META-ANALYSIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC CONTENTS OF MATERIA SOCIO-MEDICA JOURNAL IN THE PERIOD 2009-2015.

INTRODUCTION: Materia Socio Medica Journal has a long history. It was founded in 1978. AIM: To evaluate journal articles in 2015 and compare findings to previous years.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study has retrospective and descriptive character, and included the period 2009-2015.
RESULTS: A total of 99 articles were published in Materia Socio Medica during 2015 and it shows an upward trend during the period 2009-2015. Original articles are present in majority during the last seven years (69,2%). Analyzing the last seven years, 44,1% of articles were from the field of clinical medicine. Articles from the fields of public health show an upward trend during the last four years. Collaboration rate in 2015 was 0,95. Authors of the articles are from ten countries (four continents). H index of journal is 8 and g index is 12 (Publish or Perish software). According to GoogleScholar, h5 index for Materia Socio Medica is 8 and h5 median is 9.
CONCLUSIONS: The objectives of the journal in the next year are: to become a part of the Scopus and Web of Science databases, further internationalization and promotion of the journal in the country and the region, revision and broadening of the Editorial Board, trying to follow trend in reducing the number of days required for a decision on acceptance or revision of article and involvement of the younger generation of professionals and scientists into the journal work and publishing scope, which will lead to emergence of new enthusiasm and ideas (Journal intends to follow the trends of modern biomedical publishing worldwide).

1. INTRODUCTION

The journal Materia Socio-Medica is one of the rapidly developing periodicals in the field of Public Health and Biomedical Sciences. It has a long history spanning over three decades. The Journal was founded in 1978 in Former Yugoslavia and registered as “Materia Socio-Medica Iugoslavica” (Figure 1). It was the first and only one scientific and professional journal of the Yugoslav Association of Social Medicine with an original intention to publish works in the field of social medicine and health care organizations, or in the area of planning and programming of health care, health economics, health informatics, health promotion, medical ethics and sociology, organization and protection of population and nosological groups, etc. Since Social medicine and its specific scientific disciplines at the time were at a very high level and among the most developed in Europe there was a need that in the former Yugoslavia is formed one such journal that would cover all of these disciplines. Publishing of the Journal “Materia Socio-Medica Iugoslavica” was stopped in the period since 1990 to 2000 due to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). In parallel with the formation of the Association for Social Medicine - Public Health of B&H, at the Inaugural Meeting of the Association held in March 2000 in Tuzla, the Journal was revitalized again with a new name “Materia Socio-Medica” and as such is issued today (1). From the year 2009 Materia Socio-Medica has been accepted as an official journal of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Figure 1

Cover pages of the first (1978) and last issue (Dec 2015) of the Journal Materia Socio Medica

The Journal publishes original research papers, comprehensive reviews, editorials, viewpoints, conference reports, news notes, letters and other items on topics related to Public Health, Social Medicine and Health Care organization, Health management, Medical informatics, Health economics, Health ethics, Health promotion, Management of diseases, Health care of specific groups of population, Medical statistics, Health information systems, General medicine, etc. All articles, with abstracts, are published exclusively in English after an open peer review. The frequency of the Journal is 6 issues per year. The geographic distribution of authors publishing in this Journal is international, from various countries and continents.

In 2015 in B&H about twenty-five journals were issued in the field of biomedical and life sciences in general. Out of them six journals are indexed in the Medline/PubMed database: Medical Archives, Materia Socio-Medica, Acta Informatica Medica, Acta Medica Academica, Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences (BJBMS) and Medicinski Glasnik) (2). Beside PubMed and PubMed Central, Materia Socio-Medica is indexed in EBSCO, DOAJ, Index Copernicus, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research - GFMER, HINARI, ProQuest, NewJour, ISC Master Journals List, CrossRef, Google Scholar, Genamics JournalSeek, WorldCat, NLM Catalog, VINITI of RAS, Catalyst, SafetyLit, EastView and ScopeMed. The journal Materia Socio-Medica is now under evaluation for inclusion in Scopus and Thomson Reuters databases. Starting from 2014, Materia Socio-Medica has been published bimonthly or six issues per year (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Shift from four to six issues per year of the journal Materia Socio Medica in 2014 (published every two months)

2. AIM

To evaluate journal Materia Socio-Medica in 2015 and to compare the findings with previous years.

3. MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study has retrospective and descriptive character, and included the period 2009-2015. Study included 32 issues of journal.

4. RESULTS

A total of 99 articles were published in Materia Socio- Medica during 2015 which shows an upward trend during the period 2009-2015 (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Trend of increasing the total number of published articles in Materia Socio Medica per year during the period 2009-2015

Analyzing the structure by type of articles published in 2015, the original articles are present in majority (77.7%), (Figure 4). Within the last seven years, 442 articles were published and out of them 306 (69,2%) were original articles (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Type of articles published in Materia Socio Medica during the period 2009-2015

Among the articles published in Materia Socio-Medica during 2015, 42,4% are from the field of public health, 14,2% relate to the fields of preclinical medicine, and 43,4% of articles relate to the fields of clinical medicine (Figure 5). Among the articles from the fields of clinical medicine predominant are articles from Internal medicine 58,1%, then Gynecology 14%, Pediatrics 11,6%, Surgery 4,7%, Infectious disease 4,7%, Neuropsychiatry 2,3%, Physical therapy 2,3%, Dermatovenereology 2,3%, etc. During 2015, in the domain of preclinical medicine, articles relate to medical informatics were the most frequent (35,8%). Analyzing the last seven years, 44,1% articles were from the field of clinical medicine (Figure 5).

Figure 5

Distribution of articles by fields during the period 2009-2015.

Within the period of the last seven years, the number of articles from the fields of clinical medicine has an upward trend (Figure 6). Preclinical medicine articles declined in 2015 (Figure 7). Articles in the fields of public health show an upward trend in the period 2012-2015 (Figure 8).

Figure 6

Articles from the clinical medicine fields during the period 2009-2015

Figure 7

Articles from the preclinical medicine fields during the period 2009-2015

Figure 8

Articles from the public health fields during the period 2009-2015

Collaboration rate (ratio of number of multi-authored articles with the total number of articles) in 2015 was 0,95. Articles written in collaboration of four and five authors were the most frequent (22,2%), (Figure 9).

Figure 9

Number of authors in collaboration for published articles during 2015

The average time required for completing the review process and making decision on acceptance of article in 2015 the most often was between 30 and 60 days (Figure 10).

Figure 10

Time required for review and decision on acceptance during 2015

Authors of the articles published in 2015 are from 10 countries (Figure 11), mostly from Bosnia and Herzegovina, then from Iran and Greece. Countries of origin of authors of the published papers in 2015 are dispersed in four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and America).

Figure 11

Map of countries of origin of authors of the published articles in 2015

According to Google Scholar, h5 index (h-index for articles published in the last 5 complete years) for Materia Socio- Medica is 8 and h5 median (median number of citations for the articles that make up its h5-index) is 9. The most cited articles in the last six years are presented in Table 1. In addition, Figure 12 shows different information on PubMed for parameter “Cited by”.

Table 1

The most cited articles in Materia Socio Medica during period 2010-2015

Figure 12

Difference between Google Scholar and PubMed in parameter “Cited by” (14 vs 21)

Ana Wil Harzing launched a free of charge available software package called “Publish or Perish”, which is used for the derivation of various citation analyses, including impact factor (3).

We analyzed the Materia Socio Medica by mentioned software. H index (the index that attempts to measure the productivity and impact of published work of scientists) was 8, g index (largest number g of papers which have received at least g citations on average) (4-8) was 12 (Table 2).

Table 2

Publish or Perish analyse of Materia Socio Medica (data source Google Scholar)

5. CONCLUSIONS

The objectives of the journal in the year 2016 are:

To become part of Scopus (largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature),

To become part of Web of Science (gold standard for research discovery and analytic),

Further internationalization of the magazine,

Promotion of the journal in the country and the region,

Revision and broadening of the Editorial Board,

Trying to follow trend in reducing the number of days required for a review process, with necessary revision, and making decision on acceptance of article,

Involvement of the younger generations of professionals and scientists into the journal work and publishing scope, which will lead to the emergence of new enthusiasm and ideas following the trends of modern biomedical publishing worldwide.