Scientometric indices of russian centers active in oncology/hematology research

Abstract

The aim of this survey was to perform scientometric evaluation of the major Russian institutions conducting research in the field of oncology and hematology, relying primarily on the common quality indicators and impact of the research results, to аssess their position in the scientific topic clusters (TC) according to international citation databases. Materials and methods A comparison was made between five organizations conducting research in the field of oncology and hematology, i.e., four National Medical Research Centers (NMRCs), and Raisa Gorbacheva Memorial Research Institute of Children Oncology, Hematology and Transplantation (R. Gorbacheva Institute) which is a part of I. Pavlov St. Petersburg State Medical University, using the following scientometric indices: citation, collective Hirsch index, as well as the productivity of research determined as relative share of publications in the scientific TC, as well as Field-weighted Citation Impact, using the SciVal platform. The list of publications was limited to keywords defining the field of research of these organizations. Results Comparative evaluation of research publication activity in oncohematology has shown the leading position of R. Gorbacheva Institute, as a part of I. Pavlov St. Petersburg State Medical University, which was not included into the NMRCs network. Its rating was only slightly lower than the indices of N. Petrov National Medical Research Center of Oncology and N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology. The overall indices of the citation impact based on SciVal analytic platform assessed for R. Gorbacheva Institute are at a level compared to the figures for world publications in the selected topic clusters. Conclusion Efficiency of clinical research at an educational institution, evaluated as the number of highly cited publications proved to be not lower, but sometimes even higher than in specialized research institutions working in the field. Appropriate publishing activity evaluated by the SciVal system showed that the funding authorities providing research financiation should recognize R. Gorbacheva Memorial Research Institute of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Transplantation at the Pavlov University as a perspective university-based platform for research in relevant areas, along with existing specialized scientific institutions.