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IACC/OARC Autism Spectrum Disorder Publications Analysis: The Global Landscape of Autism Research, July 2012

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• Executive Summary
• Introduction
  • The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee: Mission and Strategic Plan
  • Examining autism research publications
• Chapter One: Trends in Autism Research Topics and Publications
  • What research themes are prominent in autism publications?
  • How were 2010 publications distributed across IACC Strategic Plan Critical Question areas?
  • How much has autism research grown?
  • Which Critical Question research areas are showing the strongest growth?
  • Main findings from analysis of trends in autism research topics and publications
• Spotlight On Risk Factor Research
• Spotlight On Treatments And Interventions Research
• Chapter Two: Impact and Maturity Of The Autism Research Field
  • What is the impact of autism research publications?
  • How is the field of autism research maturing?
  • Main findings from analysis of impact and maturity of the autism research field
• Chapter Three: Global Autism Research Funders
  • Who funded autism research in 2010?
  • What is the extent of overlap between funding sources?
  • Do different funder types support different areas of autism research?
  • Main findings from analysis of global autism research funders
• Chapter Four: Global Autism Publications and Collaborations
  • Which countries are actively engaged in autism research?
  • Which research institutions are publishing the most research?
  • Which US states are publishing autism research?
  • Main findings from analysis of global autism publications and collaborations
• Conclusion
• References
• Footnotes
• Appendices
  • Appendix I: Methodology for Identifying ASD-Related Research Publications and Supplemental Primary Research Publication Counts
  • Appendix II: Automated Categorization of ASD Publications (1980-2009)
  • Appendix III: Web of Science^® Journal Subject Categories
  • Appendix IV: Web of Science^® Citation Data
  • Appendix V: Full Funder List for 2010 ASD Publications
  • Appendix VI: Country Co-Authorship Pairs in 2010 ASD Publications
  • Appendix VII: 2010 ASD Publication Counts by Country
  • Appendix VIII: Methodology for Calculating World Share of Autism Research Publications
• List of Figures
  • Figure 1. The Seven IACC Strategic Plan Critical Questions and Corresponding Research Areas
  • Figure 2. Autism Research Pipeline
  • Figure 3. Research Methods Used in the ASD Research Publications Analysis
  • Figure 4. Main Questions Addressed in the ASD Research Publications Analysis Report
  • Figure 5. Autism Publications Word Cloud
  • Figure 6. Distribution of 2010 Primary Research Publications within the Seven Critical Question Areas of the IACC Strategic Plan
  • Figure 7. Growth in ASD-Related Publications, 1980 to 2010
  • Figure 8. Growth in ASD Research Publications by Critical Question Area within the IACC Strategic Plan, 1981 to 2010
  • Figure 9. Number and Fold Growth of ASD Publications from 2000 to 2010
  • Figure 10. Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories of Autism Risk Factor Research
  • Figure 11. Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories of Autism Treatments and Interventions Research
  • Figure 12. Autism Research Citation Rate from 1980 to 2009
  • Figure 13. Impact of Autism Publications Compared to Average Citation Rates in Related Publications, 1995 to 2009
  • Figure 14. Proportion of Highly Cited Autism Publications from 1995 to 2009
  • Figure 15. Types of US and non-US Funders Acknowledged in 2010 Autism Publications
  • Figure 16. Overlap Between Different Types of Funders Acknowledged in 2010 Autism Publications
  • Figure 17. Patterns of Strategic Research Emphasis by Type of Funder in 2010 Autism Publications
  • Figure 18. Extent of Global Autism Research and International Collaborations in 2010
  • Figure 19. Global Growth in Autism Publications by Country, 1980 to 2010
  • Figure 20. Author Countries for ASD-Related Publications as a Share of the World Total, 1980 to 2010
  • Figure 21. International Autism Publication Collaboration Networks in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010
  • Figure 22. Extent of International Collaboration in Autism Research, 1980 to 2010
  • Figure 23. Impact of Collaborative International Autism Publications, 1995 to 2009
  • Figure 24. Impact of Collaborative Publications with Authors from Multiple Institutions, 2000 to 2010
  • Figure 25. State by State Number of US Autism Publications in 2010
  • Figure 26. Extent of Institutional and International Collaboration in US Autism Research, 1980 to 2010
  • Figure A-27. Growth in ASD Primary Research Publications by Critical Question Area, 1981 to 2010
  • Figure A-28. Number and Fold Growth of ASD Primary Research Publications from 2000 to 2010
  • Figure A-29. Primary Research Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories of Autism Risk Factor Research
  • Figure A-30. Primary Research Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories of Autism Treatments and Interventions Research
• List of Tables
  • Table 1. 2010 Funders Acknowledged on 10 or More Publications
  • Table 2. Top 25 Countries Publishing Autism Research in 2010
  • Table 3. Top 25 Institutions Publishing Autism Research Globally in 2010
  • Table A-4. Web of Science^® and MEDLINE Article Types Classified as Secondary Articles
  • Table A-5. Journals in which All Publications Were Classified as Secondary Research
  • Table A-6. Comparison Group: Journal Subject Categories Comprising 75% of ASD Publications Since 1980

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Appendix I: Methodology For Identifying ASD-Related Research Publications And Supplemental Primary Research Publication Counts

An automated keyword search was used to identify publications that contained the terms "autism," "autistic," "Asperger," or "pervasive developmental disorder" in the journal title, article title, article abstract or article keywords. Publications tagged with the MEDLINE MeSH terms "Asperger syndrome," "autistic disorder," or "child development disorders, pervasive" were also collected and classified as ASD-related. MeSH terms are only present for articles with records in MEDLINE.

