Increase In Scientific Literature Research Articles

Prevention and public awareness of myopia

Myopia has become a Public Health issue, with prevalence rates that depend on age and geographical area, reaching the highest values in Asia. Thus, a recent review on the prevalence of myopia in children, measured with cycloplegia, established that the prevalence ranges from 10% in Africa to 60% in Asia, increasing in all areas every year. These results show the importance of taking action to prevent myopia.The main factors with strong scientific evidence to prevent myopia are increasing outdoor time and decreasing near‐work activities.Public awareness is an essential factor to stop the increase in the prevalence rates of myopia. However, the increase in scientific literature does not give us information about the sensitivity of the general population on a specific topic.Through the internet search trends analysis, we can find out how much interest myopia has in the population, analysing the most concerned countries and how the related queries are being carried out and increased.Thus, if we look for the search trends with the word “myopia” as “term search” in the last 10 years, we can see how the number of searches is increasing, reaching the maximum in 2022. China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong lead the searches on the Internet, reflecting how the higher prevalence in these areas has generated a greater concern. Concerning related queries, we find a high growth in interest caused by the inclusion of myopia among the diseases of the international classification of diseases of the World Health Organization, ICD 10, with an increase of 2000% in the searches. This search suggests that people interested in myopia are looking for reliable sources to collect information. Finally, it is remarkable that in the review of the related queries, we did not find the term prevention among the most performed searches, and treatment, cure, or control are queries that are in positions 20, 21, and 26 of those searches.Compared with other of the most established eye pathologies in society, we can see as myopia is still behind them. For instance, if we compare the searches of the term myopia, with glaucoma or cataract, 61% of the web searches are related to glaucoma, 43% to cataracts, and only 16% corresponded to myopia.In conclusion, even though scientific evidence alerts us about the increase in the rates of myopia and the importance of working on its prevention, there is still a long way to reach society to generate a clear awareness of myopia and the consequences of not taking action to prevent it.

Investigating the landscape and trajectory of spina bifida research in Asia: a bibliometric analysis.

Spina bifida is a type of a neural tube defect which affects 243.14 per 100,000 babies in Asia. Research articles on spina bifida have increased in the recent years. However, no study has focused on the research trends in this field in Asia. A systematic review of literature on spina bifida in Asia was performed using the Scopus database from inception to 2020. All published studies on spina bifida conducted in or published by authors from Asia were included in our analysis. Bibliometric information was obtained from Scopus and bibliometrics diagrams were created using VOSviewer software. A total of 652 articles were obtained in this study. The number of publications showed an upward trend starting 2000s. The country with the greatest number of publications was Japan while All India Institute of Medical Sciences was the most productive institution in spina bifida research in Asia. The current focus of this field in Asia was prevalence of spina bifida, prenatal diagnosis, folic acid supplementation, and complications of spina bifida. Future areas of research in spina bifida include the genetic basis of neural tube defects and the use of stem cell technology as therapies for spina bifida. This is the first bibliometric analysis on spina bifida in Asia. It showed the trend and future areas of research on spina bifida in Asia. Despite the increase in scientific literature on spina bifida research, more research outputs and collaborations are needed especially in developing countries in Asia.

Customer Value First: Improving the Customer Experience in Public Services

Governments worldwide are increasingly focusing on creating customer value in public services and customer experience management to improve public sector performance and increase citizens’ trust in government. Therefore, recently there has been an increase in scientific literature and case studies analysing different aspects of customer value creation and/or customer experience in public services. Still, the interaction between the two is not clearly disclosed and linked. The purpose of this research is to accentuate the insights arising from research in science and practice, to summarise and systematise the knowledge already created and to perform an empirical study. Applying the methods of researching the content of scientific literature and practical reports, the article reveals the interaction between the value of public services to the customer and the customer experience in services. The aim of this study is to reveal the concept of customer value creation by applying customer experience management in public services. After refining the general theoretical insights of service value creation for the customer, the basics of the need and benefits of their application in the provision of public services as well as the application of the method of value creation for the customer in the provision of public services are analysed. The findings of this research positions the customer value in public services as a subjective phenomenon, i. e., the value is created by customers as it is based on their experiences in the process of service provision. In contrast, service providers create a value creation system for customers, which turns them into the co-creators of that value. Value creation for the customer occurs through the co-production and co-design of public services, where the customer is an active participant in different stages of service provision. Customer needs and expectations are evolving, and public service providers need to be able to recognise and track them and respond to these changes by applying a customer journey approach in the value creation system.

