Epistemic community formation: a bibliometric study of recurring authors in medical journals

Nicolaisen, Jeppe; Frandsen, Tove Faber

doi:10.1007/s11192-022-04409-3

Epistemic community formation: a bibliometric study of recurring authors in medical journals

Published: 08 June 2022

Volume 127, pages 4167–4189, (2022)
Cite this article

Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

324 Accesses
1 Citation
2 Altmetric
Explore all metrics

Abstract

Using a selection of general science journals, general medical journals and specialized medical journals, this paper analyses four indicators of epistemic community formation: Synchronous, diachronous, immediate, and continuants. The analyses show that the specialized medical journals display higher levels of epistemic community formation as measured by the percentage of recurring authors. There are only slight differences in the results across analyses of the four indicators. Yet, the analyses of each indicator illustrate different levels of variance. The results further indicate that the level of epistemic community formation, as measured by the percentage of recurring authors, is closely tied to specialization, and could therefore also be considered as yet another indicator of specialization.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

How should we promote transient diversity in science?

Article Open access 20 January 2023

Quantifying and addressing uncertainty in the measurement of interdisciplinarity

Article Open access 03 September 2023

Author multidisciplinarity and disciplinary roles in field of study networks

Article Open access 18 November 2022

References

Ahlgren, P., Chen, Y., Colliander, C., & van Eck, N. J. (2020). Enhancing direct citations: A comparison of relatedness measures for community detection in a large set of PubMed publications. Quantitative Science Studies, 1(2), 714–729.
Google Scholar
Aksnes, D. W., Langfeldt, L., & Wouters, P. (2019). Citations, citation indicators, and research quality: An overview of basic concepts and theories. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019829575
Article Google Scholar
Aman, V. (2018). Does the Scopus author ID suffice to track scientific international mobility?: A case study based on Leibniz laureates. Scientometrics, 117(2), 705–720.
Article Google Scholar
Braun, T., Glänzel, W., & Schubert, A. (2001). Publication and cooperation patterns of the authors of neuroscience journals. Scientometrics, 51(3), 499–510.
Article Google Scholar
Cabanec, G., Hubert, G., & Milard, B. (2015). Academic careers in Computer Science: Continuance and transience of lifetime co-authorships. Scientometrics, 102(1), 135–150.
Article Google Scholar
Clinton, J. D. (2004). Proxy variable. In M. S. Lewis-Beck, A. Bryman, & T. Futing Liao (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of social science research methods (pp. 878–879). SAGE.
Costas, R., van Leeuwen, T., & Bordons, M. (2010). Self-citations at the meso and individual levels: Effects of different calculation methods. Scientometrics, 82(3), 517–537.
Earle, P., & Vickery, B. (1969). Subject relations in science/technology literature. Aslib Proceedings, 21(6), 237–243.
Article Google Scholar
Fanelli, D. (2010). “Positive” results increase down the hierarchy of the sciences. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010068
Article Google Scholar
Gordon, A. (2007). Transient and continuant authors in a research field: The case of terrorism. Scientometrics, 72(2), 213–224.
Article Google Scholar
Haas, P. M. (1992). Epistemic communities and international policy coordination. International Organization, 46(1), 1–35.
Article Google Scholar
Kawashima, H., & Tomizawa, H. (2015). Accuracy evaluation of Scopus Author ID based on the largest funding database in Japan. Scientometrics, 103(3), 1061–1071.
Article Google Scholar
Leydesdorff, L., Wouters, P., & Bornmann, L. (2016). Professional and citizen bibliometrics: Complementarities and ambivalences in the development and use of indicators—a state-of-the-art report. Scientometrics, 109(3), 2129–2150.
Article Google Scholar
Moed, H. F. (2005). Citation analysis in research evaluation. Springer.
Moed, H. F., Aisati, M., & Plume, A. (2013). Studying scientific migration in Scopus. Scientometrics, 94(3), 929–942.
Article Google Scholar
Ni, C., Sugimoto, C. R., & Jiang, J. (2013). Venue-author-coupling: A measure for identifying disciplines through author communities. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(2), 265–279.
Article Google Scholar
Nicolaisen, J., & Frandsen, T. F. (2012). Consensus formation in science modeled by aggregated bibliographic coupling. Journal of Informetrics, 6(2), 276–284.
Article Google Scholar
Nicolaisen, J., & Frandsen, T.F. (2013). Core journals in library and information science: Measuring the level of specialisation over time. Information Research, 18(3). Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/18-3/colis/paperS05.html.
Nicolaisen, J., & Frandsen, T.F. (2015a). The focus factor: A dynamic measure of journal specialisation. Information Research, 20(4). Retrieved from http://informationr.net/ir/20-4/paper693.html#.YeV1ofnMJPY.
Nicolaisen, J., & Frandsen, T. F. (2015b). Bibliometric evolution: Is the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology transforming into a specialty journal? Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(5), 1082–1085.
Article Google Scholar
Nicolaisen, J., & Frandsen, T. F. (2021). Journals as communities: A case study of core journals in LIS. In Proceedings of the 84th annual meeting of the association for information science & technology (pp. 510–514).
Nikzad, M. (2017). Factors affecting continuance in the scientific activity of Iranian authors. International Journal of Information Science and Management, 15(2), 43–54.
Google Scholar
Nikzad, M., Hariri, N., Babalhavaeji, F., & Nooshinfard, F. (2017). Authorship of Iranian chemistry articles: An actuarial approach. Electronic Library, 35(2), 299–310.
Article Google Scholar
Price, D. J. D. (1980). The citation cycle. In B. C. Griffith (Ed.), Key papers in information science (pp. 195–210). Knowledge Industry Publications.
Price, D. J. D., & Gursey, S. (1976). Studies in scientometrics, Part I: Transience and continuance in scientific authorship. International Forum for Information and Documentation, 1(2), 17–24.
Google Scholar
Schubert, A., & Glänzel, W. (1991). Publication dynamics: Models and indicators. Scientometrics, 20(1), 317–331.
Article Google Scholar
Tiokhin, L., Panchanathan, K., Lakens, D., Vazire, S., Morgan, T., & Zollman, K. (2021). Honest signaling in academic publishing. PLoS ONE, 16(2), e0246675.
Article Google Scholar
Unutmaz Durmuşoğlu, Z. D., & Durmuşoğlu, A. (2021). A TOPSIS model for understanding the authors choice of journal selection. Scientometrics, 126(1), 521–543.
Article Google Scholar
Wager, E. (2005). Getting research published: An A-Z of publication strategy. Radcliffe.
Waltman, L. (2016). A review of the literature on citation impact indicators. Journal of Informetrics, 10(2), 365–391.
Article Google Scholar
Zhao, D., & Strotmann, A. (2022). Intellectual structure of information science 2011–2020: An author co-citation analysis. Journal of Documentation, 78(3), 728–744.
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 76, 2300, Copenhagen S, Denmark
Jeppe Nicolaisen
University of Southern Denmark, Universitetsparken 1, 6000, Kolding, Denmark
Tove Faber Frandsen

