The percentage of reviews in research output: a simple measure of research esteem.

This paper introduces a new and easy-to-determine indicator for research evaluation, namely the percentage of reviews (PR) within a group of papers (articles, notes and reviews). Because reviews are commissioned from, or submitted by, relatively senior researchers, their frequency plausibly provides a measure of the esteem in which a country's (or institution's) top researchers are held. We show that, just as with citation indicators, PR has increased with time, and that it varies substantially with major scientific field and by country, but rather less with sub-field and research level within medical research. It correlates quite well with national citation measures although manifesting an Anglophone bias, and also with the propensity of smaller European countries to co-author papers with US researchers. Two worked examples are given to show potential applications of the new indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]