The Thomson Reuters ScienceWire^™ Publication Catalog, a central database that includes publication records for both the MEDLINE section of PubMed and the Thomson Reuters Web of Science^® (WoS) was used for this keyword search. For instances in which publication records were identified in both the MEDLINE and WoS databases, a thorough de-duplication algorithm was applied to merge the two records into a single publication record. In cases for which the same record was identified in both databases and resolved to a single publication, WoS data were preferentially presented above MEDLINE data, with missing data points populated using MEDLINE, as available. Several data points are only available from WoS; therefore preferential usage of WoS data presents a more consistent set of data points for analysis. These data points include:

1. Citation Counts
   
2. Journal Subject Categories
3. Keywords

In the rare instance that the data fields in the two databases were sufficiently different, the same publication may be present multiple times. For example, if a publication has the same title and journal, but different publication dates or authors listed in the two databases, these are reported as two separate publications. It is estimated that this may happen in approximately 1% or fewer of the publications.

MEDLINE and WoS have different indicators for document type. Whereas WoS assigns a single article type to a publication, MEDLINE may assign multiple article types. Publications were classified as primary research, secondary research or meeting abstract based on the general guidelines listed below.

1. Publication records classified as "meeting abstract" in the WoS were excluded from this analysis because there was usually insufficient text to indicate a specific category.
2. Secondary research articles included:
   1. WoS Editorials
   2. Articles with the classifications outlined in Table A-4 and all articles from one of 81 specified journals in the WoS that are known to publish primarily secondary research articles (Table A-5).
3. All other articles were considered primary research.

Regardless of whether analyses included the combined categories of primary and secondary research publications or were restricted to primary research only, very similar trends and distributions of publication output across the Critical Question areas were observed. The following figures include only primary research publications and are companions to Figures 8-11 in the body of the report, which demonstrate combined primary and secondary research publication output. For example, Figure A-27 draws from the same data set as Figure 8; however, Figure A-27 plots primary research publication counts by Critical Question area, whereas Figure 8 plots the combined counts of primary and secondary research publications.

Growth in ASD Primary Research Publications
by Critical Question Area, 1981 to 2010

Figure A-27. Growth in ASD Primary Research Publications by Critical Question Area, 1981 to 2010. The growth trends in primary research publication output by Critical Question areas of autism research over the past 30 years illustrate very similar patterns as Figure 8, which plots the combined output of primary and secondary research publications by Critical Question area. Each data point represents a five-year average of the number of annual autism publications.

Number and Fold Growth of ASD Primary Research
Publications from 2000 to 2010

Figure A-28. Number and Fold Growth of ASD Primary Research Publications from 2000 to 2010. This figure illustrates number (top left) and fold growth (bottom right) of primary research publications within the Critical Question areas since 2000. Recent primary research publication growth trends are very similar to growth of combined primary and secondary research trends illustrated in Figure 9. Both show that while Biology maintains the largest proportion of publications, other areas are growing at least as quickly, including Infrastructure and Surveillance, Services, and Lifespan Issues.

Primary Research Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories
of Autism Risk Factor Research

Figure A-29. Primary Research Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories of Autism Risk Factor Research. The pie graph (top) illustrates relative proportions of primary research articles published in 2010 in three subcategories of ASD Risk Factor research and the line graph (bottom) shows the increase in number of publications in each subcategory over time from 1980 to 2010. Similar to the distribution of both primary and secondary research publications illustrated in Figure 10, Genetic Risk Factors research had the greatest number and proportion of publications, followed by Environmental Risk Factors and then Epigenetics.

Primary Research Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories
of Autism Treatments and Interventions Research

Figure A-30. Primary Research Publication Output and Trends in Subcategories of Autism Treatments and Interventions Research. The pie graph (top) illustrates relative proportions of primary research articles published in 2010 on seven subcategories of ASD Treatments and Interventions research and the line graph (bottom) shows the change in number of publications in each subcategory over time, from 1980 to 2010. Similar to the combined distribution of primary and secondary Treatments and Interventions research publications illustrated in Figure 11, the most prolific areas of primary research include Behavioral, Technology-Based Interventions and Supports, Medical/Pharmacological, and Educational interventions.

Table A-4. Web of Science^® and MEDLINE Article Types Classified as Secondary Articles

Table A-5. Journals in which All Publications Were Classified as Secondary Research

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Copyright Information
All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced, copied, or used in presentations and publications. A suggested citation follows.

Suggested Citation
Office of Autism Research Coordination (OARC), National Institute of Mental Health and Thomson Reuters, Inc. on behalf of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC). IACC/OARC Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Publications Analysis Report: The Global Landscape of Autism Research. July 2012. Retrieved from the Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee website: http://iacc.hhs.gov/publications-analysis/july2012/index.shtml