Authors

Jeppe Nicolaisen
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Tove Faber Frandsen
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeppe Nicolaisen.

Appendix 1

Data for each journal is listed below.

Y: Year; N: Number of publications (articles; reviews; notes); A: Number of authors with at least one paper in the journal in Y; Y − 3: Number of authors with at least one paper in the journal in Y and at least one paper in the same journal the preceding 3 years; Y − 3(%): Percentage of authors with at least one paper in the journal in Y and at least one paper in the same journal the preceding 3 years; Y + 3: Number of authors with at least one paper in the journal in Y and at least one paper in the same journal the succeeding 3 years; Y + 3(%): Percentage of authors with at least one paper in the journal in Y and at least one paper in the same journal the succeeding 3 years; Cont.: Number of continuants (authors with at least one paper in the journal in Y, at least one paper in the same journal the preceding 3 years, and at least one paper in the same journal the succeeding 3 years); Cont.(%): Percentage of continuants.

American Journal of Ophthalmology

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3(%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	316	1158	–	–	353	30.484	194	16.753	–	–
1998	294	1139	–	–	425	37.313	223	19.579	–	–
1999	330	1309	–	–	610	46.600	335	25.592	–	–
2000	344	1443	532	36.868	612	42.412	400	27.720	368	25.502
2001	377	1709	662	38.736	571	33.411	318	18.607	335	19.602
2002	363	1393	518	37.186	537	38.550	326	23.403	337	24.192
2003	437	1634	573	35.067	595	36.414	364	22.277	356	21.787
2004	458	1687	599	35.507	634	37.582	384	22.762	374	22.170
2005	461	1799	617	34.297	678	37.688	406	22.568	388	21.568
2006	463	1759	651	37.010	602	34.224	391	22.229	367	20.864
2007	392	1704	670	39.319	481	28.228	282	16.549	316	18.545
2008	281	1254	488	38.915	471	37.560	289	23.046	270	21.531
2009	267	1202	500	41.597	404	33.611	240	19.967	264	21.963
2010	241	1138	428	37.610	421	36.995	233	20.475	256	22.496
2011	269	1198	413	34.474	457	38.147	275	22.955	266	22.204
2012	271	1348	426	31.602	474	35.163	224	16.617	255	18.917
2013	298	1365	434	31.795	542	39.707	298	21.832	261	19.121
2014	326	1558	487	31.258	540	34.660	317	20.347	283	18.164
2015	294	2245	588	26.192	1045	46.548	803	35.768	377	16.793
2016	275	2071	1048	50.604	666	32.158	323	15.596	412	19.894
2017	263	1717	548	31.916	561	32.673	319	18.579	317	18.462
2018	287	2229	598	26.828	–	–	443	19.874	–	–
2019	297	2085	767	36.787	–	–	452	21.679	–	–
2020	321	2096	828	39.504	–	–	–	–	–	–

