Grant Lewison

Trends in the global funding and activity of cancer research

Cancer research has carved an astonishing trajectory giving rise to a multi billion euro global network covering most domains of science and including all manner of research funders from industry to government and philanthropic funders. We have estimated that in 2004/2005 the global spend on cancer research was 14,030 million euros, with the USA, dominated by the NCI (c. 83%) accounting for the largest absolute spend. This is between 2 and 3 times the level of per capita spend compared to EU‐15 and Europe, respectively. In Europe, the UK is at comparable levels of spend compared to the USA. Funding for cancer research in Europe is split almost 50:50 between philanthropic and governmental sources. Cancer research productivity in terms of outputs (publications) is slightly greater in Europe compared to the USA with an increasing trend towards more applied (clinical) outputs. Both the USA and Europe have equally strong industry‐supported output levels.

Malaria research, 1980–2004, and the burden of disease

Malaria is estimated to cause about 1.6% of the 57 million deaths occurring annually and 2.3% of the disease burden. However, it accounts for only about 0.4% of world biomedical research, and this percentage is barely changing. Most of the research takes place in Europe and North America, which are little affected directly by the disease, 90% of whose burden occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. Research includes both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical approaches; the fastest growing ones involve the artemisinins and genetics. Leading countries in malaria research (including India, Thailand, Kenya and Nigeria) differ greatly in the subjects that they favour.

Understanding the impact of public policy on cancer research: A bibliometric approach

With global spend on cancer research from the public sector now in excess of 14 billion euro, as well as the increasing burden of disease in market economies and low-middle income countries through changing demographics (ageing and population growth) cancer is now one of the most complex and global public policy issues. Using novel bibliometrics we have sought to investigate changes in research activity (total output), relative commitment and collaborations between countries/regions with similar healthcare and population and development parameters - United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and Sweden - to assess the utility of this policy research approach by analysing two different cohorts (1995-1999 and 2000-2004) to study the impact of changes on research publications as a surrogate for overall research activity.

Female researchers in Russia: have they become more visible?

This study is based on the fact that the surnames of many Russian scientists have gender endings, with “a” denoting a female, so that the sex of most of them can be readily determined from the listing of authors in the Web of Science (WoS). A comparison was made between the proportion of females in 1985, 1995, and 2005, with a corresponding analysis of the major fields in which they worked, their propensity to co-author papers internationally (which often necessitates having the opportunity to travel to conferences abroad to meet possible colleagues), and their citation records. We found, as expected, that women had a higher presence in the biological sciences and a very low presence in engineering, mathematics, and physics. Their citation scores, on a fractionated basis, were lower than those for men in almost all fields and years, and were not explained by their writing of fewer reviews and papers in English (both of which lead to higher citations), or their lower amount of international collaboration in 1995 and 2005 after Russia had become a more open society.

The state of research into children with cancer across Europe: new policies for a new decade

Overcoming childhood cancers is critically dependent on the state of research. Understanding how, with whom and what the research community is doing with childhood cancers is essential for ensuring the evidence-based policies at national and European level to support children, their families and researchers. As part of the European Union funded EUROCANCERCOMS project to study and integrate cancer communications across Europe, we have carried out new research into the state of research in childhood cancers. We are very grateful for all the support we have received from colleagues in the European paediatric oncology community, and in particular from Edel Fitzgerald and Samira Essiaf from the SIOP Europe office. This report and the evidence-based policies that arise from it come at a important junction for Europe and its Member States. They provide a timely reminder that research into childhood cancers is critical and needs sustainable long-term support.

The reporting of the risks from genetically modified organisms in the mass media, 2002–2004

This paper describes an analysis of coverage of the risks from agricultural and food genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) from April 2002 to April 2004 in 14 news media from six countries (Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the UK and the USA) which was conducted as part of a review for the European Commission of the management of risk communication. A total of 597 relevant news articles were found and coded for their presentational tone, the types of risk (environmental, financial, health and political, in that order), the organisms described (mainly maize, rape and beet crops), and the documents, people and organisations cited. UK news media tended to be the most “scary” and Spanish ones the most “robust”. Articles quoting public perceptions, non-governmental environmental organisations and politicians tended to emphasize the risks of GMOs; those quoting scientists tended to downplay the risks and describe their potential benefits. Some suggestions for possible action by the European Commission are put forward, such as the facilitation of contact between journalists and scientists, but it is recognized that for some newspapers, their editorial wish to campaign will inevitably over-ride their reporters’ wish to present the truth.

An analysis of research activity in major UK cancer centres

The organisation of cancer research is critical to its overall creativity and productivity. Cancer centres are a major organisational structure for this research, however, little is known about their effect on research or how national policy-making intersects with this complex policy nexus. This study of the evolution of United Kingdom cancer centres (UKCC), part of a wider European and United States programme, uses a bibliometric analysis of research activity prior to the creation of the NCRI and after its formation (1995-2004/5). In terms of critical research mass UKCC are very heterogeneous with a fourfold difference between the top and bottom quintiles. UK centres published just over one eighth of the total UKCC in 1995 but almost a quarter by 2004. This centrification occurred in the absence of any national strategy. Overall these centres conduct more fundamental (laboratory-based) research than that being conducted in the wider network but this hides major heterogeneity. UKCC collaborate with European investigators in 5-28% of all their outputs and with USA the range is between 6% and 21%. We have also derived new measures of research impact on clinical management and the general public as well as the impact of national policy on research assessment for certain types of cancer research.

The internal migration of Indian scientists, 1981-2003, from an analysis of surnames

Although many Indian surnames are common across the whole country, some are specifically associated with just one or a few of the 35 states and union territories that comprise India today. For example, Reddy comes from Andhra Pradesh and Das, Ghosh and Roy from West Bengal. We investigated the extent to which researchers with names associated with some of the larger states were writing scientific papers in those states, and in other ones, and to see how these concentrations (relative to the whole of India) had changed since the early 1980s. We found that West Bengalis, for example, were now significantly less concentrated in their home state than formerly, and that their concentrations elsewhere were strongly influenced by the state’s geographical distance from West Bengal and, to a lesser extent, by the correlation between the scientific profile of their host state and their own preferences (which favoured physics and engineering over biology and mathematics). Thus they were strongly represented in nearby Bihar, Assam and Orissa, and much less so in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

News in brief and features in New Scientist magazine and the biomedical research papers that they cite, August 2008 to July 2009

New Scientist is a British weekly magazine that is half-way between a newspaper and a scientific journal. It has many news items, and also longer feature articles, both of which cite biomedical research papers, and thus serve to make them better known to the public and to the scientific community, mainly in the UK but about half overseas. An analysis of these research papers shows (in relation to their presence in the biomedical research literature) a strong bias towards the UK, and also one to the USA, Scandinavia and Ireland. There is a reasonable spread of subject areas, although neuroscience is favoured, and coverage of many journals—not just the leading weeklies. Most of the feature articles (but not the news items) in New Scientist include comments by other researchers, who can put the new results in context. Their opinions appear to be more discriminating than those of commentators on research in the mass media, who usually enthuse over the results while counselling patience before a cure for the disease is widely available.