Final Skills Presentation Flashcards
By counting the number of times each unique author appeared, the highest ranking authors in terms of number of publications can be displayed
By merging the provided authors and articles datasets to combine rows with identical PMIDs, a count of the number of papers each author published could be taken and used to display the authors that published the most articles relating to schistosomiasis
By this metric, XN Zhou is the most active researcher in this field with a total of 215 articles published
The graph shows that by this metric, XN Zhou is the most active researcher in this field with a total of 215 publications, followed by J Utzinger and DP McManus with 195 and 164 respectively.
The number of papers these authors published in the last 5 years is also displayed for additional context
While these values help depict the state of the field since its emergence, there was the need for another metric that they could be used in conjunction with to make judgments about who the most promising authors in the next few years would be. Number of publications in the last 5 years for each of the most active authors of all time was the ideal metric to use for this purpose and was easily displayed on the same set of axes.
XN Zhou maintained an impressive rate of publication over the last 5 years, while some competing authors experienced a drop off
While Utzinger and McManus’ find themselves ranked lower for publications in the last five years compared with all time, XN Zhou has published a considerable number of articles in this time frame and finds himself ranked second for publications over this period across all authors in the field. J Xu is another researcher who shouldn’t go unnoticed as he ranks fourth for all time publications and finds himself at the top of the field for publications in the last 5 years. Considering this and the fact that he started publishing later than almost all of the other authors included in the graph, it suggests that he is capable of publishing the most articles in the coming years.
The number of papers published each year by the top 5 most active authors are displayed by the graph
After identifying the most active authors, it was important to determine whether these researchers were dependable year on year. By constructing a plot that displayed the number of papers each of the chosen authors published in each year, conclusions could be drawn about a given author’s consistency.
XN Zhou and J Xu have published many papers in a relatively short period of time, whereas Utzinger and McManus have published at a steadier rate
The graph shows that Utzinger and McManus have published at a steady rate over many years, while XN Zhou and J Xu have published at faster rates over comparatively shorter time periods. This suggests that Xn Zhou and J Xu carry the most potential as researchers over the coming years.
External factors are likely responsible for coinciding peaks and dips
It should be noted that all five authors included in the graph experienced a peak in performance around 2015 and a dip somewhere between 2017 and 2019, indicating that external factors were responsible for these trends. Each of these authors recovered from this dip, with the exception of DP McManus who continued to publish at a decreased rate, hence, it might be prudent to avoid working with him.