Annals of Internal Medicine

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont .(%)
1997	317	1258	–	–	229	18.203	113	8.983	–	–
1998	319	1340	–	–	234	17.463	118	8.806	–	–
1999	279	1051	–	–	221	21.028	107	10.181	–	–
2000	285	1132	207	18.286	205	18.110	79	6.979	86	7.597
2001	326	1117	207	18.532	217	19.427	77	6.893	96	8.594
2002	339	1092	191	17.491	199	18.223	100	9.158	90	8.242
2003	460	1125	235	20.889	245	21.778	107	9.511	116	10.311
2004	457	1280	237	18.516	244	19.063	124	9.688	109	8.516
2005	391	1093	237	21.683	220	20.128	95	8.692	106	9.698
2006	273	1162	230	19.793	215	18.503	86	7.401	103	8.864
2007	262	1375	200	14.545	253	18.400	126	9.164	100	7.273
2008	248	1973	261	13.229	218	11.049	112	5.677	108	5.474
2009	309	1336	241	18.039	232	17.365	99	7.410	99	7.410
2010	410	1254	187	14.912	272	21.691	121	9.649	107	8.533
2011	446	1254	261	20.813	334	26.635	160	12.759	152	12.121
2012	458	1455	296	20.344	337	23.162	165	11.340	146	10.034
2013	624	1945	352	18.098	420	21.594	233	11.979	179	9.203
2014	481	1491	396	26.559	388	26.023	221	14.822	206	13.816
2015	444	1784	412	23.094	413	23.150	230	12.892	212	11.883
2016	398	1804	387	21.452	353	19.568	213	11.807	202	11.197
2017	505	1886	413	21.898	360	19.088	198	10.498	199	10.551
2018	489	1827	349	19.102	–	–	179	9.797	–	–
2019	584	2028	325	16.026	–	–	224	11.045	–	–
2020	624	2243	431	19.215	–	–	–	–	–	–

British Journal of Ophthalmology

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	199	693	–	–	209	30.159	108	15.584	–	–
1998	243	879	–	–	289	32.878	164	18.658	–	–
1999	236	939	–	–	321	34.185	160	17.039	–	–
2000	265	1014	209	30.159	312	30.769	165	16.272	165	16.272
2001	292	1090	289	32.878	313	28.716	181	16.606	154	14.128
2002	288	1150	321	34.185	391	34.000	197	17.130	207	18.000
2003	295	1175	312	30.769	425	36.170	220	18.723	211	17.957
2004	337	1384	313	28.716	454	32.803	216	15.607	240	17.341
2005	327	1464	391	34.000	442	30.191	251	17.145	218	14.891
2006	327	1537	425	36.170	448	29.148	273	17.762	247	16.070
2007	346	1541	454	32.803	542	35.172	290	18.819	277	17.975
2008	341	1542	442	30.191	472	30.610	266	17.250	259	16.796
2009	338	1668	448	29.148	459	27.518	218	13.070	263	15.767
2010	314	1444	542	35.172	387	26.801	231	15.997	213	14.751
2011	326	1684	472	30.610	422	25.059	207	12.292	234	13.895
2012	288	1334	459	27.518	379	28.411	208	15.592	209	15.667
2013	291	1510	387	26.801	450	29.801	234	15.497	215	14.238
2014	330	1658	422	25.059	442	26.659	265	15.983	196	11.821
2015	316	1899	379	28.411	528	27.804	277	14.587	264	13.902
2016	328	1707	450	29.801	529	30.990	310	18.161	247	14.470
2017	308	1689	442	26.659	585	34.636	287	16.992	306	18.117
2018	296	1685	528	27.804	–	–	319	18.932	–	–
2019	318	1939	529	30.990	–	–	428	22.073	–	–
2020	363	2860	585	34.636	–	–	–	–	–	–

