Relation between online "hit counts" and subsequent citations: prospective study of research papers in the BMJ
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《英国医生杂志》
1 Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland thomas.perneger@hcuge.ch
Introduction
Papers that attracted the most hits on the BMJ website in the first week after publication were subsequently cited more often than less frequently accessed papers. Thus early hit counts capture at least to some extent the qualities that eventually lead to citation in the scientific literature.
My hypothesis is that "scientific value" explains the association between hits and citations. Online readers judge the scientific value of an article from the title and the abstract, and if this assessment is favourable, they access the full paper. The paper's scientific value also leads to citation by other researchers.4 This hypothesis is supported by the greater frequency of both hits and citations for papers that used the most scientifically rigorous study designs, such as randomised trials.
The number of early hits is a potentially useful measure of the scientific value of published medical research papers. Publication of hit counts by online journals should be encouraged.
Daniel Berhane from the BMJ provided valid hit counts for the journal's website.
Contributor: TVP is the sole contributor.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: TVP is the editor of the International Journal for Quality in Health Care.
Ethical approval: Not required.
References
Adam D. The counting house. Nature 2002;415: 726-9.
Walter G, Bloch S, Hunt G, Fisher K. Counting on citations: a flawed way to measure quality. Med J Aust 2003;178: 280-1.
Seglen PO. Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research. BMJ 1997;314: 498-502.
Lee KP, Schotland M, Bacchetti P, Bero LA. Association of journal quality indicators with methodological quality of clinical research articles. JAMA 2002;287: 2805-8.(Thomas V Perneger, profes)
Introduction
Papers that attracted the most hits on the BMJ website in the first week after publication were subsequently cited more often than less frequently accessed papers. Thus early hit counts capture at least to some extent the qualities that eventually lead to citation in the scientific literature.
My hypothesis is that "scientific value" explains the association between hits and citations. Online readers judge the scientific value of an article from the title and the abstract, and if this assessment is favourable, they access the full paper. The paper's scientific value also leads to citation by other researchers.4 This hypothesis is supported by the greater frequency of both hits and citations for papers that used the most scientifically rigorous study designs, such as randomised trials.
The number of early hits is a potentially useful measure of the scientific value of published medical research papers. Publication of hit counts by online journals should be encouraged.
Daniel Berhane from the BMJ provided valid hit counts for the journal's website.
Contributor: TVP is the sole contributor.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: TVP is the editor of the International Journal for Quality in Health Care.
Ethical approval: Not required.
References
Adam D. The counting house. Nature 2002;415: 726-9.
Walter G, Bloch S, Hunt G, Fisher K. Counting on citations: a flawed way to measure quality. Med J Aust 2003;178: 280-1.
Seglen PO. Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research. BMJ 1997;314: 498-502.
Lee KP, Schotland M, Bacchetti P, Bero LA. Association of journal quality indicators with methodological quality of clinical research articles. JAMA 2002;287: 2805-8.(Thomas V Perneger, profes)