Special Topic of Meningitis
Published July 2010
Meningitis is a condition, generally bacterial or viral in origin, in which the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord become infected. Although meningitis is a global health problem, many developing countries experience repeated and regular meningitis epidemics.
The features of this Special Topic outlined above represent distinct slices of citation data. By approaching citation data from multiple angles, we can observe trends and anomalies across categories—leading to more rich and nuanced stories behind the data.
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) 2000-May 7, 2010 (second bimonthly period 2010). The resulting database contained 14,899 (10 years) and 3,817 (2 years) papers; 47,547 authors; 147 nations; 2,012 journals; and 9,590 institutions. See the tabs below for more detailed information.
Topic Overview
Meninges of the central nervous system: dura
mater, arachnoid, and pia mater.
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons.
Meningitis is a condition, generally bacterial or viral in origin, in which the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord become infected. Although meningitis is a global health problem, many developing countries experience repeated and regular meningitis epidemics.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is important to know the causative agent in order to treat the condition, particularly in the case of bacterial meningitis, which tends to be more severe. The most common bacterial organisms implicated in meningitis are Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Neisseria meningitidis. This month Special Topics examines the literature on meningitis over the past decade and over the past two years.
To construct the initial data pool, the keywords "meningit*" OR "meningoc*" were used to search titles, abstracts, and keywords of original articles, reviews, and proceedings papers published in the Web of Science® database from Clarivate between January 1, 2000 and May 7, 2010. To make the paper lists more on-point, we restricted these keywords to title use only.
INTERVIEW MENU
Read interviews, first-person essays, profiles, and other features about people in a wide variety of fields, along with information on journals & institutions in the topic of Meningitis. All of the author comments below are also listed in the site-wide Author Commentaries listings (available by month/year or alphabetically).
SEPTEMBER 2010
Martin Maiden on the Population Biology & Molecular Epidemiology of Meningococci
In our Special Topics analysis of papers on
meningococcal disease published over the past decade, the research
being carried out by Professor Martin Maiden and his colleagues in the
Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford ranks at #8 by total
papers and #13 by total cites, based on 57 papers cited a total of
1,729 times. ScienceWatch.com European correspondent Simon
Mitton spoke with Maiden about his research as it relates to
meningitis.
View Article
AUGUST 2010
Muhamed-Kheir Taha Tackles Meningitis on the Molecular Level
According to our Special Topics analysis of
meningitis research over the past decade, the work of Dr.
Muhamed-Kheir Taha of the Institut Pasteur ranks at #6 by total
papers, based on 60 papers cited 1,062 times. In
Essential Science IndicatorsSM from
Clarivate, his
work can be found in the field of Immunology.
View Article
JULY 2010
Roland Nau Takes Meningitis Therapy from the Lab to the Clinic
According to our Special Topics analysis on
meningitis research over the past decade, the work of Dr. Roland Nau
ranks at #5 by total papers, based on 69 papers cited a total of 1,042
times. In this interview, ScienceWatch.com talks with him
about his highly cited meningitis research.
View Article
Thresholds
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 | Journals | Nations |
---|---|---|---|---|
Thresholds | 10 | 52 | 15 | 13 |
Percentage: | 1% | 1% | 10% | 50% |
*Unless otherwise specified, all rankings have a >= 5 paper threshold for all measures. |
Methodology
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) 2000-May 7, 2010 (second bimonthly period 2010). The resulting database contained 14,899 (10 years) and 3,817 (2 years) papers; 47,547 authors; 147 nations; 2,012 journals; and 9,590 institutions.
Keywords
The Internet search terms for this Topic are:
MENINGITIS, MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE, NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS, WHOLE-GENOME SEQUENCING, VACCINE, PATHOGENESIS, PROGNOSIS, HAEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE, STREPTOCOCCUS PNEUMONIAE, SEPSIS, SEROGROUP, IMMUNOGENICITY, EPIDEMIOLOGY, BACTERIAL MENINGITIS, VIRAL MENINGITIS, ANTIRETOVIRAL THERAPY, VIRULENCE EVOLUTION, FACTOR H BINDING PROTEIN, HIV/AIDS, HUMAN PARECHOVIRUSES, FLUCONAZOLE, AMPHOTERICIN B, FLUCYTOSINE, DEXAMETHASONE, ENDOTHELIAL PROTEIN C ACTIVATION.
Featured Image: A Chinese doctor prepares a vaccination injection against meningitis at a disease prevention station in Beijing, February 3, 2005. REUTERS/Jason Lee.