British Medical Journal

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	1141	2071	–	–	509	24.577	244	11.782	–	–
1998	1584	2307	–	–	514	22.280	290	12.570	–	–
1999	1701	2199	–	–	526	23.920	272	12.369	–	–
2000	1496	2210	514	23.258	535	24.208	289	13.077	290	13.122
2001	1804	2186	526	24.062	507	23.193	277	12.672	275	12.580
2002	1740	2277	534	23.452	581	25.516	321	14.097	293	12.868
2003	1887	2581	546	21.155	592	22.937	346	13.406	325	12.592
2004	1816	2496	604	24.199	526	21.074	305	12.220	290	11.619
2005	1586	2568	567	22.079	497	19.354	292	11.371	258	10.047
2006	1320	2056	520	25.292	399	19.407	165	8.025	223	10.846
2007	778	1620	375	23.148	375	23.148	160	9.877	211	13.025
2008	821	2366	335	14.159	439	18.555	223	9.425	197	8.326
2009	1070	2675	487	18.206	568	21.234	287	10.729	245	9.159
2010	1180	2743	510	18.593	599	21.837	306	11.156	263	9.588
2011	729	2585	558	21.586	580	22.437	298	11.528	273	10.561
2012	783	2745	589	21.457	551	20.073	263	9.581	276	10.055
2013	859	2719	519	19.088	581	21.368	285	10.482	277	10.188
2014	905	2876	579	20.132	546	18.985	296	10.292	256	8.901
2015	1120	2890	619	21.419	523	18.097	268	9.273	270	9.343
2016	935	2260	542	23.982	531	23.496	274	12.124	268	11.858
2017	819	2093	485	23.172	405	19.350	232	11.085	223	10.655
2018	807	2952	511	17.310	–	–	322	10.908	–	–
2019	927	3110	527	16.945	–	–	288	9.260	–	–
2020	879	3091	528	17.082	–	–	–	–	–	–

Experimental Eye Research

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	198	784	–	–	224	28.571	111	14.158	–	–
1998	150	595	–	–	158	26.555	87	14.622	–	–
1999	145	579	–	–	170	29.361	88	15.199	–	–
2000	144	593	151	25.464	134	22.597	62	10.455	68	11.467
2001	152	649	156	24.037	193	29.738	77	11.864	82	12.635
2002	142	642	149	23.209	186	28.972	99	15.421	86	13.396
2003	158	678	214	31.563	213	31.416	105	15.487	109	16.077
2004	194	758	183	24.142	249	32.850	115	15.172	108	14.248
2005	176	834	202	24.221	243	29.137	162	19.424	92	11.031
2006	297	1341	304	22.670	366	27.293	184	13.721	151	11.260
2007	217	1011	293	28.981	283	27.992	144	14.243	144	14.243
2008	181	869	271	31.185	248	28.539	141	16.226	123	14.154
2009	255	1153	307	26.626	261	22.637	144	12.489	144	12.489
2010	204	931	262	28.142	231	24.812	131	14.071	115	12.352
2011	171	819	253	30.891	186	22.711	74	9.035	111	13.553
2012	173	859	157	18.277	237	27.590	103	11.991	79	9.197
2013	241	1211	208	17.176	288	23.782	145	11.974	97	8.010
2014	241	1235	288	23.320	306	24.777	151	12.227	146	11.822
2015	189	957	284	29.676	267	27.900	148	15.465	139	14.525
2016	248	1357	321	23.655	329	24.245	115	8.475	150	11.054
2017	183	921	225	24.430	227	24.647	111	12.052	118	12.812
2018	247	1481	283	19.109	–	–	202	13.639	–	–
2019	327	1964	365	18.585	–	–	190	9.674	–	–
2020	317	1790	333	18.603	–	–	–	–	–	–

Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	3493	9143	–	–	1380	15.094	587	6.420	–	–
1998	348	1226	–	–	524	42.741	272	22.186	–	–
1999	445	1536	–	–	644	41.927	388	25.260	–	–
2000	580	1930	898	46.528	809	41.917	417	21.606	563	29.171
2001	471	1772	661	37.302	802	45.260	400	22.573	438	24.718
2002	503	1996	716	35.872	872	43.687	541	27.104	485	24.299
2003	702	2669	974	36.493	1129	42.300	623	23.342	608	22.780
2004	593	2495	986	39.519	1071	42.926	616	24.689	626	25.090
2005	630	2779	1025	36.884	1144	41.166	641	23.066	663	23.858
2006	704	3310	1114	33.656	1322	39.940	740	22.356	758	22.900
2007	724	3324	1245	37.455	1335	40.162	736	22.142	787	23.676
2008	717	3250	1248	38.400	1425	43.846	784	24.123	821	25.262
2009	763	3496	1391	39.788	1616	46.224	900	25.744	957	27.374
2010	887	4045	1533	37.899	1835	45.365	1260	31.150	1076	26.601
2011	1208	5452	2028	37.197	2139	39.233	1287	23.606	1251	22.946
2012	1025	4509	1844	40.896	1858	41.206	1124	24.928	1157	25.660
2013	1047	4559	1887	41.391	1911	41.917	1171	25.685	1158	25.400
2014	993	4544	1946	42.826	1712	37.676	1008	22.183	1102	24.252
2015	939	4655	1781	38.260	1688	36.262	981	21.074	1036	22.256
2016	848	4158	1658	39.875	1544	37.133	903	21.717	964	23.184
2017	740	4337	1614	37.215	1406	32.419	870	20.060	846	19.507
2018	680	3997	1561	39.054	–	–	661	16.537	–	–
2019	539	3258	1209	37.109	–	–	601	18.447	–	–
2020	516	3234	1165	36.024	–	–	–	–	–	–

