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Cited by 15Academic Publishing and Open AccessResearch Data Management Practicesscientometrics and bibliometrics research

Transparency of COVID-19-Related Research in Dental Journals

Open access
Sofi-Mahmudi, Ahmad, Raittio, Eero·2022·Frontiers in Oral Health
DOI 10.3389/froh.2022.871033PMC PMC9019132
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Abstract

Objective: We aimed to assess the adherence to transparency practices (data availability, code availability, statements of protocol registration and conflicts of interest and funding disclosures) and FAIRness (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) of shared data from open access COVID-19-related articles published in dental journals available from the Europe PubMed Central (PMC) database. Methods: We searched and exported all COVID-19-related open-access articles from PubMed-indexed dental journals available in the Europe PMC database in 2020 and 2021. We detected transparency indicators with a validated and automated tool developed to extract the indicators from the downloaded articles. Basic journal- and article-related information was retrieved from the PMC database. Then, from those which had shared data, we assessed their accordance with FAIR data principles using the F-UJI online tool ( f-uji.net ). Results: Of 650 available articles published in 59 dental journals, 74% provided conflicts of interest disclosure and 40% funding disclosure and 4% were preregistered. One study shared raw data (0.15%) and no study shared code. Transparent practices were more common in articles published in journals with higher impact factors, and in 2020 than in 2021. Adherence to the FAIR principles in the only paper that shared data was moderate. Conclusion: While the majority of the papers had a COI disclosure, the prevalence of the other transparency practices was far from the acceptable level. A much stronger commitment to open science practices, particularly to preregistration, data and code sharing, is needed from all stakeholders.

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Crossref · 10.3389/froh.2022.871033

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  • Protocol registration is applicable to and recommended for all studies and is supported by various platforms, such as the Open Science Framework.

    “However, protocol registration is applicable to and recommended for all studies and is supported by various platforms, such as the Open Science Framework [3, 29, 35–37].”

    From Assessing transparency practices in dental randomized controlled trials (2024) · cites this paper as [29]

    The Discussion (page not provided) says that almost all studies could and should be preregistered and that platforms including the Open Science Framework support registration of any type of research study. The claim's unqualified “all studies” is broader than the paper's “almost all studies.” (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Compared to dental research involving other types of studies, this analysis revealed the highest value for reporting of protocol registration (50.36%).

    “However, compared to dental research involving other types of studies [29, 34], our analysis revealed the highest value for the reporting of protocol registration (50.36%).”

    From Assessing transparency practices in dental randomized controlled trials (2024) · cites this paper as [29]

  • The findings align with previous biomedical and dental research, which reported the presence of more articles with statement of conflict of interest and funding than data and code sharing and protocol registration.

    “Our findings align with previous biomedical and dental research, which reported the presence of more articles with statement of conflict of interest and funding than data and code sharing and protocol registration [27–30].”

    From Assessing transparency practices in dental randomized controlled trials (2024) · cites this paper as [29]

  • Data and code sharing has been the least reported aspect in many studies.

    “and data and code sharing has been the least reported aspect in many studies [25–30, 41].”

    From Assessing transparency practices in dental randomized controlled trials (2024) · cites this paper as [29]

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Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [12]Dentistry[st] AND currentlyindexed[All]. Available online at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/?term=Dentistry%5Bst%5D+AND+currentlyindexed%5BAll%5D (accessed January 6, 2022).
  2. [18]Wickham H ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag (2016). Available online at: https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org (accessed January 28, 2022).

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Authors
Sofi-Mahmudi, A., & Raittio, E.
Affiliations
University of Eastern Finland (FI)
ORCID
Raittio, Eero
Venue
Frontiers in Oral Health
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2022-04-06
Volume
3
Pages
871033-871033
ISSN
2673-4842 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/froh.2022.871033
PMC
PMC9019132
OpenAlex
W4226207294
Cited by
15
References
33
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4
FWCI
2.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Oral Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Research Data Management Practices
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
Keywords
research transparency, COVID-19 research, dental journals, FAIR principles, data sharing, code sharing, conflict of interest disclosure, funding disclosure, preregistration, open science, open access publications, journal impact factor

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