1,720,971 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
The use of economic evaluations produced by uvef for HTA report assesments in the Veneto Region
No full textORGANIZATION: The Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee of the Veneto Region, Italy, is a regulating body responsible for the definition of the Regional Hospital Formulary in Veneto. Veneto comprised a territory of 4.800.000 inhabitants in the north-east part of Italy. The Unit for the Evaluation of Drug Efficacy (Unità di Valutazione dell'Efficacia del Farmaco, UVEF) is the technical group responsible for the evaluation reports of new drugs to be submitted to the Regional Committee (RC). The Committee evaluates the introduction of new technologies based on HTA reports that contain the following relevant sections: general information; alternative treatments and insights from existing guidelines; efficacy and safety data; other HTA reports; pharmacoeconomics data from the literature; comparative drug costs; budget impact analysis (BIA).
PROBLEM OR ISSUE ADDRESSED: In august 2009 the regulation of the Committee was modified: the decisions are now taken based on HTA criteria. Since 1st January 2010 the stakeholders (manufacturers, clinicians, scientific societies or local drug & therapeutics committees) are involved in HTA process with the introduction of a new request form for the submission of new drugs to the RC. The stakeholders submitting a new drug application must present a BIA and other economic evidences supporting the introduction in the regional formulary.
GOALS: We analyzed the HTA reports produced by UVEF from January 2009 to June 2010 in order to verify first of all the rate of assessments presenting economic evidences (published pharmacoeconomic studies, BIA, other HTA reports) and then to evaluate the usefulness of economic evidences for the appraisals. We also investigated if there is a significant difference between 2009 and 2010 in the number of BIA presented by the stakeholders.
OUTCOMES ITEMS USED IN THE DECISION The presence of therapeutic alternatives for the same disease; efficacy data from main clinical trials (active controlled trials, placebo controlled trail or not controlled trials); considerations on safety, efficacy and cost by the main regulatory and HTA agencies in Europe, e.g. Scottish Medicine Consortium (SMC) and NICE; relevant organizational and cost issues arising from published pharmacoeconomic studies (cost-effectiveness, cost-utility etc), when applicable; comparative drug costs and BIA presented by the manufacturers or estimated by UVEF.
IMPLEMENTARY STRATEGY We developed a Database to record all clinical and economic outcomes items for each drug evaluated from January 2009 to June 2010. We performed a statistical analysis using Fisher’s exact text (two tailed) to evaluate the variation on the number of BIA submitted by stakeholders before and after the introduction of the new regional regulation.
RESULTS During the year 2009 and the first six months of 2010, UVEF produced 42 HTA reports: 30 new drugs and 12 new indications. Only 2 drugs had no alternative: an orphan drug for a rare disease (carglumic acid) and a last-line drug used in terminal patients (methylnaltrexone). For the other 40 drugs were available: in 22 cases RCTs with active-control, in 8 cases RCTs placebo-controlled, in 8 cases RCTs controlled versus no treatment or best supportive care and in 2 cases not-controlled trials. About the economic evidences were available: in 28 cases international HTA reports (20 from SMC and 8 from both SMC and NICE); in 14 cases pharmacoeconomic studies and in 11 cases BIA (5 produced by UVEF and 6 by both manufacturers and UVEF). Ten reports had no economic evidences.
The Committee did not approve or suspended the appraisals for 8 drugs, in 6 cases for economic reasons: higher expenditures (67%), lack of manufacturers’ BIA/ pharmacoeconomic studies (33%).
We verified a variation on the number of BIA produced by manufacturers before and after the introduction of the new regional regulation. Out of 28 submissions during 2009 only 1 had BIA, whereas out of 14 submission during 2010 5 had BIA; the difference performed using Fisher’s exact text was statistically significant (p=0.010).