JAMA Ophthalmology

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	308	1097	–	–	351	31.996	196	17.867	–	–
1998	309	1004	–	–	336	33.466	149	14.841	–	–
1999	273	933	–	–	323	34.620	174	18.650	–	–
2000	276	1258	360	28.617	395	31.399	215	17.091	223	17.727
2001	269	1467	395	26.926	404	27.539	211	14.383	243	16.564
2002	293	1271	366	28.796	402	31.629	225	17.703	236	18.568
2003	314	1297	412	31.766	408	31.457	198	15.266	240	18.504
2004	302	1149	380	33.072	315	27.415	177	15.405	215	18.712
2005	261	1082	376	34.750	299	27.634	160	14.787	209	19.316
2006	266	1138	326	28.647	315	27.680	159	13.972	169	14.851
2007	268	1080	291	26.944	351	32.500	202	18.704	177	16.389
2008	240	1378	361	26.197	382	27.721	202	14.659	213	15.457
2009	245	1027	346	33.690	369	35.930	188	18.306	204	19.864
2010	253	1206	370	30.680	409	33.914	223	18.491	223	18.491
2011	266	1168	385	32.962	383	32.791	222	19.007	205	17.551
2012	327	1315	434	33.004	453	34.449	218	16.578	272	20.684
2013	260	1136	379	33.363	345	30.370	208	18.310	214	18.838
2014	270	1285	405	31.518	497	38.677	325	25.292	254	19.767
2015	297	1646	509	30.923	475	28.858	261	15.857	263	15.978
2016	298	1223	412	33.688	456	37.285	287	23.467	256	20.932
2017	304	1541	486	31.538	601	39.001	452	29.332	275	17.846
2018	289	1868	657	35.171	–	–	238	12.741	–	–
2019	318	1399	385	27.520	–	–	251	17.941	–	–
2020	266	1186	429	36.172	–	–	–	–	–	–

Journal of Clinical Oncology

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	426	3180	–	–	1253	39.403	717	22.547	–	–
1998	493	3496	–	–	1463	41.848	838	23.970	–	–
1999	467	3608	–	–	1533	42.489	821	22.755	–	–
2000	486	3571	1412	39.541	1527	42.761	870	24.363	944	26.435
2001	514	4179	1564	37.425	1674	40.057	842	20.148	995	23.810
2002	548	4064	1504	37.008	1796	44.193	982	24.163	1044	25.689
2003	634	4775	1804	37.780	2147	44.963	993	20.796	1277	26.743
2004	614	4591	1673	36.441	1963	42.758	1325	28.861	1155	25.158
2005	1042	7356	2574	34.992	2773	37.697	1467	19.943	1664	22.621
2006	740	5597	2177	38.896	2363	42.219	1292	23.084	1492	26.657
2007	772	5538	2318	41.856	2487	44.908	1337	24.142	1598	28.855
2008	817	5887	2454	41.685	2555	43.401	1557	26.448	1645	27.943
2009	825	7042	2796	39.705	2822	40.074	1713	24.325	1751	24.865
2010	798	6740	2709	40.193	2537	37.641	1392	20.653	1709	25.356
2011	808	6385	2454	38.434	2171	34.002	1279	20.031	1461	22.882
2012	660	5665	2381	42.030	2035	35.922	1119	19.753	1329	23.460
2013	630	5772	2139	37.058	1990	34.477	1006	17.429	1286	22.280
2014	515	4638	1902	41.009	1755	37.840	953	20.548	1181	25.464
2015	520	4980	1937	38.896	1826	36.667	1089	21.867	1208	24.257
2016	508	5540	1965	35.469	1757	31.715	967	17.455	1088	19.639
2017	401	4512	1749	38.763	1502	33.289	749	16.600	991	21.964
2018	334	3886	1462	37.622	–	–	544	13.999	–	–
2019	306	3563	1234	34.634	–	–	647	18.159	–	–
2020	378	4873	1505	30.884	–	–	–	–	–	–

