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. 2018 Aug;93(8):1162-1170.
doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002119.

Charting the Publication and Citation Impact of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program From 2006 Through 2016

Nicole Llewellyn  1 , Dorothy R Carter, Latrice Rollins, Eric J Nehl
Affiliations

Charting the Publication and Citation Impact of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program From 2006 Through 2016

Nicole Llewellyn et al. Acad Med. 2018 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: The authors evaluated publication and citation patterns for articles supported by Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) hub investment over the first decade of the CTSA program. The aim was to elucidate a pivotal step in the translational process by providing an account of how time, hub maturity, and hub attributes were related to productivity and influence in the academic literature.

Method: In 2017, the authors collected bibliometric data from PubMed, Web of Science InCites, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) iCite for articles citing any CTSA hub grants published from hub inception through 2016. They compiled data on publication and citation rates and indices of relative citation impact aggregated by hub funding year cohort. They compared hub-level bibliometric activity by multi- versus single-institution structure and total monetary award sums, compiled from NIH RePORTER.

Results: From 2006-2016, CTSA hubs supported over 66,000 publications, with publication rates accelerating as hubs matured. These publications accumulated over 1.2 million citations, with some articles cited over 1,000 times. Indices of relative citation impact indicated CTSA-supported publications were cited more than twice as often as expected for articles of their publication years and disciplines. Multi-institutional hubs and those awarded higher grant sums exhibited significantly higher publication and citation activity.

Conclusions: The CTSA program is yielding a robust and growing body of influential research findings with consistently high indices of relative citation impact. Preliminary evidence suggests multi-institutional collaborations and more monetary resources are associated with elevated bibliometric activity and, therefore, may be worth their investment.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cumulative number of publications, summed within individual, established CTSA hub funding year cohorts (2006–2010) and accrued across the indicated range of years (2007–2015). Publication data were drawn from PubMed in January 2017. Data depicted start in the year subsequent to the initial funding year (e.g., 2007 for the 2006 cohort) and end in 2015, so as to represent only full calendar years of publication information. (Most hubs were funded partway into their first year, and some 2016 publications were not yet indexed in PubMed at the time of the study in early 2017.) Abbreviation: CTSA indicates Clinical and Translational Science Awards.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Unstandardized path coefficients and levels of significance for the hypothesized path model of CTSA hub multi-insitutional status and total monetary award amount (in millions of U.S. dollars) predicting total numbers of publications and citations, adjusting for the year the CTSA hub was originally funded (between 2006–2016), for all 64 CTSA hubs. Arrows indicate directional relationships. Nonsignificant paths, which were removed from the model, are indicated by dotted lines. Abbreviation: CTSA indicates Clinical and Translational Science Awards. aP < .1. bP < .01. cP < .001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Institute of Medicine. The CTSA Program at NIH: Opportunities for Advancing Clinical and Translational Research. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2013. - PubMed
    1. Califf RM, Berglund L. Linking scientific discovery and better health for the nation: the first three years of the NIH’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards. Academic Medicine. 2010;85(3):457–462. - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Institutes of Health. Research portfolio online reporting tools. NIH RePORTER. https://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm. Accessed January 31, 2017.
    1. Rubio DM. Common metrics to assess the efficiency of clinical research. Evaluation & the Health Professions. 2013;36(4):432–446. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Frechtling J, Raue K, Michie J, Miyaoka A, Spiegelman M. The CTSA National Evaluation Final Report. Rockville, MD: Westat; 2012.

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