The baseline time span for this database is (publication years)
1998-August 31 from the fourth bimonthly update (a 10-year + 8-month
period). The resulting database contained 2,496 (10 years) and 959 (2
years) papers; 5,911 authors; 60 nations; 501 journals; and 1,392
institutions. See methodology for additional information.
Interviews, first-person essays, and profiles about
people in a wide variety of fields which pertain to
this special topic of Underage/College Drinking.
OVERVIEW
Underage drinking, particularly on college campus, is a prevalent concern
for colleges, parents, students, and society as a whole. This month,
ScienceWatch.com examines the problem of young alcohol users,
particularly on college campuses. Our analysis was based on a string of
keywords, including "underage," "college," "alcohol," and "drinking." To
generate a more on-point list of the top 20 papers over the past decade and
over the past two years, we further restricted these papers to the contain
the keywords "college student*" in the title.
The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study plays a dominant
role in the top 20 papers over the past decade. Data generated from this
study were used to determine the prevalence of alcohol use on college
campuses, the concomitant use of other substances, such as tobacco products
and ecstasy, and alcohol-related morbidity and mortality among college-aged
people. The efficacy of various methods for prevention, including screening
for high-risk students, motivational intervention, and interventions
involving feedback and follow-up are also a prevalent theme. The
controversy over the effectiveness of social norms marketing is also
debated.
Based on the papers on the two-year list, more recent concerns are the
concomitant use of alcohol with other substances, such as cigarettes and
prescription drugs, as well as identifying students at high risk for
alcohol abuse and methods to prevent or decrease alcohol use on college
campuses. Methods for this identification include questioning when injuries
are reported to health centers, and personality tests. Methods for
prevention or reduction include mandated interventions, motivational
interviews, web-based feedback and campaigns, stepped care, peer
intervention, social norms marketing, and an alcohol-awareness card
campaign to students nearing their twenty-first birthdays. One study looked
at the serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR polymorphism's role in determining
which students would be more likely to drink. Another study applied the
principles of relative reinforcing efficacy to show that reducing the
availability of low-cost alcohol might play a role in reducing college
drinking.
Methodology: The baseline time span for
this database is January 1, 1998-August 31, 2008 (fourth bimonthly
period 2008). The resulting database contained 2,496 (10 years) and 959
(2 years) papers; 5,911 authors; 60 nations; 501 journals; and 1,392
institutions.
To construct the top 20 papers lists for the past decade and the past two
years, the papers were further narrowed down by the title keywords "college
student." This adjustment resulted in the top 20 papers being selected from
a pool of 545 (10 years) and 227 (2 years) papers.
Rankings: Once the database was in place, it was used to
generate list of authors, journals, institutions, and nations. Rankings for
author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways:
according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper. The paper
thresholds and corresponding percentages used to determine scientist,
institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper,
and total papers respectively are as follows:
Entity
Authors
Institutions
Nations
Journals
Thresholds
11
3
4
8
Percentage:
1%
10%
50%
10%
Special Topic Keywords: drinking, college
students, college student drinkers, binge drinking,
underage drinking, screening, intervention, tobacco
use, alcohol-related mortality, alcohol-related
morbidity, alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, MDMA
use, motivational intervention, predictors, social
influence processes, problematic drinking, heavy
drinking, prescription drug abuse, smoking, social
norms marketing campaigns, alcohol-related
incidents, serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR
polymorphism, polydrug use, web-based feedback,
stepped care, email-based screening and
intervention.