LESSON LEARNED: In our evaluation process, in the last two years the economical evaluations and BIA are considered increasingly. The new regulation of the D&T Committee of the Veneto Region increased significantly the number of BIA presented by the manufacturers. Most of negative appraisals were based also on economic reasons. The HTA criteria are now always applied in UVEF assessment and D&T Committee appraisal proces
New oral antithrombotic drugs for the VTE prevention in orthopaedic surgery: the HT assessment and appraisal process of the Veneto Region in Italy
No full textObjectives: In the Veneto Region, a centralized Regional Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee (RP&TC) has been
nominated and its main task is to define and update the Regional Drug Formulary (RDF). The Drug Effectiveness Evaluation Unit (UVEF) of the Veneto Region is a HTA Centre and one of its functions is to produce assessments for the RP&TC. Dabigatran and Rivaroxaban are two new drugs recently approved by EMEA for the prevention of thromboembolism in adult patients undergoing elective hip or knee replacement surgery. They are the first two oral drugs approved for this indication. Objectives: The objective is to present the HTA reports and the budget impact analysis (BIA) about Rivaroxaban and Dabigatran produced by UVEF for the appraisal by the RP&TC.
Methods: The mini-HTA report contains these main sections:
• Disease;
• Clinical efficacy and safety; therapeutic guidelines;
• Other HTA reports;
• Economic evaluations and BIA with regard to the
Regional economic context;
• Organizing regional context.
The BIA considers the following parameters:
• number of patients discharged after elective hip or knee replacement surgery from the 2005 discharge records;
• drug costs in hospital and selling price based on different distribution models (e.g. from the hospital pharmacy or from outpatient pharmacies) of the new drugs and the alternative treatments (e.g. LMWH and fondaparinux);
• length of treatment.
Results: The RP&TC introduced the new antithrombotics in the RDF in therapeutic substitution. The HTA reports and the RP&TC appraisals are published in the UVEF website (http://www.uvef.it).
Conclusions: New antithrombotic drugs are at least efficacy as the alternative treatments and presents the advantage of the oral administration, but are more expensive than the alternative treatments. The BIA shows that in Veneto Region these drugs are not much more expensive than alternative treatments, depending on the distribution model
An observation of prescription behaviors and adherence to guidelines in patients with COPD: real world data from October 2012 to September 2014
No full textIntroduction: GOLD guideline recommendations are currently the “gold standard” for the treatment of COPD patients. Objectives: The objective of this analysis was to evaluate compliance with GOLD guidelines in managing COPD patients’ treatment by general practitioners (GPs) and pulmonologists. Since inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use is defined as inappropriate in mild and moderate COPD patients, special attention was paid to ICS therapy use in these classes. Methods: The study was based on the Italian GP database IMS Health Longitudinal Patient Database (IMS Health LPD) and on the Patient Analyzer specialist IMS Health database. The observed cohort included all patients with a diagnosis of COPD, aged 40 years or more, with at least one ATC R03 class prescription, visited by GPs and pulmonologists during four timeframes: October 2012 – March 2013 (cohort 1), April 2013 – September 2013 (cohort 2), October 2013 – March 2014 (cohort 3); April 2014 – September 2014 (cohort 4). Patients were classified into disease severity groups following 2008 GOLD guidelines, based on FEV1 value. Results: Cohorts were quite similar in size (about two thousand patients per cohort). Pulmonologists visited more severe patients than GPs. About 50% of GPs’ mild and moderate patients received treatments containing inhaled corticosteroids. Pulmonologists were more adherent to guidelines, with smaller percentages of mild patients treated with therapies containing ICS (ranging from 19.0% to 30.1%). An improvement in adherence was observed during the four time periods, with a decrease in the use of therapies containing ICS in mild and moderate patients. In absolute terms, it emerged that GPs more often prescribe ICS improperly to patients in the mild and moderate severity classes than pulmonologists. Conclusion: Real world data indicate that adherence to GOLD guidelines is only partially met by GPs in their general practice and shows higher prescription appropriateness by pulmonologists
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