Coexisting With Different Human-Wildlife Coexistence Perspectives

Over the last decade, there has been a remarkable increase in scientific literature addressing human–wildlife interactions (HWI) and associated concepts, such as coexistence, tolerance, and acceptance. Despite increased attention, these terms are rarely defined or consistently applied across publications. Indeed, the meaning of these concepts, especially coexistence, is frequently assumed and left for the reader to interpret, making it hard to compare studies, test metrics, and build upon previous HWI research. To work toward a better understanding of these terms, we conducted two World Café sessions at international conferences in Namibia, Africa and Ontario, Canada. Here, we present the array of perspectives revealed in the workshops and build upon these results to describe the meaning of coexistence as currently applied by conservation scientists and practitioners. Although we focus on coexistence, it is imperative to understand the term in relation to tolerance and acceptance, as in many cases these latter terms are used to express, measure, or define coexistence. Drawing on these findings, we discuss whether a common definition of these terms is possible and how the conservation field might move toward clarifying and operationalizing the concept of human-wildlife coexistence.

Text Mining for Building Biomedical Networks Using Cancer as a Case Study.

In the assembly of biological networks it is important to provide reliable interactions in an effort to have the most possible accurate representation of real-life systems. Commonly, the data used to build a network comes from diverse high-throughput essays, however most of the interaction data is available through scientific literature. This has become a challenge with the notable increase in scientific literature being published, as it is hard for human curators to track all recent discoveries without using efficient tools to help them identify these interactions in an automatic way. This can be surpassed by using text mining approaches which are capable of extracting knowledge from scientific documents. One of the most important tasks in text mining for biological network building is relation extraction, which identifies relations between the entities of interest. Many interaction databases already use text mining systems, and the development of these tools will lead to more reliable networks, as well as the possibility to personalize the networks by selecting the desired relations. This review will focus on different approaches of automatic information extraction from biomedical text that can be used to enhance existing networks or create new ones, such as deep learning state-of-the-art approaches, focusing on cancer disease as a case-study.

ProtFus: A Comprehensive Method Characterizing Protein-Protein Interactions of Fusion Proteins.

Tailored therapy aims to cure cancer patients effectively and safely, based on the complex interactions between patients' genomic features, disease pathology and drug metabolism. Thus, the continual increase in scientific literature drives the need for efficient methods of data mining to improve the extraction of useful information from texts based on patients' genomic features. An important application of text mining to tailored therapy in cancer encompasses the use of mutations and cancer fusion genes as moieties that change patients' cellular networks to develop cancer, and also affect drug metabolism. Fusion proteins, which are derived from the slippage of two parental genes, are produced in cancer by chromosomal aberrations and trans-splicing. Given that the two parental proteins for predicted fusion proteins are known, we used our previously developed method for identifying chimeric protein–protein interactions (ChiPPIs) associated with the fusion proteins. Here, we present a validation approach that receives fusion proteins of interest, predicts their cellular network alterations by ChiPPI and validates them by our new method, ProtFus, using an online literature search. This process resulted in a set of 358 fusion proteins and their corresponding protein interactions, as a training set for a Naïve Bayes classifier, to identify predicted fusion proteins that have reliable evidence in the literature and that were confirmed experimentally. Next, for a test group of 1817 fusion proteins, we were able to identify from the literature 2908 PPIs in total, across 18 cancer types. The described method, ProtFus, can be used for screening the literature to identify unique cases of fusion proteins and their PPIs, as means of studying alterations of protein networks in cancers.Availability: http://protfus.md.biu.ac.il/

Myths and Methodologies: Reducing scientific design ambiguity in studies comparing sexes and/or menstrual cycle phases.

