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# Differences in author ranking: Development of SIGAPS scoring system for Japanese version

Y. Nishizaki, Y. Homma, R. Ueda, Patrick Devos, S. Sanada

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## To cite this version:

Y. Nishizaki, Y. Homma, R. Ueda, Patrick Devos, S. Sanada. Differences in author ranking: Development of SIGAPS scoring system for Japanese version. Journal of General and Family Medicine, 2020, Journal of General and Family Medicine, 21 (5), p. 208-209. 10.1002/jgf2.359. hal-04320549

HAL Id: hal-04320549

https://hal.univ-lille.fr/hal-04320549

Submitted on 4 Dec 2023

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Differences in author ranking: Development of SIGAPS scoring system for Japanese version

To the Editor,

The bibliometric software tool developed in France, namely Système d'Interrogation, de Gestion et d'Analyse des Publications Scientifiques (SIGAPS; “software to identify, manage, and analyze scientific publications”), can be used to calculate a new scoring system and evaluate the quality of academic papers,¹ thus allowing assessment independent of research field. The SIGAPS is a superior scoring system that compensates for the shortcoming of Journal Impact Factor® (IF) (Clarivate), which cannot be compared across research fields,²,³ and is termed “relative Journal IF.” The SIGAPS is calculated by ranking Journal IFs from various research fields from high to low. Points are then assigned based on Journal IF percentiles.⁴

The SIGAPS components include the ranks of the journal and the author. The latter includes first or last author (4 points),

second or second-to-last author (3 points), third author (2 points), or any other contributing authors (1 point) with a weighting factor.⁴ Although the SIGAPS scoring system is extremely beneficial in evaluating the quality of academic papers and individual research achievement, values for author ranking may vary by country. If a SIGAPS scoring system outside of France is considered, the weighting by author ranking should also be reconsidered. Therefore, we are trying to develop the scoring system from the Japanese perspective.

A questionnaire survey was conducted for principal investigators with registered clinical trials in the Japan Registry of Clinical Trials (jRCT). We sent a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to access the questionnaire by e-mail to 1567 researchers registered in jRCT as of June 1, 2019. This questionnaire was conducted using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), and the researchers

<table><caption>**FIGURE 1** Results of questionnaire survey on author ranking. Numbers in the cells indicate number of responses, and the color depth of the cells is proportional to the number of answers</caption><thead><tr><th>Answer to questions (order of priority)</th><th>First author</th><th>Second author</th><th>Third author</th><th>Second-to-last author</th><th>Last author</th><th>Corresponding author</th><th>Other contributing authors</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1st</td><td>35</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>3</td><td>15</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>2nd</td><td>4</td><td>17</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td>7</td><td>19</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>3rd</td><td>0</td><td>16</td><td>8</td><td>3</td><td>12</td><td>2</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>4th</td><td>0</td><td>5</td><td>18</td><td>7</td><td>10</td><td>1</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>5th</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td>10</td><td>11</td><td>4</td><td>0</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>6th</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>3</td><td>15</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>7th</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>2</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>Total number of answers</td><td>39</td><td>39</td><td>39</td><td>39</td><td>39</td><td>39</td><td>39</td></tr></tbody></table>

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2020 The Authors. *Journal of General and Family Medicine* published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japan Primary Care Association
answered the questionnaire anonymously. The survey period ran from November 11 to 27, 2019. We asked the researchers about the levels of each author's contribution including first author, second author, third author, second-to-last author, last author, corresponding author, and other contributing authors.

A total of 39 researchers responded to the survey. Figure 1 shows the values of author ranking from high to low: "first author" > "corresponding author" > "second author" > "last author" > "third author" > "second-to-last author" > "other contributing authors."

The values of the first and last authors are equally the highest in France,¹,⁴ whereas the corresponding and second authors are more valuable than the last author in Japan. Moreover, calculating the SIGAPS score overlooks the corresponding author in the French version, whereas the opposite is true for the Japanese version. The reason the value of the last author was not the highest in Japan could be as follows: The chairman or the professor tends to be the last author, regardless of their contribution to the research. In Japan, the funding issue is very critical, so the chief professor, who is primarily responsible for raising funds, occupies the last position instead of the primary conductors who could possibly be the next-generation researchers.

Author ranking in the Japanese version largely differed from that of the French perspective. Point allocation for authors in the SIGAPS scoring system should be based on discussions with relevant stakeholders and according to the mindset of a country.

Finally, we were unable to obtain a sufficient number of responses because of the short survey period. The results of this study are preliminary, and it will be necessary to verify the results of this study by a large-scale study.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English language review. This study was supported by a grant from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) under Grant Number 191k1903002h0002.

## CONFLICT OF INTEREST

None.

Yuji Nishizaki MD, MPH, PhD¹ ID

Yasuhiro Homma MD, PhD²

Rieko Ueda MS³

Patrick Devos MS⁴ ID

Shoji Sanada MD, PhD⁵

¹Medical Technology Innovation Center, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan

Email: ynishiza@juntendo.ac.jp

²Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

³Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

⁴Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, ULR 2694 - METRICS: Évaluation des technologies de santé et des pratiques médicales, Lille, France

⁵Department of Medical Innovation, Osaka University Hospital, Suita, Japan

## ORCID

Yuji Nishizaki ID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6964-6702

Patrick Devos ID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7803-9552

## REFERENCES

1. Devos P, Dufresne E, Renard JM, Beuscart R. SIGAPS: a prototype of bibliographic tool for medical research evaluation. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2003;95:721-6.

2. Garfield E. The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. JAMA. 2006;295:90-3.

3. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). https://sfdora.org/. Accessed February 23, 2020.

4. Ueda R, Nishizaki Y, Homma Y, Sanada S, Otsuka T, Yasuno S, et al. Importance of quality assessment in clinical research in Japan. Front Pharmacol. 2019;10:1228.