For the first time in Australia, nursing scholarly work has been ranked in an Australian based citations analysis. Using a similar method to analyses of Canadian and UK nurse scholars, the results show that Australia’s leading nurse authors are widely cited through their publications.
Using data collected from the Scopus database, Hunt et al were able to analyse and calculate the h-index which attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of nursing academics between the years of 1996 and 2010.
The results show 6 of the 24 Australian nurses with the highest h-indices were leading nursing academics from UTS: Nursing, Midwifery and Health (Professor John Daly, Professor Patricia Davison, Professor Christine Duffield, Professor Doug Elliott, Professor Debra Jackson and Professor Sharon McKinley).
Other findings in this exercise recorded that 3 of the top 10 papers receiving the most number of citations (authored or co-authored by an Australian based nursing academic) were also written by UTS nursing academics - Professor Davidson, Professor Daly and Professor Duffield.
The analysis highlights the standing of UTS nursing researchers, and shows they are very influential, widely recognised and frequently cited in nursing research literature.
One of the co-authors of this analysis, UTS Professor Debra Jackson said, “Citation indices are commonly used and have been recorded in Canada and the UK previously, so we thought it would be interesting to see how Australian academics stacked up in comparison.”
“The citation results speak for themselves. A large number of Australia’s leading nursing academics are part of the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at UTS. This analysis shows that UTS is one of the leading nursing research schools in the country, with a depth and breadth of research strength that covers a number of key areas in the profession” she said.
The results of this citation analysis are very important in setting new benchmarks for nursing research in Australia. It also shows that UTS: Nursing, Midwifery and Health is committed to producing research that tackles national and international challenges and has real impact in the health professions, clinical practice, professional development and continued health education.
Read the editorial (by Hunt et al) (opens an external site) on the Journal of Clinical Nursing website.
