CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 481scientometrics and bibliometrics researchWeb visibility and informetricsPsychology Research and Bibliometrics

A descriptive and historical review of bibliometrics with applications to medical sciences

Thompson, Dennis F., Walker, Cheri K.·2015·Pharmacotherapy: The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy
DOI 10.1002/phar.1586
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The discipline of bibliometrics involves the application of mathematical and statistical methods to scholarly publications. The first attempts at systematic data collection were provided by Alfred Lotka and Samuel Bradford, who subsequently established the foundational laws of bibliometrics. Eugene Garfield ushered in the modern era of bibliometrics with the routine use of citation analysis and systematized processing. Key elements of bibliometric analysis include database coverage, consistency and accuracy of the data, data fields, search options, and analysis and use of metrics. A number of bibliometric applications are currently being used in medical science and health care. Bibliometric parameters and indexes may be increasingly used by grant funding sources as measures of research success. Universities may build benchmarking standards from bibliometric data to determine academic achievement through promotion and tenure guidelines in the future. This article reviews the history, definition, laws, and elements of bibliometric principles and provides examples of bibliometric applications to the broader health care community. To accomplish this, the Medline (1966-2014) and Web of Science (1945-2014) databases were searched to identify relevant articles; select articles were also cross-referenced. Articles selected were those that provided background, history, descriptive analysis, and application of bibliometric principles and metrics to medical science and health care. No attempt was made to cover all areas exhaustively; rather, key articles were chosen that illustrate bibliometric concepts and enhance the reader's knowledge. It is important that faculty and researchers understand the limitations and appropriate uses of bibliometric data. Bibliometrics has considerable potential as a research area for health care scientists and practitioners that can be used to discover new information about academic trends, pharmacotherapy, disease, and broader health sciences trends.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/phar.1586

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • WoSCC is widely regarded as the preferred database for bibliometric analysis due to its rigorous journal inclusion standards, comprehensive citation indexes, and high-quality literature resources.

    “WoSCC is widely regarded as the preferred database for bibliometric analysis due to its rigorous journal inclusion standards, comprehensive citation indexes, and high-quality literature resources (Thompson and Walker, 2015).”

    From Research trends and hotspots of cognitive behavioral therapy for tinnitus: a bibliometric analysis (2025) · cites this paper as Thompson and Walker, 2015

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Thompson, D. F., & Walker, C. K.
Affiliations
Southwestern Oklahoma State University (US)
Corresponding author
Thompson, Dennis F.
ORCID
Venue
Pharmacotherapy: The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-05-04
Volume
35
Issue
6
Pages
551-559
ISSN
  • 0277-0008 (ISSN-L)
  • 1875-9114
DOI
10.1002/phar.1586
OpenAlex
W1678171433
Cited by
481
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 47 · 2025: 76 · 2024: 99 · 2023: 86 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 9
FWCI
10.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Pharmacotherapy The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Web visibility and informetrics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
Keywords
bibliometric analysis, history of bibliometrics, Lotka's law, Bradford's law, Eugene Garfield, citation analysis, bibliometric indicators, bibliometric databases, MEDLINE, Web of Science, research evaluation, tenure and promotion, health care research
MeSH terms
Bibliometrics, History, 20th Century, History, 21st Century

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review