Abstract
Recently, geographical information systems have been very intensively applied in social life and in public health in particular. A retrospective problem-oriented search on their use in health planning was performed in Web of Science of Web of Knowledge, three versions of MEDLINE, Scopus, EMBASE, and ProQuest Medical in 1990–2010. The annual dynamics of a set of scientometric parameters characterizing several aspects of the abstracted publications, authors’ scientific institutions, journals, authors, citations, and languages was comparatively analyzed. It was established that world publication output on such a relatively narrow topic was reflected to a different extent in these data-bases. MEDLINE (PubMed) presented with 484 papers published in 243 journals followed by MEDLINE (WoK) with 360 papers in 215 journals. The abstracted publications were mainly in English, but 14 other languages were present in significant numbers. Publications by authors from 44 countries were abstracted in WoS but from 29 countries in MEDLINE (Ebsco). The most productive authors and institutions as well as the ‘core’ journals were identified. The International Journal of Health Geography occupied the leading position. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (USA) was one of the most productive research institutions in WoS and in Scopus. Scientific institutions and journals belonged to problem-oriented and to mono-, two- and three-disciplinary thematic profiles as well. Some essential peculiarities of the dynamics of research institutionalization and internationalization in this interdisciplinary field were illustrated. The constellation of specific semantically-loaded indicators could be applied for the purposes of problem-oriented analyses as it could timely identify the essential patterns of scientific advances in rapidly expanding interdisciplinary topics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramo, G., D’Angelo, C. A., & Solazzi, M. (2011). The relationship between scientists’ research performance and the degree of internationalization of their research. Scientometrics, 86(3), 629–643.
Caron, C., Roche, S., Goyer, D., & Jaton, A. (2008). GIScience journals ranking and evaluation: An international Delphi study. Transactions in GIS, 12(3), 293–321.
Edler, J., & Flanagan, K. (2011). Indicator needs for the internationalisation of science policies. Research Evaluation, 20(1), 7–17.
Gatrell, A. C. (2002). Geographies of health: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Glänzel, W., & Schubert, A. (2005). Domesticity and internationality in co-authorship, references and citations. Scientometrics, 65(3), 323–342.
Jonkers, K., & Cruz-Castro, L. (2010). The internationalisation of public sector research through international joint laboratories. Science and Public Policy, 37(8), 559–570.
Leite, P., Mugnaini, R., & Leta, J. (2011). A new indicator for international visibility: Exploring Brazilian scientific community. Scientometrics, 88(1), 311–319.
Leydesdorff, L., & Schank, T. (2008). Dynamic animations of journal maps: Indicators of structural changes and interdisciplinary developments. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(11), 1810–1818.
Martinez, A. S. (2010). Institutionalization of American cosmography: The House of Trade of Sevilla, the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies and Academy of Mathematics of Philip II. Revista de Indias, 70(250), 715–747.
Murad, A. (2004). Creating a GIS application for local health care planning in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 14(3), 185–189.
Murad, A. A. (2008). Defining health catchment areas in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia: An example demonstrating the utility of geographical information systems. Geospatial Health, 2(2), 151–160.
Murad, A. A., & Tomov, D. T. (2008). Comparative scientometric indicators: The case of applications of geographic information systems and remote sensing in public health. In Excellence and emergence. A new challenge for the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. 10th International conference on science and technology indicators. Book of abstracts (pp. 504–506). Vienna, 17–20.IX.2008.
Murad, A., Moutafova, E., Kostadinova, T., & Tomov, D. (2006). Application of geographic information systems in the planning of public health, education, and tourism. In Economics, investments, European Union. Proceedings of a scientific conference with international participation (pp. 67–75). Varna: University of Economics of Varna.
Olmeda-Gomez, C., Perianes-Rodriguez, A., Ovalle-Perandones, M. A., Guerrero-Bote, V. P., & Anegon, F. D. (2009). Visualization of scientific co-authorship in Spanish universities—from regionalization to internationalization. ASLIB Proceedings, 61(1), 83–100.
Ponds, R. (2009). The limits to internationalization of scientific research collaboration. Journal of Technology Transfer, 34(1), 76–94.
Porter, A. L., & Rafols, I. (2009). Is science becoming more interdisciplinary? Measuring and mapping six research fields over time. Scientometrics, 81(3), 719–745.
Schummer, J. (2004). Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and patterns of research collaboration in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Scientometrics, 59(3), 425–465.
Schummer, J. (2007). The global institutionalization of nanotechnology research: A bibliometric approach to the assessment of science policy. Scientometrics, 70(3), 669–692.
Singaravelou, P. (2011). The institutionalisation of ‘colonial geography’ in France, 1880–1940. Journal of Historical Geography, 37(2), 149–157.
Tijssen, R. J. W. (2009). Internationalisation of pharmaceutical R&D: How globalised are Europe’s largest multinational companies? Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 21(7), 859–879.
Tomov, D. T. (2001). The unity of interdisciplinarity, institutionalization and internationalization of science: Reflections from/on cell biology. Biomedical Reviews, 12, 41–55.
Tomov, D. (2004). International visibility of Bulgarian memory research. Scripta Scientifica Medica (Varna), 36, 65–69.
Tomov, D. T. (2006). Adipobiology: A scientometric view to its increasing significance. Biomedical Reviews, 17, 113–118.
Tomov, D. T. (2010). Institutionalization of interdisciplinary research under the conditions of internationalization (scientometric and historiographic aspects of the problem of ‘memory’). DSc thesis in Social Studies of Science. Sofia: Centre for Science Studies and History of Science (in Bulgarian).
Tomov, D. T., & Murad, A. A. (2007). International communication patterns in an emerging interdisciplinary field—applications of geographic information systems in public health. In D. Torres-Sallinas & H. F. Moed (Eds.), 11 th International conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics. Proceedings of ISSI 2007 (pp. 938–939). Madrid: CSIC.
Tomov, D. T., & Mutafov, H. G. (2004). Dynamic stratification of document-type distributions in interdisciplinary biomedical research. Scripta Periodica, 7(1), 12–18.
Vinkler, P. (2002). The institutionalization of scientific information: A scientometric model (ISI-S model). Library Trends, 50(3), 553–569.
Vinkler, P. (2010). The πv-index: A new indicator to characterize the impact of journals. Scientometrics, 82, 461–475.
Zitt, M. (2005). Facing diversity of science: A challenge for bibliometric indicators. Measurement, 3(1), 38–43.
Zitt, M., Ramanana-Rahary, S., & Bassecoulard, E. (2003). Correcting glasses help fair comparisons in international science landscape: Country indicators as a function of ISI database delineation. Scientometrics, 56(2), 259–282.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Murad, A.A., Tomov, D.T. Institutionalization and internationalization of research on the applications of the geographical information systems in health planning. Scientometrics 91, 143–158 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0567-7
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0567-7