Scientific Productivity of Pain Physicians in Turkey: A Bibliometric Analysis Using Citation and H-Index Statistic.

Objective: Bibliometric studies prepared by evaluating publication numbers, citation numbers and h-indexes are studies that show the production in the field of science. By conducting a study on pain medicine specialists in Türkiye, the study aimed to determine the Hirsch Index (h-index) ratings, number of citations, and number of publications ratings using the Scopus database and to assess the impact of the gender, institution, and title on these parameters. Methods: Pain physicians were identified via the Health Care Provider App Physician search tool, Council of higher education academic search tool, and websites of the institutions. This was followed by the determination of the h-index ratings, number of citations, and number of publications using the Scopus database. Results: Of the 274 pain physicians evaluated in the present study, 139 (50.7%) were female and 135 (49.3%) were male. The mean number of publications was 38.76 ± 32.53, the mean number of citations was 543.48 ± 987.16, and the mean h-index value was 9.51 ± 6.85. 173 (63.1%) of the algologists were working as professors, 16 (5.8%) as associate professors, 12 (4.4%) as assistant professors and 73 (26.6%) as specialist doctors. Of the total physicians, 173 (63.1%) were professors, 16 (5.8%) were associate professors. The mean of the number of publications and citations, and the mean h-index value of the professors were found to be significantly higher than those of other physicians (p<0.05). No significant difference was found between the male and female pain physicians with respect to these parameters (p>0.05). Conclusion: Our study is the first in our country to evaluate the number of publications, number of citations and hindexes, which are important bibliometric parameters that show the scientific production of algologists. It was determined that the number of female pain physicians was higher, whereas the publishing activities and mean h-index values of male academicians were higher. Nevertheless, there were no significant differences between the genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]