Global informetric perspective studies on translational medical research

Fei-Cheng Ma,Shi-Jing Zhang,Lan Yao,Qiang Yao,Peng-Hui Lyu

doi:10.1186/1472-6947-13-77

Abstract

BackgroundTranslational medical research literature has increased rapidly in the last few decades and played a more and more important role during the development of medicine science. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the global performance of translational medical research during the past few decades.MethodsBibliometric, social network analysis, and visualization technologies were used for analyzing translational medical research performance from the aspects of subject categories, journals, countries, institutes, keywords, and MeSH terms. Meanwhile, the co-author, co-words and cluster analysis methods were also used to trace popular topics in translational medical research related work.ResultsResearch output suggested a solid development in translational medical research, in terms of increasing scientific production and research collaboration. We identified the core journals, mainstream subject categories, leading countries, and institutions in translational medical research. There was an uneven distribution of publications at authorial, institutional, and national levels. The most commonly used keywords that appeared in the articles were “translational research”, “translational medicine”, “biomarkers”, “stroke”, “inflammation”, “cancer”, and “breast cancer”.ConclusionsThe subject categories of “Research & Experimental Medicine”, “Medical Laboratory Technology”, and “General & Internal Medicine” play a key role in translational medical research both in production and in its networks. Translational medical research and CTS, etc. are core journals of translational research. G7 countries are the leading nations for translational medical research. Some developing countries, such as P.R China, also play an important role in the communication of translational research. The USA and its institutions play a dominant role in the production, collaboration, citations and high quality articles. The research trends in translational medical research involve drug design and development, pathogenesis and treatment of disease, disease model research, evidence-based research, and stem and progenitor cells.

Highlights

Translational medical research literature has increased rapidly in the last few decades and played a more and more important role during the development of medicine science
Clear and coherent definitions of translational medicine are lacking because translational medicine means different things to different people [5]
It means bridging the gap between basic and clinical sciences, i.e., transforming knowledge derived through basic science investigation into improved diagnosis and treatment of patients in a bench-to-bedside flow of information

Summary

Introduction

Translational medical research literature has increased rapidly in the last few decades and played a more and more important role during the development of medicine science. The Institute of Medicine Clinical Research Roundtable first described the current terminology and model of translational research in 2003 as a two-phase process of research progressing from (1) basic science to clinical science, and (2) from clinical science to public health impact. In this framework, they identified “translational blocks” in more steps. The roundtable identified the second roadblock (T2) as “the translation of results from clinical studies into daily clinical practice and health decision making” [6] This model was highly aligned with the NIH definition. The second phase of translation was later subdivided to create a model of the translational phases which include basic science to clinical science (T1), to clinical practice (T2), and to health improvements (T3) [8]

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