high standards of ethical behavior, regardless of one's personal perspective on agricultural biotechnology.     

Rising Publication Delays Inflate Journal Impact Factors

Journal impact factors have become an important criterion to judge the quality of scientific publications over the years, influencing the evaluation of institutions and individual researchers worldwide. However, they are also subject to a number of criticisms. Here we point out that the calculation of a journal’s impact factor is mainly based on the date of publication of its articles in print form, despite the fact that most journals now make their articles available online before that date. We analyze 61 neuroscience journals and show that delays between online and print publication of articles increased steadily over the last decade. Importantly, such a practice varies widely among journals, as some of them have no delays, while for others this period is longer than a year. Using a modified impact factor based on online rather than print publication dates, we demonstrate that online-to-print delays can artificially raise a journal’s impact factor, and that this inflation is greater for longer publication lags. We also show that correcting the effect of publication delay on impact factors changes journal rankings based on this metric. We thus suggest that indexing of articles in citation databases and calculation of citation metrics should be based on the date of an article’s online appearance, rather than on that of its publication in print.     

2001: New name to reflect wider scope Online-First in LINK now available

Starting with Volume 24 in 2001, with a new name and new editorial board the publisher also introduces wider scope, again strictly peer-reviewed articles and Online First, the feature in LINK that guarantees fast publication and international visibility through Springer-Verlag and LINK, the leading electronic journals service. With Online First articles can be published in electronic form weeks before distribution of the print journal – even before the issue and page numbers have been assigned. Publication of an article in a print journal usually takes several months. Even when peer-reviewing, revisions, final acceptance, typesetting and proof-reading have been completed, the paper cannot be printed immediately, but must wait until the “next available issue”. For technical reasons, a printed journal has to have a minimum number of pages, and issues are also published according to an annual schedule. Online First articles are published within the LINK service in a temporary directory. For the publication in the printed version, only the final page numbers, the citation line and the online publication date will be added. This is not a preprint service, the publications are in their final form. Authors will have been informed that after electronic publication they cannot change the contents of an article and that the articles cannot be withdrawn. Publication date of the article is the Online Publication Date, which is indicated in LINK as well as in the printed article. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering now provides an even more attractive international forum to facilitate the discussion between engineering and biological science to find efficient solutions in the development and improvement of bioprocesses. The aim of the journal is to focus more attention on the multidisciplinary approaches for integrative process design based on the hierarchical structure and de-composability of biosystems leading to analysis and synthesis. Contributions are targeted at new approaches for rational and evolutive design of cellular systems by taking into account the environment and constraints of technical production processes, integration of recombinant technology and process design, as well as new hybrid intersections such as bioinformatics and process systems engineering. The journal publishes Original Papers, Short Communications and Mini Reviews. Fields of interest are: Bioprocess Engineering, Biocatalysis, Metabolic Engineering, Rational and Evolutive Design of Biosystems, Functinal Genomics, Application of Biosystems Engineering to Medicine. The Editor-in-chief     

Impact beyond the impact factor

The journal impact factor is an annually calculated number for each scientific journal, based on the average number of times its articles published in the two preceding years have been cited. It was originally devised as a tool for librarians and publishers to provide information about the citation performance of a journal as a whole, but over the last few decades it has increasingly been used to assess the quality of specific articles and the research performance of individual investigators, institutions, and countries. In addition to this clear abuse of the journal impact factor, several conceptual and technical issues limit its usability as a measure of journal reputation, especially when journals are compared across different fields. An author’s decision regarding the suitability of a scholarly journal for publication should, therefore, be based on the impact that this journal makes in the field of research, rather than on the journal impact factor.     

Media Coverage,Journal Press Releases and Editorials Associated with Randomized and Observational Studies in High-Impact Medical Journals: A Cohort Study

Background

Publication of clinical research findings in prominent journals influences health beliefs and medical practice, in part by engendering news coverage. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) should be most influential in guiding clinical practice. We determined whether study design of clinical research published in high-impact journals influences media coverage.

Methods and Findings

We compared the incidence and amount of media coverage of RCTs with that of observational studies published in the top 7 medical journals between 1 January 2013 and 31 March 2013. We specifically assessed media coverage of the most rigorous RCTs, those with >1000 participants that reported ‘hard’ outcomes. There was no difference between RCTs and observational studies in coverage by major newspapers or news agencies, or in total number of news stories generated (all P>0.63). Large RCTs reporting ‘hard’ outcomes did not generate more news coverage than small RCTs that reported surrogate outcomes and observational studies (all P>0.32). RCTs were more likely than observational studies to attract a journal editorial (70% vs 46%, P = 0.003), but less likely to be the subject of a journal press release (17% vs 50%, P<0.001). Large RCTs that reported ‘hard’ outcomes did not attract an editorial more frequently than other studies (61% vs 58%, P>0.99), nor were they more likely to be the subject of a journal press release (14% vs 38%, P = 0.14).

Conclusions

The design of clinical studies whose results are published in high-impact medical journals is not associated with the likelihood or amount of ensuing news coverage.     

