J Korean Soc Med Inform.  2009 Sep;15(3):321-340.

Current Status of Scientific Citation Index Expanded Article Publications and Relationship with the Human Resources of Medical Schools in Korea

• Kang JO
• Park SH

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper was to quantify both the output and the impact of the relationship between Korean medical schools and their human resource departments and their ability to support the basic data for research goals of Korean medical schools.
METHODS
The SCOPUS database was used to identify SCIE (scientific citation index expanded) articles produced by Korean medical schools between 1997 to 2008. The SCIE criteria, impact factors, and citation numbers were classified according to the database of Thomson Scientific Company. The human resources of medical schools were collected, such as the number of professors, graduate students, clinical fellows, residents, interns, and research assistants, through use of the medical deans' association biannual report.
RESULTS
There was a significant difference across Korean medical schools in the number of the SCIE articles and citation numbers, resulting in only a few institutions producing most of the impact. Among the variables, the proportion of professors of basic medical science (p<.01) and the number of research faculties per professor (p<.01), were related significantly to the SCIE per professor. The only factor affecting both SCIE number and SCIE per professor was the number of research faculties per professor. The number of graduate students in the medical school had no impact on productivity.
CONCLUSION
For the medical schools with restricted resources, the strategic plans for proper management of human resources are needed to promote scientific publication.

Keyword

Medical School; Scientific Citation Index; H-index; Human Resources

MeSH Terms

Efficiency
Humans
Korea
Publications
Schools, Medical

Figure

• 

  Figure 1 The figure shows advanced search area of SCOPUS Database to where the search command is attached.

• 

  Figure 2 The change of number of SCIE articles of medical schools in Korea. The number of SCIE articles is increased 8.3 fold and the number of corresponding SCIE articles is increased 7.6 fold from 1997 to 2008.

• 

  Figure 3 The positions of forty medical schools according to the number of corresponding articles and citation numbers. Most of the medical schools have less than 1,000 cumulative SCIE articles and 10,000 citations.

Reference

1. Analysis of NCI DB for SCI publications of Korea, 2007. MEST. 2008. Available at: http://www.mest.go.kr/me_kor/news/notice/broadcast/1240968_11163.html.

2. Lim JK, Kim WK, Seong SY, Lee CS, Lim JH, Jeong JB, et al. Report of Korea Medical Research Status. 2006. Seoul: National Academy of Medicine of Korea;Available at: http://www.namok.or.kr.

3. Erkut E. Measuring Canadian business school research output and impact. Can J Admin Sci. 2002. 19:97–123.

4. Garfield E, Melino G. The growth of the cell death field: an analysis from the ISI-Science citation index. Cell Death Differ. 1997. 4(5):352–361.

5. Foster WR. Impact factor as the best operational measure of medical journals. Lancet. 1995. 346(8985):1301.

6. Hansson S. Impact factor as a misleading tool in evaluation of medical journals. Lancet. 1995. 346(8979):906.

7. Hirsch JE. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005. 102(46):16569–16572.

8. Ivanova OA. The Hirsch index is a new criterion for evaluation of scientific activity. Biomed Khim. 2008. 54(1):5–11.