Journal of the American Medical Association

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	1082	2474	–	–	574	23.201	341	13.783	–	–
1998	945	2509	–	–	552	22.001	225	8.968	–	–
1999	670	2253	–	–	500	22.193	240	10.652	–	–
2000	697	2424	540	22.277	525	21.658	294	12.129	259	10.685
2001	650	2678	576	21.509	465	17.364	264	9.858	217	8.103
2002	633	2629	535	20.350	533	20.274	226	8.596	255	9.700
2003	705	1869	390	20.867	385	20.599	199	10.647	197	10.540
2004	651	2488	482	19.373	561	22.548	292	11.736	270	10.852
2005	676	3227	518	16.052	536	16.610	273	8.460	253	7.840
2006	481	2215	516	23.296	448	20.226	219	9.887	250	11.287
2007	472	2559	493	19.265	447	17.468	246	9.613	232	9.066
2008	489	2146	482	22.460	492	22.926	250	11.650	262	12.209
2009	530	2523	461	18.272	527	20.888	250	9.909	236	9.354
2010	533	2423	494	20.388	456	18.820	216	8.915	222	9.162
2011	541	2330	453	19.442	489	20.987	237	10.172	195	8.369
2012	390	2684	534	19.896	565	21.051	182	6.781	234	8.718
2013	437	2669	385	14.425	439	16.448	214	8.018	169	6.332
2014	511	5018	576	11.479	700	13.950	360	7.174	243	4.843
2015	585	4274	629	14.717	523	12.237	220	5.147	219	5.124
2016	550	3730	509	13.646	554	14.853	303	8.123	220	5.898
2017	510	4036	622	15.411	613	15.188	321	7.953	295	7.309
2018	614	3735	591	15.823	–	–	249	6.667	–	–
2019	590	3302	513	15.536	–	–	273	8.268	–	–
2020	790	3356	597	17.789	–	–	–	–	–	–

Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	382	1197	–	–	339	28.321	189	15.789	–	–
1998	344	1189	–	–	297	24.979	185	15.559	–	–
1999	373	1340	–	–	307	22.910	185	13.806	–	–
2000	357	1262	321	25.436	348	27.575	177	14.025	184	14.580
2001	375	1238	291	23.506	279	22.536	151	12.197	162	13.086
2002	308	1288	313	24.301	379	29.425	186	14.441	181	14.053
2003	396	1558	335	21.502	428	27.471	198	12.709	190	12.195
2004	422	1433	351	24.494	357	24.913	203	14.166	166	11.584
2005	404	1913	425	22.216	490	25.614	285	14.898	222	11.605
2006	308	1626	471	28.967	417	25.646	217	13.346	247	15.191
2007	281	1303	401	30.775	306	23.484	179	13.738	194	14.889
2008	260	1584	383	24.179	370	23.359	155	9.785	203	12.816
2009	246	1226	303	24.715	351	28.630	210	17.129	185	15.090
2010	286	1543	401	25.988	429	27.803	243	15.749	240	15.554
2011	287	1565	431	27.540	439	28.051	204	13.035	236	15.080
2012	266	1364	333	24.413	449	32.918	213	15.616	238	17.449
2013	261	1737	423	24.352	518	29.822	260	14.968	273	15.717
2014	283	2365	503	21.268	588	24.863	410	17.336	302	12.770
2015	272	2646	708	26.757	651	24.603	390	14.739	307	11.602
2016	209	2095	569	27.160	463	22.100	236	11.265	265	12.649
2017	238	1908	462	24.214	395	20.702	179	9.382	209	10.954
2018	175	1802	379	21.032	–	–	248	13.762	–	–
2019	173	2014	529	26.266	–	–	278	13.803	–	–
2020	137	1580	441	27.911	–	–	–	–	–	–

Lancet

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020	1463 1756 1839 1678 1674 1391 1396 1285 1086 998 934 980 960 961 946 1013 958 976 1053 962 804 805 817 689	4535 5522 5717 4635 5391 4136 4998 4943 4215 3917 3255 5554 4573 6054 5253 6515 4453 5407 6842 7247 10,211 14,223 16,697 15,055	– – – 932 939 801 833 738 723 626 648 703 890 1002 1495 1149 959 1039 1971 1849 2826 3028 2905 3870	– – – 20.108 17.418 19.367 16.667 14.930 17.153 15.982 19.908 12.658 19.462 16.551 28.460 17.636 21.536 19.216 28.807 25.514 27.676 21.289 17.398 25.706	956 1004 970 859 856 729 644 717 702 628 829 926 929 1680 1050 1382 1021 1615 2373 2992 3574 – – –	21.080 18.182 16.967 18.533 15.878 17.626 12.885 14.505 16.655 16.033 25.469 16.673 20.315 27.750 19.989 21.213 22.928 29.869 34.683 41.286 35.001 – – –	471 543 482 472 400 356 342 397 310 287 341 437 507 1094 573 487 481 1135 1305 2220 1926 2006 1442 –	10.386 9.833 8.431 10.183 7.420 8.607 6.843 8.032 7.355 7.327 10.476 7.868 11.087 18.071 10.908 7.475 10.802 20.991 19.073 30.633 18.862 14.104 8.636 –	– – – 438 389 348 307 308 292 298 351 395 437 527 527 644 544 691 1189 1242 1968 – – –	– – – 9.450 7.216 8.414 6.142 6.231 6.928 7.608 10.783 7.112 9.556 8.705 10.032 9.885 12.216 12.780 17.378 17.138 19.273 – – –