International collaboration in freshwater ecology

1. International collaboration in freshwater ecology was examined using authorship affiliations of articles published in thirty-three specialized journals. Most are published in Europe. 2. Researchers from four to thirty-seven different countries were represented in the 100 articles examined for each journal. Only 29% of articles were single-authored; multicountry authors' addresses (indicating international collaboration) were found for 9% (range 0–23% per journal) of articles examined. 3. Five of the eighty-nine countries listed in the addresses of the 3300 articles together contributed >50% of total articles: United States (24.9%), Canada (8.6%), Germany (7.6%), Commonwealth of Independent States (7.0%) and Poland (5.9%). Of the fifteen countries that each produced >2.5% of total articles, the percentage representing international collaboration was highest for France (34.9%) and Canada (24.0%). The seventy-four countries that each contributed <2.5% of total articles generally had higher rates of international collaboration. 4. Researchers in the United States and Canada collaborate internationally almost twice as often in freshwater ecology than in all science. Much of France's extensive international collaboration is with countries that produce few articles in freshwater ecology, and their international collaboration is often exclusively with France. 5. Three journals publishing both marine and freshwater ecology articles contain more articles on the former topic, but more countries are represented in the publication of freshwater than marine research. 6. The percentage of articles that represent international collaboration is higher in freshwater ecology than in medicine, biology, chemistry and engineering, and approximates that in physics.     

Developing a register of randomised controlled trials in primary care.

OBJECTIVE--To determine the number, nature, site of publication, and feasibility of identifying randomised controlled trials relevant to primary care. DESIGN--Review of literature using three strategies: approaching journal editors, Medline search, and manual search of individual journals. SETTING--Journals containing publications of studies based in primary care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--The number, site of publication, and subject of trials identified. RESULTS--No journal had a system which enabled identification of all the randomised controlled trials it published. 266 trials relevant to primary care were identified from 110 different journals during 1987-91 by Medline. Of these, only 62 trials were published in primary care journals. Hand searching of seven major primary care research journals showed that between 13% and 38% of the trials had been missed by the Medline search. Of the trials identified, 47 (18%) were concerned with mental disease (including neuroses, tobacco misuse and alcohol misuse) and 43 (16%) were concerned with hypertension. CONCLUSION--Given the diversity of publication sources and topics, this supports the need for a centrally based register of randomised controlled trials that may be relevant to primary care overviews in the future.     

Conflicts of interest at medical journals: the influence of industry-supported randomised trials on journal impact factors and revenue - cohort study

Background

Transparency in reporting of conflict of interest is an increasingly important aspect of publication in medical journals. Publication of large industry-supported trials may generate many citations and journal income through reprint sales and thereby be a source of conflicts of interest for journals. We investigated industry-supported trials'' influence on journal impact factors and revenue.

Methods and Findings

We sampled six major medical journals (Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Internal Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, The Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine [NEJM]). For each journal, we identified randomised trials published in 1996–1997 and 2005–2006 using PubMed, and categorized the type of financial support. Using Web of Science, we investigated citations of industry-supported trials and the influence on journal impact factors over a ten-year period. We contacted journal editors and retrieved tax information on income from industry sources. The proportion of trials with sole industry support varied between journals, from 7% in BMJ to 32% in NEJM in 2005–2006. Industry-supported trials were more frequently cited than trials with other types of support, and omitting them from the impact factor calculation decreased journal impact factors. The decrease varied considerably between journals, with 1% for BMJ to 15% for NEJM in 2007. For the two journals disclosing data, income from the sales of reprints contributed to 3% and 41% of the total income for BMJ and The Lancet in 2005–2006.

Conclusions

Publication of industry-supported trials was associated with an increase in journal impact factors. Sales of reprints may provide a substantial income. We suggest that journals disclose financial information in the same way that they require them from their authors, so that readers can assess the potential effect of different types of papers on journals'' revenue and impact. Please see later in the article for the Editors'' Summary     

近十年的国际植被物候研究文献发展态势分析

基于Web of Science数据库的检索结果,利用Histcite、Bibexcel和Netdraw对国际植被物候研究文献进行计量分析。结果表明:1 060篇相关文献刊载于288种期刊,平均载文3.68篇; 共分33个研究方向; 3 380位作者(第一作者904位)、69个国家或地区、1 172个组织参与; 国际合作发文310篇,占比29.25%; 其中中美合作居第一(19次)。分析还表明:2002～2007年是该领域重要发展期; 国际植被物候研究热点主要集中在基于气候(climate)-物候的田间局地观测和基于遥感(remote sensing)的大尺度物候研究。     

Obesity Research and Medical Journalism

With publication of the first number of volume 3 of OBESITY RESEARCH, the time is ripe to review where we have been and where we are going. There are now two widely accepted journals covering the field of obesity. It was not always so. Until 20 years ago only one journal had appeared with the word “obesity” in its title, and its publication was short lived (Table 1). The growth of medical journalism in this field over the past 20 years, as in other fields, is a reflection of the growth of scientific manpower and knowledge which had its beginnings in the scientific revolution more than 300 years ago. The frustration engendered by this steady and rapid growth of scientific journals has been reflected in the quotations from many scholars. Below are a few of these.     

New Publications Received

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned. Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself. This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.     

New Publications Received

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned. Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.