1. Assessing Occupational Epidemiology Research Productivity
Po Wen Shih1*, Sin Kan Teng1, Hsin-Heng Chen1, Yee-Shuan Lee2 and Yuh-Shan Ho1#
1School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University
2Bibliometric Centre, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital
Introduction
Occupational epidemiology is an important aspect of clinical epidemiology and occupational hygiene. It provided useful and practical information to understand the causes and determinants of work related sickness and to help establishing probable protocols to reduce those risks and to evaluate interventions for the benefits of workers and of the community at large. It has become more important to understand the role and application of occupational epidemiology and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the publication pattern of occupational epidemiology related documents and to observe any significant patterns.
Methodology
Documents based on:
Indexed into Science Citation Index (SCI)
Published from 1981 to 2002
Included keywords occupation* and epidemiology
Analysis based on:
Yearly Publication (P)
Citation per Publication (CPP)
Total Citation / Total Publication
Authorship
Country of origins
Favor in small group collaboration
Collaboration affected citation frequency
Results
Total production: 2177
Yearly average production: 181
CPP sharply decreased since 1994
International collaborative work increased sharply
ICP: International collaborative production
Favor in two countries collaboration
No distinctive correlation between international collaboration and citation frequency
94.8% were published in English
Rest were all in European languages
37% were published independently by USA
86.7% were published as articles
Reviews have highest CPP
P%: Percentage share of international collaborative publication
88.16% were collaborated with main-stream countries
66.7% of non main-stream collaboration were among European countries
Conclusion
Domination of Main-Stream and Western countries
Different collaboration style affected production and collaboration pattern
No indication of occupational epidemiology was becoming a future research trend
European countries and USA concerned the most with this issue
Increase in collaborative work with Europe and USA indicated raise of awareness in other regions have grown