| Objective:The major purposes of this study were to assess the international academic influence of Chinese institutions in the field of parasitic diseases, in order to explore the relationship between the international collaboration and international academic influence in the control and research of parasitic diseases.Methods:The papers, including aritcles or reviews, pertaining to schistosomiasis, malaria, echinococcosis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and food-borne helminthiasis published by Chinese scholars in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) of Web of Science (WOS), USA during the period from2002to2012were searched using data mining. The publications, h index and citations of the papers published by Chinese affiliations in SCIE were analyzed using a bibliometric method, and the disease-based institutional academic influence was ranked according the citations and h index. The scientific knowledge network map was plotted using the CiteSpace II software, and the inter-institution academic collaboration network analysis was performed. The influence and contributions of the outstanding academic leaders in the field of schistosomiasis, malaria, echinococcosis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and food-borne helminthiasis were assessed based on the literature outcomes, and the h2index of the top Chinese institution was estimated. In addition, the senior researchers of the top Chinese institution served as study subjects, and its relationship between the international collaboration and international academic influence in the control and research of parasitic diseases was evaluated by using analysis of covariance and generalized linear models.Results:A total of1453articles or reviews regarding parasitic diseases published by Chinese scholars were indexed in SCIE from2002to2012, which comprises5.2%of global total publications. The publications pertaining to schistosomiasis, malaria, echinococcosis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and food-borne helminthiasis were610,248,203,83and309, respectively, and the greatest annual increases in publication were observed in schistosomiasis and echinococcosis. According to the publication quantity, the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases (NIPD), China CDC, ranked at the first, first, fifth, first and second in the field of schistosomiasis, malaria, echinococcosis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and food-borne helminthiasis, respectively in China, while based on h index it ranked at the first, second, sixth, first and first in the field of schistosomiasis, malaria, echinococcosis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and food-borne helminthiasis, respectively in China, indicating that NIPD plays a leading core role in the national academic network of China except echinococcosis. The outstanding academic leader was Xiao-Nong Zhou (h=17), Wei-Qing Pan (h=9), Ning Xiao (h=13), Shu-Hua Xiao (h=10) and Xin-Bing Yu (h=11) in the field of schistosomiasis, malaria, echinococcosis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and food-borne helminthiasis, respectively, and the h2index of NIPD was7, indicating that there were7researchers from NIPD with h index of iY7. Analysis of covariance revealed that four elements, including the number of international partners (F=81.75, P<0.0001), number of international projects (F=22.81, P<0.0001) and number of national projects (F=7.30, P=0.0110), made greatest contributions to individual academic influence.Conclusions:Both publications in SCIE and h index of the Chinese affiliations of parasitic diseases are far inferior to the world leading institutions. NIPD has a possibility to become the first-class institution in the field of schistosomiasis within a short period, and has a potential to achieve the global top level in the research field of echinococcosis in the coming10years, although it falls behind currently. Strengthening international collaboration facilitates the elevation of international academic influence for the institutions and individuals in the field of parasitic diseases. |
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