Secondary distribution of information is surely a relative if not an ambiguous term. The variety of topics covered in Theme Session #7 accentuates the recurring difficulty in trying to assign inflexible classifications to any information processing activities. Classically secondary distribution (publication) of information concerns those activities which follow primary publication (distribution...

the importance of nanotechnology in medical technologies, especially biomedical diagnostics, is indubitable. by taking advantages of nanomaterials, many medical diagnostics methods have been developed so far, including electrochemical nanobiosensors. they have been used for quantification of different clinical biomarkers for detecting, screening, or follow up a disease. micrornas (mirnas) are o...

BACKGROUND Healthcare research is a neglected discipline in Pakistan and research related to esophageal cancer (ranks 9th in Pakistani males and 5th in females) is no exception in this regard. Particularly, there are no data available to delineate the overall status of esophageal cancer epidemiological studies in Pakistan. This study describes the first ever effort to make a systematic quantifi...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether published results of industry funded trials of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rhBMP-2) in spinal fusion match underlying trial data by comparing three different data sources: individual participant data, internal industry reports, and publicly available journal publications and conference abstracts. DATA COLLECTION AND SYNTHESIS The manufactur...

If we want to assess whether the paper in question has had a particularly high or low citation impact compared to other papers, the standard practice in bibliometrics is to normalize citations in respect of the subject category and publication year. A number of proposals for an improved procedure in the normalization of citation impact have been put forward in recent years. Against the backgrou...

Each Local Research Ethics Committee (LREC) is expected to produce an annual report for its establishing authority. Reports from 145 LRECs were examined with regard to (a) whether the committees were working within the terms of the most recent guidelines from the Department of Health and (b) observations on the role of LRECs with particular reference to accountability. Most LRECs had produced a...

The journal impact factor is not comparable among fields of science and social science because of systematic differences in publication and citation behaviour across disciplines. In this work, a source normalization of the journal impact factor is proposed. We use the aggregate impact factor of the citing journals as a measure of the citation potential in the journal topic, and we employ this c...

A case report is a description of important scientific observations that are missed or undetectable in clinical trials. This includes a rare or unusual clinical condition, a previously unreported or unrecognized disease, unusual side effects to therapy or response to treatment, and unique use of imaging modalities or diagnostic tests to assist diagnosis of a disease. Generally, a case report sh...