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Data Description

Overview

The table below provides an overview of the scientific production retrieved for Italian Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs) from the OpenAlex and Dimensions databases. It summarizes the number and percentage of outputs across five categories: publications, clinical trials, grants, patents, and datasets, grouped by AHSC type.

AHSC OpenAlex Dimensions
Publications Altmetric Patents Clinical Trials Grants Datasets
N (%) N (%) N (%) N (%) N (%) N (%)
AOU 60819 (26.54) 17954 (24.26) 109 (13.64) 6446 (40.85) 116 (13) 2887 (28.44)
AOU_SSN 30151 (13.16) 8895 (12.02) 0 1584 (10.04) 18 (2.02) 363 (3.58)
IRCCS 138179 (60.30) 47156 (63.72) 690 (86.36) 7749 (49.11) 758 (84.98) 6900 (67.98)
Total 229149 74005 799 15779 892 10150

This section provides detailed metadata documentation for the variables used in the SciK-Health project datasets. Each block corresponds to a thematic group of indicators derived from OpenAlex and other integrated sources. The indicators are designed to support reproducible and comparative research on Italian AHSCs. They are measured by AHC (the short name of the hospital/university institution) and PY (Publication Year).

📊 Bibliometric Dimension

These indicators describe the scientific production volume, authorship patterns, and collaboration dynamics of AHSCs.
They are primarily computed using publication metadata from OpenAlex and enriched with journal quality metrics from SCOPUS.

🔹 Productivity

Variable Description
nTotDoc Total number of documents/articles published in the year
meanAUPerArt Average number of authors per article
meanAU_IN_PerArt Average number of internal authors (AU_IN) per article
meanArtAU_IN Average number of articles per internal author
meanArtPer_AU_IN_FIRST Average number of articles per internal author as first author
meanArtPer_AU_IN_LAST Average number of articles per internal author as last author
meanArtPer_AU_IN_CORR Average number of articles per internal author as corresponding author
ArtOA Percentage of Open Access articles
singleAuArt Number of single-author articles

🔹 Impact

Variable Description
Q1_nSJR Number of articles published in Q1 journals (quartile 1) according to SJR*
Q2_nSJR Number of articles published in Q2 journals according to SJR
Q3_nSJR Number of articles published in Q3 journals according to SJR
Q4_nSJR Number of articles published in Q4 journals according to SJR
Q1_percSJR Percentage of articles published in Q1 journals
Q2_percSJR Percentage of articles published in Q2 journals
Q3_percSJR Percentage of articles published in Q3 journals
Q4_percSJR Percentage of articles published in Q4 journals
meanTCperArt Average number of citations per article
mean_NTC Average Normalized Total Citations (NTC) per institution and year**
meanCitationTrend Average citation trend over time***

* Indicator based on data from SCOPUS. Journals assigned to multiple subject categories were selected based on the best percentile.
** Measures the average citation performance of an institution’s publications in a given year, normalized to the global average citation rate for that year. Enables cross-institution comparison.
*** Citation trend is a metric assigned to articles by OpenAlex starting from 2012.

🔹 Collaboration

Variable Description
InternCoauthorship Percentage of articles with international co-authors
AffCoauthorship Percentage of articles with co-authors affiliated with different institutions

🔹 Talent

These indicators focus on the concentration and distribution of scientific contributions across internal and external authors.
They provide insights into the presence of high-performing individuals, institutional equity, and authorship leadership roles.

