Can informetrics shape biomedical research? A case study of the HIV/AIDS research in sub-Saharan Africa1
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Date
2014-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
Biomedical research is burgeoning as new dangerous diseases and healing methods emerge. Informetrics defined as
methods or a research field that uses mathematical and statistical techniques and/or models to examine patterns that
show up not only in publications but also in many aspects of life, as long as the patterns deal with information, are widely
applied in the evaluation of research performance, among others. Informetrics measures can be divided into descriptive
and evaluative measures, commonly referred to as production (publications) count and citation analysis respectively.
Whereas the former has continued to gain popularity in sub-Saharan Africa, especially with regard to the assessment of
research output of researchers, the latter is rarely applied.
The paper focuses on the research evaluation, methods of research evaluation, and the pros and cons of using informetrics
techniques to evaluate research performance. Further, the paper addresses the application of informetrics to examine
whether or not informetrics can be used to shape biomedical research, with special reference to HIV/AIDS research in
sub-Saharan Africa. In that regard, the paper reports on an informetrics perspective of the relatedness of opportunistic
diseases and other factors (i.e. risk factors, pre-disposing factors, other sexually transmitted diseases, and the other
tropical diseases) to:
• Demonstrate the use of informetrics techniques in assessing the relatedness of a disease to the pathogens that are associated
with it.
• Reveal that informetrics can be used to support and/or inform medical opinions regarding the relationship/influence of certain
factors/diseases with/on a given disease, e.g. HIV/AIDS.
This paper concludes that the application of informetrics, using various techniques or methodologies associated with it, to
shape research in different fields/disciplines, is feasible.
Description
Peer reviewed article published under Inkanyiso, Volume 6, Issue 1, Jan 2014, p. 49 - 65
Keywords
HIV/AIDS, Informetrics, Biometrics, Research evaluation
Citation
Onyancha, O.B., 2014. Can informetrics shape biomedical research? A case study of the HIV/AIDS research in sub-Saharan Africa 1. Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(1), pp.49-65.