Reviewer's report
Title:Assessing Breast Cancer Research Activity in Arab Countries Using ISI
Web of Science Bibliometric Database: Comparison with non-Arab Countries
Version:3Date:24 November 2014
Reviewer: Hamdy A Azim
Reviewer's report:
Assessing Breast Cancer Research Activity in Arab Countries Using ISI Web of
Science Bibliometric Database: Comparison with non-Arab Countries
By : Waleed M. Sweileh, Sa’ed H. Zyoud, Samah W. Al-Jabi and Ansam F.
Sawalha
Reviewing report by Dr. Hamdy A. Azim
Professor of Medical Oncology
School of Medicine, Cairo University
November 22, 2014
An overall opinion : The article is well written and provides very important data
which are really lacking in the literature, concerning the current breast cancer
research activities in the Arab countries and how they compare with other
non-Arab countries in the middle east region.
The kind of data provided by the authors is certainly worth publishing , and it will
be frequently cited by many future manuscripts , addressing breast cancer
research in the middle east region.
The manuscript is eligible for publication in BMC Women health, provided
fulfilling the following revisions
Major Compulsory Revisions
Title : "Comparison with non-Arab Countries "
The title may give a wrong impression concerning non-Arab countries whose
data were used to compare with the Arab countries
The title should be modified as follows:
"Comparison with other non-Arab Regional Countries"
Or
"Comparison with other Middle East Countries"
Abstract
Methods
Line 36/37 "Quality of publications from Arab and non-Arab countries was
assessed by h-index"
Should be modified as follows : "The Quantity and Quality of publications from
the Arab countries in addition to 3 other Middle East countries ( Turkey, Iran and
Israel ) were assessed and compared using the h-index publication tool"
Conclusion
Line 50 : The present data reveals a good contribution of some Arab countries to
the field of “breast cancer”.
Should be modified as follows : The present data reveals a good contribution of
some Arab countries to the field of “breast cancer research ”.
Keywords: Bibliometric, Breast cancer, Arab world, ISI Web of Science
The authors should add middle east region, in addition to the above Keywords
Line 72 : The Arab countries cover a large geographic area including North Africa
and the Arabic Peninsula with around 500 million inhabitants
Should be modified as follows : with an overall population of around 380 millions
( which is the same figure , the authors mentioned in table 5)
Lines 240-244:
Low research activity in breast cancer field in other Arab countries could be
attributed to political and military conflict in the Arab world along with lack of
democracy and governmental funding, and lack of cooperation between industry
and academia . All these reasons have to be taken into consideration if the
governments in the Arab regions wish to develop the status of their scientific
research output in general.
This bears too much politics (which is certainly out of context ) , I suggest to
modify it as follows :
"Low research activity in Arab countries is a multi-faceted problem that could be
attributed at least in part to, inadequate research infra- structure in many cancer
institutions in these countries, the modest governmental and non-governmental
funding, in addition to a poor cooperation between industry and academia . All
these reasons have to be taken into consideration if the governments in the Arab
regions wish to improve the status of their scientific research"
Minor Essential Revisions
Line 62 : Research about breast cancer in every country will shed light on the
genetic basis as well as cultural differences in the epidemiology of breast cancer.
Too dogmatic statement ( may be able to shed light )
Lines 262-264
One possible reason for this is the impact factor of journals in which Israeli
researchers publish their breast cancer research. It is believed that articles in
high IF journals have higher chance of being cited, although this is not
guaranteed.
The authors should acknowledge the fact that the major reason for having a
publication in a high impact factor journal is the research quality . For instance
the Journal with the highest publication rate for Israeli breast cancer research is
Cancer Research . This Journal currently has an acceptance rate of 9%, which
reflects the high quality research that you must provide in order to get your work
published in this category of high impact journals . other factors
like open access , specialty , fees, and editorial revision time are of much less
importance compared to research quality.
Lines 278-279 :
One possible reason for this is the intensive collaboration between Israeli and
USA researchers in the field of breast cancer.
The authors should acknowledge the fact that the status of cancer research in
Israel is quite advanced and it is certainly close to the research status in well
developed countries ( many Nobel prize winners in cancer research).
Table 2 : research areas
Oncology : Should be modified as follows : clinical oncology ( surgery, radiation
therapy , medical oncology )
Obstetrics Gynecology publications should be added to the clinical oncology
category
The term "General Internal Medicine" is vague , the authors should clarify
whether this research category included medical oncology research or medical
complications of cancer/anti-cancer drugs
For simplicity they would better add it to clinical oncology category
Research Experimental Medicine : Should be modified as follows : Preclinical
studies