Does the impact of medical publications vary by disease indication and publication type? An exploration using a novel, value-based, publication metric framework: the EMPIRE Index.

Background: The EMPIRE (EMpirical Publication Impact and Reach Evaluation) Index is a value-based, multi-component metric framework to assess the impact of medical publications in terms of relevance to different stakeholders. It comprises three component scores (social, scholarly and societal impact), each incorporating related altmetrics that indicate a different aspect of engagement with the publication. Here, we present an exploratory investigation of whether publication types or disease indications influence EMPIRE Index scores.

Methods: Article-level metrics were extracted and EMPIRE Index scores were calculated for 5825 journal articles published from 1 May 2017 to 1 May 2018, representing 12 disease indications (chosen to reflect a wide variety of common and rare diseases with a variety of aetiologies) and five publication types.

Results: There were significant differences in scores between article types and disease indications. Median (95% CI) social and scholarly impact scores ranged from 1.2 (0.3-1.6) to 4.8 (3.1-6.6), respectively, for phase 3 clinical trials, and from 0.3 (0.3-0.4) to 2.3 (1.9-2.6), respectively, for observational studies. Social and scholarly impact scores were highest for multiple sclerosis publications and lowest for non-small cell lung cancer publications. Systematic reviews achieved greater impact than regular reviews. Median trends in the social impact of different disease areas matched the level of public interest as assessed through Google search interest. Although most articles did not register societal impact, mean societal impact scores were highest for migraine publications.

Conclusions: The EMPIRE Index successfully identified differences in impact by disease area and publication type, which supports the notion that the impact of each publication needs to be evaluated in the context of these factors, and potentially others. These findings should be considered when using the EMPIRE Index to assess publication impact.