Thyroid Research in India : A Scientometric Assessment of Publications Output during 2007-16

Copyright © 2017 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Cite this article : Gupta BM, Mueen Ahmed KK, Gupta R. Thyroid Research in India: A Scientometric Assessment of Publications Output during 2007-16. Int J Med Public Health. 2017;7(3):134-41. ABSTRACT The paper examines 2483 global publications on thyroid research in India, as covered in Scopus database during 2007-16, experiencing an annual average growth rate of 10.76% and qualitative citation impact averaged to 4.75 citations per paper. India’s share of internationally collaborative papers (ICP) was 8.82% during 2007-16, which increased from 8.19% to 9.21% from 2007-11 to 2012-16. The top 10 most productive countries individually contributed global share from 3.67% to 25.88%, with largest global publication share coming from USA (25.88%), followed by Italy (8.15%), etc. Together, the 10 most productive countries accounted for 73.75% share of global publication output during 2007-16. Medicine accounts for the largest share (77.57%) in Indian thyroid research, followed by biochemistry, genetics & molecular biology (23.60%), pharmacology, toxicology & pharmaceutics (8.46%), agricultural & biological sciences (3.34%) and neurosciences (2.54%) during 2007-16. The top 15 most productive research organizations and the authors collectively contributed 31.70% and 11.24% respectively as their global publication share and 34.72% and 17.58% respectively as their global citation share during 2007-16. The journals accounted 23.23% share of total journal publication output during 2007-16, increasing from 19.62% to 25.66% between 2007-11 and 2012-16. Of the total thyroid research output from India, the top 13 highly cited publications registered citations from 83 to 422 and they together received 2023 citations, with 155.61 citations per paper. These 13 highly cited papers were published in 11 journals, of which 2 papers were published in American Journal of Transplantation and 1 paper each in 10 other journals.


INTRODUCTION
Thyroid disorders are conditions that affect the thyroid gland, a butterfly-shaped gland in the front of the neck.The thyroid has important roles to regulate numerous metabolic processes throughout the body.Different types of thyroid disorders affect either its structure or function.The thyroid gland is located below the Adam's apple wrapped around the trachea (windpipe).A thin area of tissue in the gland's middle, known as the isthmus, joins the two thyroid lobes on each side.The thyroid uses iodine to produce vital hormones.Thyroxine, also known as T4, is the primary hormone produced by the gland.After delivery via the bloodstream to the body's tissues, a small portion of the T4 released from the gland is converted to triiodothyronine (T3), which is the most active hormone.The function of the thyroid gland is regulated by a feedback mechanism involving the brain.When thyroid hormone levels are low, the hypothalamus in the brain produces a hormone known as thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) that causes the pituitary gland (located at the base of the brain) to release thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH).TSH stimulates the thyroid gland to release more T4.Since the thyroid gland is controlled by the pituitary gland and hypo-thalamus, disorders of these tissues can also affect thyroid function and cause thyroid problems. 1hyroid diseases are among the commonest endocrine disorders worldwide.In India it has been estimated that about 42 million people suffer from thyroid disorders, majorly because the entire population, and not just the Himalayan belt, is prone to iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) due to deficiency of iodine in the soil of the subcontinent.The overall prevalence of IDD is above 10% in India.IDD in pregnancy can lead to spontaneous abortions and stillbirths.It can have profound effects on the growing fetus and lead to congenital goiter and cretinism in the newborn.However, the effects can be observed during childhood when it can affect the growth and development of children, as also during adulthood when it can affect the productivity.Hypothyroidism and Autoimmune thyroiditis are common disorders in India, and over the years its incidences seem to be on the rise. 2 Thyroid diseases are different from other diseases in terms of their ease of diagnosis, accessibility of medical treatment, and the relative visibility that even a small swelling of the thyroid offers to the treating physician.Early diagnosis and treatment remains the cornerstone of management. 3

Literature Review
Only one study is available by Bhutani, Verma and Kalra [4], which quantitatively analyze 210 publications (appearing in 23 main issues and 1 special issue) of the journal entitled ''Thyroid Research & Practice'' during 2006-13.The articles covered in this journal are classified by type of articles, authorship pattern and by sub-specialties, origin of authors from India and abroad and contribution by academic and non-academic institutions.

OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of this study are to study the performance of Indian thyroid research during 2007-16, based on publications output covered in Scopus database.In particular, the study focuses on the following objectives: (i) To study the growth of world research output, contribution of top 10 most productive countries, Indian research output and its citation impact; (ii) To study the share of international collaboration papers in India's overall research output and contribution of important international collaborative partner countries; (iii) To study the Indian research output by broad subject areas, by sub-fields and the trends of research by identifying important keywords; (iv) To study the publication productivity and citation impact of top 15 most productive organizations and authors; (vi) To study the modes of communication in research and identification of core journals and (vii) to study the characteristics of top 13 highly cited papers.

