The Third French Alzheimer Plan: analysis of the influence of a national public health initiative on scientific research productivity and impact

INTRODUCTION: The Third National Alzheimer Plan (2008–2012) was a major public health initiative in France that included €200 million of funding for research in Alzheimer disease and related disorders (AD). The aim of this study was to document trends in French academic output in AD following the implementation of the plan. METHODS: Academic output (i.e., number of original articles) and scientific impact (i.e., article citations) of French research in AD were obtained from the Web of Knowledge core collection database. Analyses compared the 5-year period immediately before (2004–2008) and after (2009–2013) initiation of the plan. Comparisons were made with stroke, Parkinson disease, AIDS, and diabetes in the 14 leading countries worldwide and regionally within France. RESULTS: Worldwide production of original scientific articles between the periods 2004–2008 and 2009–2013 increased by 39 %, and that for AD increased by 46 %. China showed the largest increase and Japan the smallest. The absolute increase in French output on AD (54.6 %) was larger than that for stroke, Parkinson disease, AIDS, or diabetes. Globally, France had the third largest relative increase in output in AD (1.7-fold), behind only India (2.5-fold) and China (1.9-fold). There was a relative 2.3-fold increase in the proportion of French AD articles in the top 1 % globally most cited, larger than that for French articles on stroke, Parkinson disease, AIDS, or diabetes. At the national level, university hospitals participated in nearly 50 % of French AD publications. Analyses by geographical area demonstrated marked heterogeneity. We observed a strong correlation between level of funding and volume of output (R(2) = 0.70), but not between funding and article impact (proportion of top 10 % globally cited articles; correlation R(2) = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides evidence of a specific positive impact of the funding provided by the Third National Alzheimer Plan in nearly doubling the global academic scientific output and increasing by 2.3-fold the top 1 % globally cited articles of France in AD research. Our bibliometric analyses provide objective and transparent information for policy makers on the relationship between research funding and academic output. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13195-015-0144-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.