A bibliometric study of scientific research on second-generation antipsychotic drugs in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: We did a bibliometric study on the scientific publications on second-generation antipsychotic drugs (SGA) in Hong Kong. Methods: With the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases, we chose those English articles from Hong Kong. We used bibliometric indicators of Price’s law for the increase of scientific literature, and of Bradford’s law for dispersion of papers. We also calculated the participation index of the different countries. Then, we correlated those bibliometric information with some social and health data (such as total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development) of Hong Kong. Results: Forty-four original papers were published between 1993 and 2011. Our results indicated non-fulfilment of Price’s law (correlation coefficient r=0.5597 after exponential adjustment vs. r=0.6725 after linear adjustment). Those most widely studied SGA were clozapine (18 papers), risperidone (11 papers), and olanzapine (4 papers). Division into Bradford zones yielded a nucleus occupied by Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (4 articles) and Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (4 articles). A total of 30 different journals were published. Conclusion: The SGA publications in Hong Kong are still too few to confirm an exponential growth of scientific papers.