METHODOLOGY
The study retrieved and downloaded 10-year publication data of the world output in thyroid research from the Scopus database (http://www.scopus.com)covering the period 2007-16.Keywords, such as "thyroid'' was incorporated in the search string and qualified these keyword with "keyword tag", '' Article Title tag'' and "Source Title tag", and in addition incorporated in this search string the period '2007-16' within "date range tag".Finally this search string was applied for searching global publication data on thyroid research.The search string was subsequently refined by "subject area tag", "country tag", "source title tag", "journal title name" and "affiliation tag", to get data/information on the distribution of publications output by subject, collaborating countries, author-wise, organization-wise and journal-wise, etc.For citation data, citations to publications were also collected

Top 10 Most Productive Countries in Thyroid Research
The global research output in the field of thyroid research had originated from as many as 152 countries in the world during 2007-16.Top 10 most productive countries in thyroid research had contributed 2383 to 16823 publications each during 2007-16 (Table 3).Of the 152 countries, 102 contributed 1-10 papers each, 47 countries 11-50 papers each,28 countries 51-100 papers each and1 country 159 papers each.Top 10 most productive countries in thyroid research accounted for 73.75% global publication share during 2007-16.Their five-yearly output accounted for 71.88% global publication share during 2007-11 which increased to 75.36% during succeeding 5-year period 2012-16.Each of top 10 countries accounted for 3.67% to 25.88% global publication share during 2007-16, with USA accounting for the highest publication share (25.88%), followed by Italy (8.15%),China (7.70%), U.K., Germany and Japan (from 5.41% to 5.54%), South Korea (4.29%), France, Turkey and India (from 3.67% to 3.82%) during 2007-16.The global publication

Profile of Top 15 Most Productive Global Organizations
The productivity of 15 most productive global organizations in Indian thyroid research varied from 24 to 159 publications and together they

Profile of Top 15 Most Productive Authors
The research productivity of top 15 most productive authors in Indian thyroid research varied from 12 to 34 publications.Together they contributed 11.24% (279) Indian publication share and 17.58% (2072) cita- Of the total Indian output on thyroid research, only 13 publications registered high citations, in the range of 83 to 422 citations per paper, and collectively these 13 highly cited papers received a total of 2023 citations, averaging to 155.61 citations per paper.Among international collaborative papers, the largest participation was from USA (6 papers), followed by France, Argentina and Netherlands (3 papers each), U.K., Belgium, Mexico, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, China and Australia (2 papers each) and 1 paper each by 22 countries.There were 17 Indian organiza-

Table 1 : World and Indian Output in Thyroid Research, 2007-16
TP=Total Papers; TC=Total Citations; CPP=Citations Per Paper International Journal of Medicine and Public Health, Vol 7, Issue 3, Jul-Sep, 2017

Table 3 : Global Publication Share of Top 10 Most Productive Countries in Thyroid Research during 2007-16 Name of the Country Number of Papers Share of Papers
in five years increased by 5.67% by China, followed by 2.38% by South Korea, 0.92% by India and 0.40% by Turkey as against decrease by 2.28% by USA, 1.12% by U.K., 1.0% by Germany , 0.79% by France, 0.62% by Japan and 0.06% by Italy from 2007-11 to 2012-16. share

Table 8 : Top 15 Most Productive Journals in Thyroid Research in India during 2007-16 Name of the Journal Number of Papers
these high cited papers.Of the 13 highly cited papers, 8 were published as articles, 3 as review papers and 2 as conference paper.These 13 highly cited papers were published in 11 journals, of which 2 papers were published in American Journal of Transplantation and 1 paper each in 10 other journals Concludes that there is a high burden of thyroid diseases in India, which is under-addressed both within government programs, population level and the medical fraternity level too.Thyroid diseases are different from other diseases in terms of their diagnosis and medical treatment.Early diagnosis and treatment is the cornerstone of management of thyroid disorders, hence there is an urgent need to build capacity in this area as thyroid has become a serious health threat with exploding population.India needs to build capacity amongst primary care physicians to address management, counseling, referral and prevention of thyroid disorders.It will go a step further to tackle the rising prevalence thyroid disorders aimed to strengthen the capacity of doctors to deal with the enormous challenges it poses, with the ultimate aim of improving the health outcomes of people.cultural& biological sciences registered the highest citation impact per paper of 7.22, followed by neurosciences (6.24), biochemistry, genetics & molecular biology (6.12), pharmacology, toxicology & pharmaceutics (5.85) and medicine (4.65) during 2006-15 .In terms of sub-specialties, clinical thyroidology received the largest share (65.85%) of papers, followed by thyroid Interface with non-endocrine systems (23.28%), investigational thyroidology (11.50%) and thryroid interface with endocrine systems (5.80%) during 2007-16.The top 15 most productive research organizations and the authors collectively contributed 31.70% and 11.24% respectively as their global publication share and 34.72% and 17.58% respectively as their global citation share during 2007-16.The journals as a medium ranked 1 st , accounting for 98.35% share of total Indian output on thyroid research during 2007-16.The 15 most productive journals involved in Indian thyroid research constituted 23.23% share of total journal publication output during 2007-16, increasing from 19.62% to 25.66% between 2007-11 and 2012-16.Journal of Clinical & Diagnostic Research accounted for largest number of papers (95), followed by Indian Journal of Nuclear Medicine (51 papers), BMJ Case Reports (44 papers), Indian Journal of Pathology & Microbiology (40 papers), etc. during 2007-16.