Reviewers’ Ratings and Bibliometric Indicators: Hand in Hand When Assessing Over Research Proposals?

Background

The peer review system has been traditionally challenged due to its many limitations especially for allocating funding. Bibliometric indicators may well present themselves as a complement.

Objective

We analyze the relationship between peers’ ratings and bibliometric indicators for Spanish researchers in the 2007 National R&D Plan for 23 research fields.

Methods and Materials

We analyze peers’ ratings for 2333 applications. We also gathered principal investigators’ research output and impact and studied the differences between accepted and rejected applications. We used the Web of Science database and focused on the 2002-2006 period. First, we analyzed the distribution of granted and rejected proposals considering a given set of bibliometric indicators to test if there are significant differences. Then, we applied a multiple logistic regression analysis to determine if bibliometric indicators can explain by themselves the concession of grant proposals.

Results

63.4% of the applications were funded. Bibliometric indicators for accepted proposals showed a better previous performance than for those rejected; however the correlation between peer review and bibliometric indicators is very heterogeneous among most areas. The logistic regression analysis showed that the main bibliometric indicators that explain the granting of research proposals in most cases are the output (number of published articles) and the number of papers published in journals that belong to the first quartile ranking of the Journal Citations Report.

Discussion

Bibliometric indicators predict the concession of grant proposals at least as well as peer ratings. Social Sciences and Education are the only areas where no relation was found, although this may be due to the limitations of the Web of Science’s coverage. These findings encourage the use of bibliometric indicators as a complement to peer review in most of the analyzed areas.     

Does Weight Loss Maintenance Become Easier Over Time?

Objective: Studies of health‐related behaviors, including weight loss, have shown that risk of relapse decreases over time, although reasons for this relationship are unclear. The purpose of this cross‐sectional study was to determine if subjects who have maintained weight losses for varying periods of time report different strategies for weight loss maintenance or differences in the effort and pleasure associated with weight maintenance behaviors. Research Methods and Procedures: Subjects were 758 women and 173 men who had maintained losses of at least 30 lb (mean = 60 lb) for 2 years or longer (mean = 6.8 ± 7.0 years). Self‐administered questionnaires assessed subjects’ use of weight maintenance strategies in the past year and their perceptions of the effort, attention, and pleasure associated with weight maintenance. Results: Subjects who had maintained weight losses longer used fewer weight maintenance strategies and reported that less effort was required to diet and maintain weight and that less attention was required to maintain weight. The pleasure derived from exercise, low‐fat eating, and maintaining weight was unrelated to duration of weight loss maintenance. Discussion: As duration increases, a shift in the balance between the effort and pleasure of weight maintenance may occur. This shift may increase the likelihood of continued maintenance.     

New Findings of the Rare Species Rondeletia bicolor (Stephanoberycoidei) Over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Some Peculiarities of the Rondeletiidae Family’s Phylologeny

Journal of Ichthyology - New morphometric data on the rare mesobathypelagic species Rondeletia bicolor (Rondeletiidae) caught over the central part of the Mid-Atlantic ridge in the depth range...     

Over enkele enzoötieën veroorzaakt door S. typhi-murium

Zusammenfassung Verf. weist aus das Vorkommen von Endemien und Enzo?zien, die durchS. typhimurium von verschiedenem Kulturtyp verursacht werden. Der Kulturtyp gibt wichtige Hinweise für das Feststellen der Infektionsquelle. Dies ist besonders wichtig bei Nahrungsmittelvergiftungen des Menschen und für die Beziehungen zwischen die Tiersalmonellosen untereinander. Der Rhamnosenegative Typ, der bisher beim Menschen und bei der Ente(Anas Boschas) bekannt war, wurde weiter gefunden bei Ratte(Mus norvegicus), Sturmm?we(Larus canus), Silberm?we(Larus argentatus), Star(Sturnus vulgaris), Wendehals(Jynx torquilla), Kanarienvogel(Serinus canarius L.) und Affe(Macacus rhesus).

---

---

Ingezonden: November 1937.     

A reciprocal translocation between ’Garfi’ almond and ’Nemared’ peach

A map with 51 markers (46 RFLPs and five isozymes) was constructed using an interspecific F₂ population between ’Garfi’ almond (Prunus amygdalus Batsch.) and ’Nemared’ peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.]. This map was developed by selecting markers covering most of the distance of the eight linkage groups from previously constructed Prunus maps. The markers studied in this population mapped to seven linkage groups instead of the eight expected in Prunus. Markers belonging to groups 6 and 8 in previous maps formed a single group in the ’Garfi’×’Nemared’ F₂ and several marker pairs placed in different groups in other maps exhibited tight linkages. The study of pollen fertility and chromosome behavior during meiosis in the F₁ generation allowed us to confirm the hypothesis that a reciprocal translocation exists between ’Garfi’ and ’Nemared’. Based on independent evidence of linkage between markers and pollen fertility data in the F₂ population, we concluded that the breakpoint of the reciprocal translocation was placed between markers AC50 and AG26A in group 6 and between markers AG112A and FG230A in group 8. Received: 28 June 2000 / Accepted: 17 October 2000     