Nature

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020	2241 2062 1723 1992 1851 1784 1772 1808 1936 1642 1507 1563 1559 1674 1853 1978 2051 1707 1734 2318 2296 2370 2175 2519	5457 4931 5502 6752 6282 6630 6144 8894 8291 7685 8014 8245 8537 10,156 11,003 13,392 10,759 12,609 17,211 12,934 16,461 13,404 17,263 24,341	– – – 1127 1207 1306 1251 1638 1916 1882 1813 1733 1663 2327 2644 3226 2709 3138 3436 3257 3846 2686 3263 5716	– – – 16.691 19.214 19.698 20.361 18.417 23.109 24.489 22.623 21.019 19.480 22.913 24.030 24.089 25.179 24.887 19.964 25.182 23.364 20.039 18.902 23.483	1027 1002 1209 1188 1535 1458 1543 2008 2026 1683 1802 2022 2041 2911 3123 3930 2724 3203 3741 3365 3930 – – –	18.820 20.320 21.974 17.595 24.435 21.991 25.114 22.577 24.436 21.900 22.486 24.524 23.908 28.663 28.383 29.346 25.318 25.402 21.736 26.017 23.875 – – –	499 457 592 576 711 565 767 1013 992 763 810 853 1061 1620 1919 1657 1333 1566 1769 1747 1313 1316 2992 –	9.144 9.268 10.760 8.531 11.318 8.522 12.484 11.390 11.965 9.928 10.107 10.346 12.428 15.951 17.441 12.373 12.390 12.420 10.278 13.507 7.976 9.818 17.332 –	– – – 464 584 612 686 833 929 784 732 802 791 1144 1423 1796 1359 1573 1591 1446 1707 – – –	– – – 6.872 9.296 9.231 11.165 9.366 11.205 10.202 9.134 9.727 9.266 11.264 12.933 13.411 12.631 12.475 9.244 11.180 10.370 – – –

New England Journal of Medicine

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020	702 720 697 612 570 520 723 797 618 556 669 650 752 623 590 559 785 784 676 643 631 703 686 769	2644 2830 2958 2509 2566 2586 3473 3177 3127 4210 3645 6012 4777 4605 5031 11,500 9928 5928 8957 7034 12,280 7877 7379 6239	– – – 386 380 372 428 499 498 564 599 760 668 839 863 1317 1804 1148 1955 1556 2084 2081 1813 1038	– – – 15.385 14.809 14.385 12.324 15.707 15.926 13.397 16.433 12.641 13.984 18.219 17.154 11.452 18.171 19.366 21.827 22.121 16.971 26.419 24.570 16.637	419 387 374 372 385 447 576 575 551 705 688 777 923 1018 1287 2322 1582 1242 2238 1470 2142 – – –	15.847 13.675 12.644 14.827 15.004 17.285 16.585 18.099 17.621 16.746 18.875 12.924 19.322 22.106 25.581 20.191 15.935 20.951 24.986 20.898 17.443 – – –	160 146 162 148 172 185 254 226 209 283 325 308 369 420 684 1211 533 584 756 747 1242 853 476 –	6.051 5.159 5.477 5.899 6.703 7.154 7.314 7.114 6.684 6.722 8.916 5.123 7.725 9.121 13.596 10.530 5.369 9.852 8.440 10.620 10.114 10.829 6.451 –	– – – 148 152 160 191 223 217 269 282 303 338 413 453 646 732 534 1025 699 857 – – –	– – – 5.899 5.924 6.187 5.500 7.019 6.940 6.390 7.737 5.040 7.076 8.969 9.004 5.617 7.373 9.008 11.444 9.937 6.979 – – –

