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Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example

Background. Every new scientific field can be traced back to a single, seminal publication. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis can yield significant insights into the history and potential future of a research field. This year marks 21 years since that first ground-breaking microRNA (miRNA) publicat...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Casey, Máire-Caitlín, Kerin, Michael J., Brown, James A., Sweeney, Karl J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4369334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25802804
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.829
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author Casey, Máire-Caitlín
Kerin, Michael J.
Brown, James A.
Sweeney, Karl J.
author_facet Casey, Máire-Caitlín
Kerin, Michael J.
Brown, James A.
Sweeney, Karl J.
author_sort Casey, Máire-Caitlín
collection PubMed
description Background. Every new scientific field can be traced back to a single, seminal publication. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis can yield significant insights into the history and potential future of a research field. This year marks 21 years since that first ground-breaking microRNA (miRNA) publication. Here, we make the case that the miRNA field is mature, utilising bibliometrics. Methods. Utilising the Web of Science™ (WoS) database publication and citation information, we charted the history of miRNA-related publications, describing and dissecting contributions by publication type (plus category, pay-per-view or open access), journal (highlighting dominant journals), by country, citations and languages. Results. We found that the United States of America (USA) publishes the most miRNA papers, followed by China and Germany. Significantly, publications attributed to the USA also receive the most citations per publication, followed by a close grouping of England, Germany and France. We also describe the relevance and acceptance of the miRNA field to different research areas, through its uptake in areas from oncology to plant sciences. Exploring the recent momentous change in publishing, we find that although pay-per view articles vastly out-number open-access articles, the citation rate of pay-per-view articles is currently less than double that of open-access. Conclusions. We believe the trends described here represent the typical evolution of a research field. By analysing publications, citations and distribution patterns, key moments in the evolution of this research area are recognised, indicating the maturation of the miRNA field and providing guidance for future research endeavours.
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spelling pubmed-43693342015-03-23 Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example Casey, Máire-Caitlín Kerin, Michael J. Brown, James A. Sweeney, Karl J. PeerJ Bioinformatics Background. Every new scientific field can be traced back to a single, seminal publication. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis can yield significant insights into the history and potential future of a research field. This year marks 21 years since that first ground-breaking microRNA (miRNA) publication. Here, we make the case that the miRNA field is mature, utilising bibliometrics. Methods. Utilising the Web of Science™ (WoS) database publication and citation information, we charted the history of miRNA-related publications, describing and dissecting contributions by publication type (plus category, pay-per-view or open access), journal (highlighting dominant journals), by country, citations and languages. Results. We found that the United States of America (USA) publishes the most miRNA papers, followed by China and Germany. Significantly, publications attributed to the USA also receive the most citations per publication, followed by a close grouping of England, Germany and France. We also describe the relevance and acceptance of the miRNA field to different research areas, through its uptake in areas from oncology to plant sciences. Exploring the recent momentous change in publishing, we find that although pay-per view articles vastly out-number open-access articles, the citation rate of pay-per-view articles is currently less than double that of open-access. Conclusions. We believe the trends described here represent the typical evolution of a research field. By analysing publications, citations and distribution patterns, key moments in the evolution of this research area are recognised, indicating the maturation of the miRNA field and providing guidance for future research endeavours. PeerJ Inc. 2015-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4369334/ /pubmed/25802804 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.829 Text en © 2015 Casey et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Bioinformatics
Casey, Máire-Caitlín
Kerin, Michael J.
Brown, James A.
Sweeney, Karl J.
Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example
title Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example
title_full Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example
title_fullStr Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example
title_full_unstemmed Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example
title_short Evolution of a research field—a micro (RNA) example
title_sort evolution of a research field—a micro (rna) example
topic Bioinformatics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4369334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25802804
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.829
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