Variable Description
GC_AUIN_wFractional Gini concentration index (fractional) on internal authors*
GC_AUIN_FIRSTname Gini concentration index on internal authors in first position (first name)**
GC_AUIN_LASTname Gini concentration index on internal authors in last position**
GC_AUIN_CORRESP Gini concentration index on internal corresponding authors**
top_AU Most frequent authors (internal and external) (names, _freq: frequencies)
top_AU_wFract Most frequent authors (internal and external) by fractional frequency
top_AU_freq_wFract Fractional frequencies associated with each author in top_AU_wFract
top_AUIN Most frequent internal authors (names, _freq: frequencies)
top_AUIN_wFract Most frequent internal authors by fractional frequency
top_AUIN_freq_wFract Fractional frequencies associated with each internal author in top_AUIN_wFract
topAUbyCit Most cited (internal and external) authors (names; _TC total citations value)
topAUINbyCit Most cited internal authors (names; _TC total citations value)
topAUINbyCit_norm_byYear Most cited internal authors by normalized citations per year***
topAUINbyCit_TC_norm_byYear Normalized citations associated with most cited internal authors in topAUINbyCit_norm_byYear

* The weight assigned to each author is fractional (considering both publication count and co-authorship).
** Gini concentration computed using the number of published articles per author as weight.
*** Top cited authors, where citation counts are normalized by dividing each article’s citation count by the average citations of all articles published in the same year.

🔹 Topics

This group of indicators summarizes the conceptual and thematic content of the scientific output produced by AHSCs.
It includes hierarchical concept levels (from general disciplines to specific biomedical entities), MeSH terms, authors’ keywords, and text-mined bigrams from titles and abstracts.

Variable Description
topConcept_L0 Most frequent level 0 concepts (general disciplines, e.g., MEDICINE, BIOLOGY)
topFreq_L0 Frequencies associated with top level 0 concepts
topConcept_L1 Most frequent level 1 concepts (subdisciplines or specializations, e.g., CARDIOLOGY, SURGERY)
topFreq_L1 Frequencies associated with top level 1 concepts
topConcept_L2 Most frequent level 2 concepts (more specific topics)
topFreq_L2 Frequencies associated with top level 2 concepts
topConcept_L3 Most frequent level 3 concepts (more detailed, e.g., related to diseases or methods)
topFreq_L3 Frequencies associated with top level 3 concepts
topConcept_L4 Most frequent level 4 concepts (highest specificity, e.g., biological entities, anatomical structures)
topFreq_L4 Frequencies associated with top level 4 concepts
topMESH Most frequent MeSH terms associated with the articles (names; _n frequency)
topprimary_topic.display_name Most frequent primary topics (names; _n frequency)
topDE Most frequent authors’ keywords (names; _n frequency)
topTI_TM Most frequent bigrams extracted from titles (names; _n frequency)
topAB_TM Most frequent bigrams extracted from abstracts (names; _n frequency)

📣 Altmetrics: Social & Digital Attention

This section includes indicators that capture the online visibility, public engagement, and media attention of scientific publications produced by AHSCs.
Metrics are collected via the Altmetric API and provide aggregated and disaggregated views of attention across platforms such as social media, blogs, news outlets, and policy documents.

Variable Description
nDoc_wALTM Number of articles in the year with at least one Altmetric Score (Altmetric Score > 0)
percDoc_wALTM Percentage of articles with Altmetric Score > 0 out of total articles published

The 75th percentile (top 25%) was computed for the following indicators*:

altmetric_score Altmetric Score value
cited_by_accounts_count Number of unique accounts mentioning the article
cited_by_fbwalls_count Number of Facebook wall mentions
cited_by_feeds_count Number of mentions in RSS feeds and blogs
cited_by_gplus_count Number of mentions on Google+
cited_by_msm_count Number of mentions in mainstream media (newspapers, magazines, etc.)
cited_by_patents_count Number of mentions in patents
cited_by_peer_review_sites_count Number of mentions on peer review sites (e.g., PubPeer)
cited_by_policies_count Number of citations in policy documents
cited_by_posts_count Total mentions in posts (including blogs, forums, etc.)
cited_by_rdts_count Number of mentions in Reddit threads
cited_by_rh_count Number of mentions in Research Highlights
cited_by_tweeters_count Number of Twitter/X users who mentioned the article
cited_by_videos_count Number of mentions in video content (e.g., YouTube)
cited_by_wikipedia_count Number of citations on Wikipedia
cohorts.com Number of general public users interacting with the article
cohorts.doc Number of interactions by professionals (clinicians, operators, policy makers)

* For each Altmetric indicator, the 75th percentile (top 25% - _thirdQu) was calculated. The focus was placed on the 75th percentile to better capture significant engagement levels. This choice was made because a large proportion of publications lack Altmetric data or report zero activity across most sources, which could bias the overall statistics.