What is the topic of this review? We review methodological considerations for the inclusion of women in sex and menstrual cycle phase comparison studies. What advances does it highlight? Improving the methodological design for studies exploring sex differences, menstrual cycle phase differences and/or endogenous versus exogenous female sex hormones will help to close the gap in our understanding of the effects of endogenous and exogenous hormones on exercise science and sports medicine outcomes. In recent years, the increase in scientific literature exploring sex differences has been beneficial to both clinicians and allied health science professionals, although female athletes are still significantly under-represented in sport and exercise science research. Women have faced exclusion throughout history though the complexities of sociocultural marginalization and biomedical disinterest in women's health. These complexities have contributed to challenges of studying women and examining sex differences. One underlying complexity to methodological design may be hormonal perturbations of the menstrual cycle. The biphasic responses of oestrogen and progesterone across the menstrual cycle significantly influence physiological responses, which contribute to exercise capacity and adaptation in women. Moreover, oral contraceptives add complexity through the introduction of varying concentrations of circulating exogenous oestrogen and progesterone, which may moderate physiological adaptations to exercise in a different manner to endogenous ovarian hormones. Thus, applied sport and exercise science research focusing on women remains limited, in part, by poor methodological design that does not define reproductive status. By highlighting specific differences between phases with regard to hormone perturbations and the systems that are affected, methodological inconsistencies can be reduced, thereby improving scientific design that will enable focused research on female athletes in sports science and evaluation of sex differences in responses to exercise. The aims of this review are to highlight the differences between endogenous and exogenous hormone profiles across a standard 28-32 day menstrual cycle, with the goal to improve methodological design for studies exploring sex differences, menstrual cycle phase differences and/or endogenous versus exogenous female sex hormones.

A bibliometric analysis of scientific production on atypical antipsychotic drugs from Italy

A bibliometric study of peer-reviewed scientific publications on atypical antipsychotic drugs (AADs) from Italy is herein presented. We selected the documents from Scopus database. We applied several bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion, including Price’s Law about the increase of scientific literature, and Bradford’s Law. We also calculated the participation index across different countries. The bibliometric data have also been correlated with some social and health data sourcing in Italy, such as total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure. A total of 2949 original documents were published within the period 1972-2015. Our results state fulfilment of Price’s Law, with scientific production showing exponential growth (r=0.901, as against an r=0.838 after linear adjustment). The drugs most widely studied were clozapine (257 documents), risperidone (179), and olanzapine (172). Stratification into Bradford zones yielded a nucleus represented by the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology and Rivista di Psichiatria (58 articles, each one). A total of 1091 different journals were evaluated. The publications on AADs in Italy have undergone exponential growth over the studied period, which is in line with the progressively burgeoning on novel AAD releases. No evidence of saturation point was observed.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Research on Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs in India during 1998-2013

Background : We carried out a bibliometric study on the scientific publications on atypical antipsychotic drugs (AADs) from India. Methods : Using the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases, we performed the selection of documents produced in India. We applied bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion, namely Price’s law on the increase of scientific literature and Bradford’s law, respectively. We also calculated the participation index (PI) of different countries. The bibliometric data have also been correlated with relevant social and health data from India (including total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development). Results : In this study, we identified 639 original documents published between 1998 and 2013 from India. Our results indicated fulfilment of Price’s law (correlation coefficient r = 0.9619 after exponential adjustment vs. r = 0.9382 after linear adjustment). The most widely studied AADs were olanzapine (173 documents), clozapine (117), risperidone (100) and quetiapine (65). Publications appeared in 221 different journals, with only 4 of the top 10 journals having an impact factor greater than 2. Division into Bradford zones yielded a nucleus occupied by the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (53 articles). It is remarkable that the 27.38% of the production is devoted to “medical/pharmaceutical chemistry” field. India has the largest ratio PI AAD / PI Psychiatry and Neurology in the world’s 12 most productive countries in biomedicine and health sciences. Conclusions : The publications on AADs in India have undergone exponential growth over the studied period, without evidence of reaching a saturation point. Financial disclosure : The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

Quo Vadis Clozapine? A Bibliometric Study of 45 Years of Research in International Context.

