Josmel Pacheco-Mendoza

A review of altmetrics as an emerging discipline for research evaluation

This article analyses the scientific production of publications on altmetrics as an emergent discipline for research evaluation. The research objective was to identify the investigative tendencies that characterize the subject. The analysis studied documents indexed by Web of Science and Scopus databases. About 253 documents were retrieved, showing a growth in articles 2005–2015. We discovered that the most productive authors, journals, institutions, and countries were from Europe and North America. The collaboration networks between authors and institutions reveal a homogenous community formed by the most prolific contributors. The most explored subjects deal with (1) social media and networking, (2) internet, (3) scholarly and scientific communication and publication, (4) open access and public libraries, (5) citation analysis, (6) impact factor measurements, (7) metric disciplines, (8) information analysis, retrieval, and processing, (9) search engines and data bases, and (10) evaluative bibliometrics. We discovered a nucleus of contributors who have attempted to solidify the knowledge area, with emerging principles of high theoretical consistency.

Sci-Hub and medical practice: an ethical dilemma in Peru

Sci-Hub is a pirate repository of scientifi c papers launched in 2011, and currently hosts more than 46 million articles. Thousands of people use this repository every day to access information, reaching more than 200 000 daily downloads of scientifi c articles that they would otherwise have to buy. We present a dilemma in the form of Dr J, a Peruvian physician who is evaluating a patient with several infectious and chronic comorbidities— an experience not uncommon to clinicians in countries, like Peru, that experience the double burden of disease. Dr J believes he needs to review recent medical literature to decide the best management of this complex patient. However, his sources are scarce: his medical books are old and outdated; the medical conferences that he has attended in his country have not delved into this subject (and have serious confl icts of interest for being largely funded by players in the pharmaceutical industry); he does not have institutional access to the scientifi c papers he needs; and he does not have funding to cover the cost of the subscriptions. Additionally, initiatives off ering access to biomedical and health literature to low-income and middle-income countries such as HINARI currently do not consider Peru as a candidate for benefit. The National Council of Science and Technology (CONCYTEC) has been providing access to Scopus since 2014 (with approximately 18 000 titles) and the ScienceDirect Freedom Collection (consisting of 2653 journals), yet few physicians can access these databases because it is only available for selected academic institutions and researchers who have accomplished specific milestones. Given this scenario, physicians face the following dilemma: is it ethical for them to use Sci-Hub (an illegal medium) to access the information required to provide the best and most timely care for their patients? In recent years there has been an increase in open access journals, which do not have subscription plans or payments to access their content. Additionally, Harvard University’s Global Health Delivery Online (GHDonline.org) recently started a 1-year complementary international grant subscription programme to UpToDate, an evidence-based, physician-authored clinical decision support tool. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before clinicians worldwide have access to the papers and information they need to care for a growing and diverse set of patients. Meanwhile, many of the world’s physicians, like Dr J, will continue to face this ethical dilemma to access information every day.

Scientific production of Vice Chancellors for Research in Peruvian universities with a medical school

OBJECTIVESnTo determine the scientific production of Research Vice-chancellors at Peruvian universities that have medical schools, as well as their academic degrees as an indirect way to evaluate their suitability for the position they hold.nnnMETHODSnWe searched all Peruvian universities that register medical schools. Of these, the scientific production of the universities registered in SCOPUS was identified in September of the 2016. The scientific production of the vice chancellors of investigation of these faculties of medicine was determined through the search of its scientific publications registered in SCOPUS and those reported in the National Registry of Researchers in Science and Technology. Academic degrees were obtained from the database of the National Superintendence of Higher University Education.nnnRESULTSnThe sample included 28 research vice chancellors. Only 4/28 had any publications. The average number of articles published by the vice chancellors of research was 1.71, the number of citations 23.1 on average and the H index 0.64. Besides, 22 Vice-chancellors of research had the degree of doctor, four had the degree of bachelor and two the degree of master.nnnCONCLUSIONSnThe scientific production of research vice chancellors is poor. The required academic grade requirement for the position is not met in all cases. It is likely that, having no research experience, his leadership in directing a universitys research policies may be questioned.

Metadata Quality and Academic Visibility Associated with Document Type Coverage in Institutional Repositories of Peruvian Universities

ABSTRACT This article analyzes level of metadata quality (MQ ratio) and level of academic visibility in Google Scholar (IGS ratio) associated with coverage of four types of documents (theses, articles, books, and conferences) in repositories of Peruvian universities. This research is a cross-sectional descriptive and correlational study with intentional non-probabilistic sampling that analyzes 48 repositories from national (n = 10) and private (n = 38) universities integrated in the Peruvian National Digital Repository Alicia (alicia.concytec.gob.pe). Regarding the MQ ratio, we found a median of 0.67 [RIC: 0.552–0.891] for national universities and a median of 0.65 [RIC: 0.407–0.838] for private universities (p = .542). Regarding the IGS ratio, we found a median of 0.32 [RIC: 0.241–0.596] for national universities and a median of 0.62 [RIC: 0.464–0.749] for private universities (p = .054). The p value in Spearmans rank correlation shows a moderate correlation (ρ = 0.594; p < .01) between MQ ratio and the thesis coverage indicator, and a low correlation (ρ = 0.157) between the index of document indexing in Google Scholar and the proportion of documents harvested in Alicia. We conclude that the highest proportion of academic visibility is concentrated in private universities, and the metadata quality number of items integrated in Alicia favors public universities.

Sistemas de información geográfica: aplicación práctica para el estudio de atropellos en el Cercado de Lima, Perú

The aim of this study was to geospatially explore the occurrence rates of car accidents involving pedestrians in Cercado de Lima (Lima District), Peru. Car accidents involving pedestrians recorded in the 2015 National Police Station Census of the National Statistics and Information Institute were described and georeferenced. Subsequently, a Kernel Density analysis was carried out to locate areas with high, medium, and low density events. Records of 171 car accidents involving pedestrians were studied: the types of vehicles involved were automobiles (56.7%) and smaller vehicles (22.8%). The highest percentage of car accidents involving pedestrians (38.6%) took place between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. There were two densely populated areas and two areas with intermediate density for car accidents involving pedestrians, locations that were previously reported as critical due to their deficiencies and high probability of traffic accidents. The use of geographic information systems offers a quick overview of the occurrence rates of car accidents involving pedestrians to make comparisons and enable the local implementation of strategies.