A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research Networks

Objective: During the last three decades newly formed pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) research networks have been publishing research. A desire of these networks is to produce and disseminate research to improve patient health and outcomes. To quantitatively analyze and compare the literature by PEM research networks globally through numeric and visual bibliometrics. Methods: A bibliometric analysis of articles published from 1994 to 2019 (26 years) by authors from PEM research networks globally were retrieved using PubMed®, Web of Science™ (Thompson Reuters) and accessing individual research network databases. Bibliometric analysis was performed utilizing Web of Science™, VOSviewer and Dimensions. Research was quantified to ascertain the number of articles, related articles, citations and Altmetric attention score. Results: A total of 493 articles were published across nine research networks in three decades. Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) produced the most articles, citations, and h-index of all networks. We identified three main groupings of productive authors across the networks who collaborate globally. The gender of the first author was female in 46% of publications and the corresponding author(s) was female in 45%. A non-significant moderate positive correlation between the number of years publishing and the number of publications was identified. There was non-significant moderate negative association between the number of countries in a network and total publications per annum. Conclusions: This study is the first bibliometric analysis of publications from PEM research networks that collaborate globally. The gender gap in first authorship compared to high impact medical journals and high impact emergency medicine journals is narrower. Exploring the relationships of numerical bibliometric indicators and visualizations of productivity will benefit the understanding of the generation, reach and dissemination of PEM research within the global research community.