We have carried out a bibliometric study about the international scientific publications on clozapine. We have used the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases, and we applied bibliometric indicators of production, as Price’s Law on the increase of scientific literature. We also calculated the participation index (PI) of the different countries. The bibliometric data have also been correlated with some social and health data from the 12 most productive countries in biomedicine and health sciences. In addition, 5607 original documents dealing with clozapine, published between 1970 and 2013, were downloaded. Our results state non-fulfilment of Price’s Law, with scientific production on clozapine showing linear growth (r = 0.8691, vs. r = 0.8478 after exponential adjustment). Seven of the 12 journals with the highest numbers of publications on clozapine have an Impact Factor > 2. Among the countries generating clozapine research, the most prominent is the USA (PI = 24.32), followed by the UK (PI = 6.27) and Germany (PI = 5.40). The differences among countries on clozapine research are significantly related to economic variables linked to research. The scientific interest in clozapine remains remarkable, although after the application of bibliometric indicators of production, a saturation point is evident in the growth of scientific literature on this topic.

A bibliometric study of scientific research conducted on second-generation antipsychotic drugs in Singapore.

A bibliometric study was carried out to ascertain the volume and impact of scientific literature published on second-generation antipsychotic drugs (SGAs) in Singapore from 1997 to 2011. A search of the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases was performed to identify articles originating from Singapore that included the descriptors 'atypic* antipsychotic*', 'second-generation antipsychotic*', 'clozapine', 'risperidone', 'olanzapine', 'ziprasidone', 'quetiapine', 'sertindole', 'aripiprazole', 'paliperidone', 'amisulpride', 'zotepine', 'asenapine', 'iloperidone', 'lurasidone', 'perospirone' and 'blonanserin' in the article titles. Certain bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion (e.g. Price's Law on the increase of scientific literature, and Bradford's Law) were applied, and the participation index of various countries was calculated. The bibliometric data was also correlated with some social and health data from Singapore, such as the total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development. From 1997 to 2011, a total of 51 articles on SGAs in Singapore were published. Our results suggested non-fulfilment of Price's Law (r = 0.0648 after exponential adjustment vs. r = 0.2140 after linear adjustment). The most widely studied drugs were clozapine (21 articles), risperidone (16 articles) and olanzapine (8 articles). Division into Bradford zones yielded a nucleus occupied by the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (6 articles) and the Singapore Medical Journal(4 articles). The analysed material was published in a total of 30 journals, with the majority from six journals. Four of these six journals have an impact factor greater than 2. Publications on SGAs in Singapore are still too few to confirm an exponential growth of scientific literature.

Re-emergence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: it is time to think COPDifferently

Knowledge of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a common, preventable and treatable condition has advanced in the last two decades, as evidenced by the increase in scientific literature. Tobacco smoking still remains a predominant risk factor for COPD. Thus smoking cessation management should be obligatory in every case. Although spirometry is integral to the diagnosis of COPD, one should also be aware of its limitations. COPD is a chronic disease associated with comorbidities that define its extrapulmonary manifestations. Systemic inflammation provides the biological link, while exacerbations play a prominent role in the current approach to disease evaluation. This paper reviews the latest Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease revision, focusing on the paradigm shift in assessment that would directly influence therapeutic decisions. Also discussed are the newer drugs and combinations of existing inhaler therapies that now present clinicians with more options, as well as bronchoscopic interventions that may perhaps offer a lower-morbidity alternative than surgical lung volume reduction. Finally, this review highlights how integrated care models can bridge the gap between components and complete a comprehensive sphere of COPD care.

Melatonin for sleep disorders: A bibliometric approach during the last 20 years

Melatonin is a neurohormone that it has high interest for sleep researchers. There are some substances uses for sleep disorders. In this sense, melatonin prolonged release has been approved like drug for treatment of primary sleep disorder, and included in a new class of drugs: melatoninergic agonist. We would like to review, first of all the evolution of scientific research about use of melatonin in sleep disorder, and then the evolution of scientist’s paper about melatonin’s formulation, covering the period 1993–2012. Using Medline database we selected those document that content in their title one or several of the following descriptors: “sleep disorder*” and “melatonin*”. This study took into account all original articles, brief reports, reviews, editorials, letters to the editor, and so on. One of main bibliometric laws were applied: Price’s Law on the increase in scientific literature. This law, undoubtedly the most widely used indicator for the analysis of productivity in a specific discipline or a particular country, takes into account an essential feature of scientific production, which is its exponential growth. Moreover, we conduct a sub-analysis for evolution to different formulation (immediate release and prolonged release melatonin). From the search on Pubmed 36,128 documents (sleep disorder) and 1140 (combined with melatonin) were selected. In order to assess whether the growth of scientific production in sleep disorder and melatonin follows Price’s Law of Exponential Growth, we carried out a linear adjustment of the data obtained, according to the equation y = 5.9707 x + 23.258, and another adjustment to an exponential curve, according to the equation y = 27,915e0.0927 x . Mathematical adjustment to an exponential curve, allows us to obtain a correlation coefficient r = 0.828. On the other hand, linear adjustment to the measured values provides an r = 0.924. The repertoire analyzed is more suited to a linear adjustment than an exponential adjustment. Moreover, 2% of total documents corresponding to prolonged release melatonin. And of these, 80% have been published in the last 5 years. To conclude a high papers on sleep disorder has been published, but for melatonin not fulfillment of Price Law. However, prolonged-release melatonin has increase in the last few years.