💡 Industrial Impact & Research Innovation

This section includes a description of the key indicators measured on patents collected from the Dimensions database. These variables describe yearly statistics on patent status, classification, inventorship, and jurisdiction, along with metadata from original documentation.

Variable Description
n_patentsDistinct Number of distinct patents (unique Family ID) per year.
nPatentStatus_ Number of patents by legal status relates to information on the events during the lifetime of a patent application (e.g., Abandoned, Pending, Expired).
nPatentPubType_Application Number of patents of type ‘Application’.
nPatentPubType_Grant Number of patents of type ‘Grant’.
nPatentPubType_N/A Number of patents with unspecified publication type.
avg_citations_Patent Average number of citations received by patents per year.
avg_Inventors_Patent Average number of inventors per patent per year.
inventor_per_AUIN_100 Average number of inventors listed in patents per 100 internal authors (AUIN).
avg_InstitutesInvolved_Patent Average number of institutes involved per patent per year.
nPatent_singleInventor Number of patents with a single inventor.
n_Patents_CoAff Number of patents with institutional co-affiliations (institutions involved > 1).
n_Jurisdiction_distinct Number of distinct jurisdictions where patents were granted.
nJurisd_ Number of patents granted in one of the Jurisdictions (AU = Australia, US = United States, CH = Switzerland, etc.).
nPatentKC_ Number of patents by Kind Code (a standardized alphanumeric code used to classify and categorize patents based on their type and purpose) from DOCDB.
top_Inventor names_Patent Most frequent inventors of the patent (names; _n frequency).
top_Original assignee names_Patent Most frequent organisations that first owned the patent, as they appear in the original document (names; _n frequency).
top_Fields of Research (ANZSRC 2020)_Patent Most frequent Fields of Research covers all areas of research and emerging areas of study from the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) (names; _n frequency).
top_RCDC Categories_Patent Most frequent Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) categories used by the NIH (names; _n frequency).
top_HRCS RAC Categories_Patent Most frequent Health Research Classification System (HRCS) subdivided into the Research Activity Classifications (RAC) (names; _n frequency).
top_IPCR_Patent Most frequent ICRP Cancer Types (names; _n frequency).
top_CPC_Patent Most frequent Cooperative Patent Classification Categorization (names; _n frequency).

🧪 Clinical Research Activity

This section provides indicators derived from clinical trials and dataset data. These indicators support analysis of research activity using data exported from Dimensions.

🔹 Clinical Trials

Variable Description
n_clTrial Number of clinical trials started in the given year.
avg_durationYear_clTrial Average duration of clinical trials (in years).
avg_participants_clTrial Average number of participants per trial.
clTrial_perAUIN_100 Average number of clinical trials per 100 internal authors (AUIN)
nClTrial_w_AltmScore Number of trials with an Altmetric score.
cl_AltmS_rel Percentage of clinical trials with an Altmetric score among all clinical trials started in the year.
avg_sponsor_clTrial Average number of sponsors/collaborators per trial.
nclTrialPhase_ Number of clinical trials by Phase (e.g., Phase 1, Phase 1/2 combined).
nclTrialPhase_N/A Trials with no phase declared. N/A (not applicable) typically indicates a single-arm trial.
nclTrialPhase_Post Authorisation Studies Number of post-authorisation studies.
nclTrial_StudyType_ Number of clinical trials by study type (e.g., interventional, observational).
nclTrial_Gender_ Number of clinical trials by gender subjects included (All, Male, Female).
nclTrial_Registry_ClinicalTrials.gov Number of trials registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov registry.
top_funder_country Most frequent funder countries (names, _n: frequency).
top_Fields of Research (ANZSRC 2020)_clTrial Most frequent fields of research (names, _n: frequency).
top_RCDC Categories_clTrial Most frequent RCDC categories (names, _n: frequency).
top_HRCS HC Categories_clTrial Most frequent HRCS health categories (names, _n: frequency).
top_HRCS RAC Categories_clTrial Most frequent HRCS research activity categories (names, _n: frequency).
top_Cancer Types_clTrial Most frequent cancer types (names, _n: frequency).
top_CSO Categories_clTrial Most frequent CSO categories (names, _n: frequency).