Glass Transition and Dynamics in Lysozyme�CWater Mixtures Over Wide Ranges of Composition

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and two dielectric techniques, broadband dielectric relaxation spectroscopy and thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC), were employed to study glass transition and water and protein dynamics in mixtures of water and a globular protein, lysozyme, in wide ranges of water content, both solutions, and hydrated solid samples. In addition, water equilibrium sorption isotherms (ESI) measurements were performed at room temperature. The main objective was to correlate results by different techniques to each other and to determine critical water contents for various processes. From ESI measurements the content of water directly bound to primary hydration sites was determined to 0.088 (grams of water per grams of dry protein), corresponding to 71 water molecules per protein molecule, and that where clustering becomes significant to about 0.25. Crystallization and melting events of water were first observed at water contents 0.270 and 0.218, respectively, and the amount of uncrystallized water was found to increase with increasing water content. Two populations of ice crystals were observed by DSC, primary and bulk ice crystals, which give rise to two separate relaxations in dielectric measurements. In addition, the relaxation of uncrystallized water was observed, superimposed on a local relaxation of polar groups on the protein surface. The glass transition temperature, determined by DSC and TSDC in rather good agreement to each other, was found to decrease significantly with increasing water content and to stabilize at about −90 °C for water contents higher than about 0.25. This is a novel result of this study with potential impact on cryoprotection and pharmaceutics.     

The ‘president’s drug’

Netherlands Heart Journal -     

Over the top: do thermal barriers along elevation gradients limit biotic similarity?

Organismal dispersal through mountain passes should be more constrained by temperature‐related differences between lowland and highland sites in montane environments. This may lead to higher rates of diversification through isolation of existing lineages toward the tropics. This mechanism, proposed by Janzen, could influence broad‐scale patterns of biodiversity across mountainous regions and more broadly across latitudinal gradients. We constructed two complementary analyses to test this hypothesis. First, we measured topographically‐derived thermal gradients using recently‐developed climatic data across the Americas, reviewing the main expectations from Janzen's climatic model. Then, we evaluated whether thermal barriers predict assemblage similarity for amphibians and mammals along elevational gradients across most of their latitudinal extent in the Americas. Thermal barriers between low and high elevation areas, initially proposed to be unique to tropical environments, are comparably strong in some temperate regions, particularly along the western slopes of North American dividing ranges. Biotic similarity for both mammals and amphibians decreases between sites that are separated by elevation‐related thermal barriers. That is, the stronger the thermal barrier separating pairs of sites across the latitudinal gradient, the lower the similarity of their species assemblages. Thermal barriers explain 10–35% of the variation in latitudinal gradients of biotic similarity, effects that were stronger in comparisons of sites at high elevations. Mammals' stronger dispersal capacities and homeothermy may explain weaker effects of thermal barriers on gradients of assemblage similarity than among amphibians. Understanding how temperature gradients have shaped gradients of montane biological diversity in the past will improve understanding of how changing environments may affect them in the future.     

pppA2’p5’A2’p5’A保护病毒感染细胞的普遍性

pppA2’p5’A2’p5’A(简称2’-5’P_3A_3)是干扰素作用于细胞后诱导产生的物质。干扰素的作用机理很复杂,其中之一是2’-5’寡聚腺苷酸合成酶的活力增加,此酶以ATP为底物合成2’-5’P_3A_3及其同系物2’-5’P_3An。但2’-5’P_3A_3或2’-5’P_3A_n本身是否具有抗病毒作用,干扰素的抗病毒作用是否通过2’-5’P_3A_3或2’-5’P_3An而进行,这是一个很     

Prevention de l’infertilite d’origine infectieuse chez l’adolescent

Some causes of infertility can be prevented, as is the case for infertility of infectious origin. Genital infections represent a major source of infertility. Prostato-epididymitis consecutive to an urinary infection can be prevented by identifying and treating prostatic localizations at an early stage of urinary infection. The prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), which cause male and female infertility, is, at the moment, accomplished by the prevention of the sexual transmission of the HIV. Teenagers represent a target of choice for the educational campaigns promoting condom use. The role of physicians, especially when teenagers are asking for a contraception, must be complementary to the public health campaign to decrease the spread of HIV and other STDs.     

Prevention de l’infertilite d’origine infectieuse chez l’adolescent

Some causes of infertility can be prevented, as is the case for infertility of infectious origin. Genital infections represent a major source of infertility. Prostato-epididymitis consecutive to an urinary infection can be prevented by identifying and treating prostatic localizations at an early stage of urinary infection. The prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), which cause male and female infertility, is, at the moment, accomplished by the prevention of the sexual transmission of the HIV. Teenagers represent a target of choice for the educational campaigns promoting condom use. The role of physicians, especially when teenagers are asking for a contraception, must be complementary to the public health campaign to decrease the spread of HIV and other STDs.