Overviews – Status Quo, Potentiale und Ausblick

The increase in scientific literature has led reviewers to conduct overviews, hereby creating a new publication type. Overviews of reviews may have several advantages. For example, they can be conducted in a shorter time frame, they offer the opportunity of providing decision makers with a broader summary of the evidence, allowing comparison of multiple treatments, and they can be helpful in investigating discordant findings from multiple systematic reviews. However, there are some specific characteristics concerning methodology in conducting overviews. Questions that arise are how to deal with overlapping reviews, how the quality of the included reviews should be assessed, how discordant results should be dealt with, whether and how additional searches for current primary studies should be conducted. Overviews of reviews often lack methodological rigour. Methodological standards and reporting guidelines for overviews are needed to improve the quality of this new publication type.

S.24.04 5-HT receptor modulation of anxiety

In this review, we analyzed the status and changes in the research on second-generation (atypical) antipsychotic drugs in the Asia–Pacific region (i.e., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia). We also performed a bibliometric study of the literature in this region on atypical antipsychotic drugs (e.g., clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, ziprasidone, quetiapine, sertindole, aripiprazole, paliperidone, amisulpride, zotepine, asenapine, iloperidone, lurasidone, perospirone, and blonanserin). We applied bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion (i.e., Price's law on the increase of scientific literature and Bradford's law, respectively). We also calculated the participation index of different countries. The data were also correlated with relevant social and health data from the Asia–Pacific region (e.g., the per capita gross domestic product and total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development). All data are discussed together. We also analyzed the different aspects among the six countries in the region.

Bipolar disorder as an emerging pathology in the scientific literature: A bibliometric approach

Background To carry out a bibliometric study on the scientific publications in relation to bipolar disorder. Methods Using the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases, we selected those documents whose title included the descriptors bipolar disorder ⁎, bipolar illness, bipolar patient ⁎, bipolar mani ⁎, bipolar depress ⁎, bipolar spectrum, manic–depressive ⁎, and rapid cycling. We applied some bibliometric indicators, as Price's Law on the increase of scientific literature, or the participation index (PI) of the different countries. The bibliometric data have also been correlated with some social and health data from the countries that are most prolific in biomedical scientific production, such as number of physicians, total per capita expenditure on health and overall volume of production in the field of psychiatry. Results A total of 4270 original documents published between 1980 and 2004 were downloaded, of which 1825 corresponded to aspects related to drug therapy. Our results state fulfilment of Price's Law, with scientific production on bipolar disorder showing exponential growth (correlation coefficient r = 0.947, as against an r = 0.849 after linear adjustment). The drugs most widely studied are lithium (1351 documents), valproate (544), carbamazepine (493), lamotrigine (240), and olanzapine (210). United States is the most productive country (participation index, PI = 44.2), followed by the United Kingdom (14.4), Netherlands (9.1) and France (4.1). Conclusion The publications on bipolar disorder and mood stabilizers have undergone exponential growth over the last 25 years, without evidence a saturation point.

