[How to measure research emerging from hospitals? The case of French comprehensive cancer centres].
Our objective was to assess and to compare research performance of French comprehensive cancer centres using bibliometric indicators. Papers recorded in Science Citation Index and published between 1997 and 2002 were identified through the address of the authors. Four indicators were used : the number of papers, the number of papers weighted by the impact factors of the journals in which they were published, the total number of citations received by the papers of a centre and the number of papers in a selection of the most cited papers in the last ten years. 5 979 papers were identified. Median number of papers per centre was 187 (range: 48-1 490) and 595 (range: 133-12 935) when impact factors of the journals were considered. Median number of citations was 1 746. For each indicator, three groups of performance were determined using distribution terciles and each centre was assigned to a tercile on the basis of its scientific production. Taking into account the impact factor of the papers modified the performance rank order as compared to the ranking based on the number of papers. But both impact measures (journals impact factors and number of citations) lead to the same rank order.
Bonastre
Julia
J
Institut Gustave Roussy, 39, rue Camille-Desmoulin, 94805 Villejuif. bonastre@igr.fr
de Pouvourville
Gérard
G
D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005602:France; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*