Book citations: influence of epidemiologic thought in the academic community Citações de livros: influência do pensamento epidemiológico na comunidade acadêmica

• Published in: Revista de Saúde Pública
• Main Authors: Miquel Porta, Esteve Fernandez, Elisa Puigdomènech
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2006
• Subjects: Livros de texto; Obras de referência; Epidemiologia; Bibliometria; Textbooks; Reference books; Epidemiology; Bibliometrics; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-89102006000400008; https://doaj.org/article/8f4076a6c9e34890bef2b0a1733ad33b

Whilst their 'death' has often been certified, books remain highly important to most professions and academic disciplines. Analyses of citations received by epidemiologic texts may complement other views on epidemiology. The objective was to assess the number of citations received by some books of epidemiology and public health, as a first step towards studying the influence of epidemiological thought and thinking in academia. For this purpose, Institute for Scientific Information/ Thomson Scientific - Web of Science/ Web of Knowledgedatabase was consulted, in May 2006. The book by Rothman & Greenland appeared to have received the highest number of citations overall (over 8,000) and per year. The books by Kleinbaum et al, and by Breslow & Day received around 5,000 citations. In terms of citations per year the book by Sackett et al ranks 3rd, and the one by Rose, 4th of those included in this preliminary study. Other books which were influential in the classrooms collected comparatively less citations. Results offer a rich picture of the academic influences and trends of epidemiologic methods and reasoning on public health, clinical medicine and the other health, life and social sciences. They may contribute to assess epidemiologists' efforts to demarcate epidemiology and to assert epistemic authority, and to analyze some historical influences of economic, social and political forces on epidemiological research. Ainda que sua 'morte' tenha sido freqüentemente certificada, os livros continuam sendo relevantes para muitas profissões e disciplinas acadêmicas. Análises de citações recebidas por textos epidemiológicos podem complementar outras visões em epidemiologia. O objetivo do estudo foi avaliar o número de citações recebidas por alguns livros de epidemiologia e saúde pública, como um primeiro passo para estudar a influência do pensamento epidemiológico e o pensar da academia. Para este propósito, a base de dados do Institute for Scientific Information/ Thomson Scientific - Web of Science/ Web of ...