Evolution of Spanish scientific production in international obstetrics and gynecology journals during the period 1986–2002

Objective The present bibliometric study analyzes Spanish scientific work published in the field of obstetrics and gynecology in the most important journals during the period 1986–2002. Study design The material studied (779 original documents) was selected in accordance with the science citation index (SCI) of 2001, obstetrics and gynecology section, using the EMBASE: Obstetrics and Gynecology database. We applied the customary rules of bibliometrics: Price's Law of increase in scientific literature, Bradford's Law of scattering of scientific literature and Lotka's Law of author productivity. Furthermore, we analyzed participation index (PaI), the collaboration index and the superior (%SUP). Results The material studied is closer to an exponential adjustment ( r = 0.958) than to a linear adjustment ( r = 0.856). The journal with the largest number of originals is Human Reproduction (Bradford's first area), with 217 articles and that with the highest PaI is Menopause (4.07). The total number of authors is 1829, who are responsible for 3938 authorships (2.79% of the authors have a productivity index (PI) ≥ 1 and 70.09% have a PI = 0). The majority of the studies were carried out in hospitals (47.62%) and universities (23.36%). Conclusion Spanish productivity in the field of obstetrics and gynecology increased considerably in the period 1986–2002.

P-16-9 - Neuroendocrine responses to ipsapirone in patients with panic and obsessive compulsive disorder

In this review, we analyzed the status and changes in the research on second-generation (atypical) antipsychotic drugs in the Asia–Pacific region (i.e., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia). We also performed a bibliometric study of the literature in this region on atypical antipsychotic drugs (e.g., clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, ziprasidone, quetiapine, sertindole, aripiprazole, paliperidone, amisulpride, zotepine, asenapine, iloperidone, lurasidone, perospirone, and blonanserin). We applied bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion (i.e., Price's law on the increase of scientific literature and Bradford's law, respectively). We also calculated the participation index of different countries. The data were also correlated with relevant social and health data from the Asia–Pacific region (e.g., the per capita gross domestic product and total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development). All data are discussed together. We also analyzed the different aspects among the six countries in the region.

S-17-5 - Managing elderly patients with psychotic and behavioural disturbances in dementia

In this review, we analyzed the status and changes in the research on second-generation (atypical) antipsychotic drugs in the Asia–Pacific region (i.e., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia). We also performed a bibliometric study of the literature in this region on atypical antipsychotic drugs (e.g., clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, ziprasidone, quetiapine, sertindole, aripiprazole, paliperidone, amisulpride, zotepine, asenapine, iloperidone, lurasidone, perospirone, and blonanserin). We applied bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion (i.e., Price's law on the increase of scientific literature and Bradford's law, respectively). We also calculated the participation index of different countries. The data were also correlated with relevant social and health data from the Asia–Pacific region (e.g., the per capita gross domestic product and total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development). All data are discussed together. We also analyzed the different aspects among the six countries in the region.

Scientific research on the pineal gland and melatonin: a bibliometric study for the period 1966-1994.

By means of teledischarge techniques from the database MEDLINE we selected those documents that contained in their title one or several of the following descriptors: pineal*, epiphys*, or melatonin*, in addition to the descriptor pineal-body in the MESH (Medical Subject Headings) section. A total of 7,617 original documents published between 1966 and 1994 were extracted that dealt with any aspect related with the pineal gland or its main secretary product, melatonin. The main bibliometric laws were applied: Price's Law on the increase in scientific literature, Bradford's Law on the dispersion of the scientific literature, and Lotka's Law on the author's productivity. Furthermore, we have analyzed the participation index (PaI) of the main countries within the global production, the productivity index of the authors (PI), and the number of authors/paper index. Our results demonstrate an exponential increase of the scientific literature on the pineal gland ("r" value = 0.983, in contrast with a "r" value = 0.966 after the linear adjustment). The number of publications on melatonin was less than those on other aspects of pineal research until 1991, when this situation was reversed. The journal with the largest number of original papers is Journal of Pineal Research (1st Bradford's zone) with 533 articles, followed by Journal of Neural Transmission (258) and Neuroendocrinology (221), which constituted the 2nd Bradford's zone. The total number of authors is 9,140, responsible for 23,524 authorships. 3.8% of the authors present a PI > or = 1 (large producers), and 64.9% a PI = 0 (occasional authors). Lotka's Law was widely fulfilled in this material since 10.3% of the authors are responsible of 50.2% of all the papers. The average number of authors per paper has changed from 2.29 in 1966 to 3.85 in 1994. The most productive country (during the interval between 1988-1994) was USA (PaI = 30.6), followed by Japan (7.15), United Kingdom (6.45), Germany (6.37), France (6.26), Italy (6.15) and Spain (5.34). Of the total number articles published, 86.9% are in English.