Bibliometrics as a reflection of research production, products and consumers: A systematic review

The research industry is like any other market, and has research producers, products and consumers. There is a wide variety of bibliometric measures available for use in evaluating research. Measures can be directed at aspects of research producers(authors, affiliations, and funding bodies), the characteristics of research product(research design and topic, sample population, data analyses) or made at the consumption level(citations). The purpose of this systematic review was to identify which parts of the research production process are assessed, and more specifically, the most commonly used bibliometric measures in peer-reviewed health literature between 2000 and 2009. Results revealed there were many different bibliometric measures used, with a relative predominance of those that were relatively simple to use(such as numeric or binary data). Measures were made across all aspects of the research production process(producers, product and consumption) but typically at the research product level.