🔹 Datasets

Variable Description
n_dataset Number of of free-available datasets published in the year.
top_Repository_Dataset Most frequent dataset repositories (names, _n: frequency)
top_Fields of Research (ANZSRC 2020)_Dataset Most frequent fields of research (names, _n: frequency).
top_RCDC Categories_Dataset Most frequent RCDC categories (names, _n: frequency).
top_HRCS HC Categories_Dataset Most frequent HRCS health categories (names, _n: frequency).
top_HRCS RAC Categories_Dataset Most frequent HRCS research activity categories (names, _n: frequency).
top_Health Research Areas_Dataset Most frequent health research areas (names, _n: frequency)
top_Broad Research Areas_Dataset Most frequent broad research areas (names, _n: frequency)
top_Cancer Types_Dataset Most frequent cancer types addressed in datasets (names, _n: frequency)
top_Sustainable Development Goals_Dataset Most frequently addressed Sustainable Development Goals (names, _n: frequencies)

💶 Funding and Grants

This section presents indicators related to competitive funding obtained by Italian AHSCs, covering financial aspects, international collaborations, outputs, and key actors involved in funded research projects.

Variable Description
n_grants Number of grants.
avg_funding_EUR Average total funding per grant (in EUR).
avg_funding_EUR_perOrganization Average funding per research organization involved in a grant (in EUR).
avg_durationYear_grant Average duration of grants (in years).
avg_Organization_per_grant Average number of research organizations involved per grant.
avg_countries_per_grant Average number of distinct countries involved per grant.
perc_grant_internationalColl Percentage of grants with international collaboration.
avg_ResultingPublications_per_grant Average number of resulting publications per grant.
totFundingOrgbyActivedGrant Total amount of funding (in EUR) available to the institution in a given year, based on grants active in that year.
avgPubByActivedFundingGrant_1000 Number of publications produced per 1000 EUR of funding available to the institution in a given year, based on grants active in that year.
top_Research Organization - standardized_Grants Most frequent research organizations (names; _n frequency).
top_Funder_Grants Most frequent funding bodies (names; _n frequency).
top_Funder Group_Grants Most frequent funder groups (names; _n frequency).
top_Program_Grants Most frequent funding programs (names; _n frequency).
top_Fields of Research (ANZSRC 2020)_Grants Most frequent research fields based on ANZSRC 2020 (names; _n frequency).
top_RCDC Categories_Grants Most RCDC categories (names; _n frequency).
top_HRCS HC Categories_Grants Most frequent HRCS Health Categories (names; _n frequency).
top_HRCS RAC Categories_Grants Most frequent HRCS Research Activities Categories (names; _n frequency).
top_Cancer Types_Grants Most frequent studied cancer types (names; _n frequency).
top_CSO Categories_Grants Most frequent Common Scientific Outline (CSO) categories (names; _n frequency).
top_Units of Assessment_Grants Most frequent Units of Assessment (names; _n frequency).
top_Sustainable Development Goals_Grants Most frequently addressed Sustainable Development Goals (names; _n frequency).