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. 2011 Apr 29;6(4):e19496.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019496.

Visualizing clinical evidence: citation networks for the incubation periods of respiratory viral infections

Nicholas G Reich  1 , Trish M Perl, Derek A T Cummings, Justin Lessler
Affiliations

Visualizing clinical evidence: citation networks for the incubation periods of respiratory viral infections

Nicholas G Reich et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Simply by repetition, medical facts can become enshrined as truth even when there is little empirical evidence supporting them. We present an intuitive and clear visual design for tracking the citation history of a particular scientific fact over time. We apply this method to data from a previously published literature review on the incubation period of nine respiratory viral infections. The resulting citation networks reveal that the conventional wisdom about the incubation period for these diseases was based on a small fraction of available data and in one case, on no retrievable empirical evidence. Overall, 50% of all incubation period statements did not provide a source for their estimate and 65% of original sources for incubation period data were not incorporated into subsequent publications. More standardized and widely available methods for visualizing these histories of medical evidence are needed to ensure that conventional wisdom cannot stray too far from empirically supported knowledge.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. A citation network for the incubation period of influenza A and B.
The most cited paper (Cox, 1999) is in the middle of the figure, while the original data that is most often relied upon (Moser, 1979) has the heaviest arrow pointing towards it. Many sources of original data are not cited at all.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Citation networks for the incubation period of adenovirus, human coronavirus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza and rhinovirus.
Figure 3
Figure 3. A citation network for the incubation period of respiratory syncytial virus.
Figure 4
Figure 4. A citation network for the incubation period of measles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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