Ophthalmology

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997	312	1204	–	–	505	41.944	278	23.090	–	–
1998	342	1523	–	–	530	34.800	317	20.814	–	–
1999	362	1426	–	–	521	36.536	295	20.687	–	–
2000	340	1313	498	37.928	506	38.538	298	22.696	312	23.762
2001	365	1456	540	37.088	534	36.676	324	22.253	324	22.253
2002	368	1402	525	37.447	554	39.515	338	24.108	313	22.325
2003	374	1664	557	33.474	487	29.267	299	17.969	284	17.067
2004	336	1521	518	34.057	512	33.662	297	19.527	307	20.184
2005	326	1339	474	35.400	560	41.822	354	26.438	316	23.600
2006	328	1428	555	38.866	563	39.426	300	21.008	351	24.580
2007	332	1445	537	37.163	553	38.270	322	22.284	335	23.183
2008	331	1483	542	36.548	556	37.492	334	22.522	323	21.780
2009	335	1560	578	37.051	634	40.641	347	22.244	370	23.718
2010	324	1618	594	36.712	643	39.740	387	23.918	371	22.930
2011	338	1686	632	37.485	672	39.858	376	22.301	392	23.250
2012	348	1838	622	33.841	722	39.282	421	22.905	423	23.014
2013	357	1820	724	39.780	765	42.033	446	24.505	455	25.000
2014	328	1837	748	40.719	703	38.269	452	24.605	426	23.190
2015	353	3043	793	26.060	1135	37.299	493	16.201	490	16.103
2016	340	2021	767	37.952	704	34.834	344	17.021	433	21.425
2017	262	1471	561	38.137	588	39.973	395	26.852	333	22.638
2018	265	3585	1144	31.911	–	–	1403	39.135	–	–
2019	224	2825	1649	58.372	–	–	386	13.664	–	–
2020	189	1387	547	39.438	–	–	–	–	–	–

Science

Y	N	A	Y − 3	Y − 3 (%)	Y + 3	Y + 3 (%)	Y + 1	Y + 1 (%)	Cont	Cont. (%)
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020	2338 1947 1416 1542 1617 1569 1773 1815 1768 1705 1335 1329 1376 1342 1118 1138 1010 1153 1379 1416 1293 2575 2545 2701	5006 4862 4788 4910 5505 5595 6250 6655 7016 7217 7101 6744 8010 8844 7800 7345 8945 9334 9937 9320 9310 12,018 11,016 12,719	– – – 944 1062 1034 1048 1073 1197 1457 1302 1496 1756 1671 1629 1541 1773 1552 1765 1872 1540 2098 1807 1956	– – – 19.226 19.292 18.481 16.768 16.123 17.061 20.188 18.335 22.183 21.923 18.894 20.885 20.980 19.821 16.627 17.762 20.086 16.541 17.457 16.403 15.379	1041 925 905 1060 1180 1064 1175 1243 1450 1582 1487 1647 1553 1777 1581 1618 1767 1764 2014 1697 1830 – – –	20.795 19.025 18.901 21.589 21.435 19.017 18.800 18.678 20.667 21.920 20.941 24.422 19.388 20.093 20.269 22.029 19.754 18.899 20.268 18.208 19.656 – – –	501 449 463 599 589 478 497 567 777 628 677 928 843 924 844 873 891 918 1013 725 988 911 978 –	10.008 9.235 9.670 12.200 10.699 8.543 7.952 8.520 11.075 8.702 9.534 13.760 10.524 10.448 10.821 11.886 9.961 9.835 10.194 7.779 10.612 7.580 8.878 –	– – – 440 512 441 473 472 521 660 586 674 765 720 712 774 769 703 728 744 647 – – –	– – – 8.961 9.301 7.882 7.568 7.092 7.426 9.145 8.252 9.994 9.551 8.141 9.128 10.538 8.597 7.532 7.326 7.983 6.950 – – –

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nicolaisen, J., Frandsen, T.F. Epistemic community formation: a bibliometric study of recurring authors in medical journals. Scientometrics 127, 4167–4189 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04409-3

Download citation

Received: 18 January 2022
Accepted: 12 May 2022
Published: 08 June 2022
Issue Date: July 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04409-3

Keywords

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Epistemic community formation: a bibliometric study of recurring authors in medical journals

Abstract

Access this article

Similar content being viewed by others

How should we promote transient diversity in science?

Quantifying and addressing uncertainty in the measurement of interdisciplinarity

Author multidisciplinarity and disciplinary roles in field of study networks

References

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Corresponding author

Appendix 1

American Journal of Ophthalmology

Annals of Internal Medicine

British Journal of Ophthalmology

British Medical Journal

Experimental Eye Research

Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science

JAMA Ophthalmology

Journal of Clinical Oncology

Journal of the American Medical Association

Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Lancet

Nature

New England Journal of Medicine

Ophthalmology

Science

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Keywords

Navigation

Epistemic community formation: a bibliometric study of recurring authors in medical journals

Abstract

Access this article

Similar content being viewed by others

How should we promote transient diversity in science?

Quantifying and addressing uncertainty in the measurement of interdisciplinarity

Author multidisciplinarity and disciplinary roles in field of study networks

References

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Corresponding author

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

American Journal of Ophthalmology

Annals of Internal Medicine

British Journal of Ophthalmology

British Medical Journal

Experimental Eye Research

Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science

JAMA Ophthalmology

Journal of Clinical Oncology

Journal of the American Medical Association

Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Lancet

Nature

New England Journal of Medicine

Ophthalmology

Science

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Share this article

Keywords

Search

Navigation