How predatory journals leak into PubMed Manca, Andrea; Moher, David; Cugusi, Lucia ...
CMAJ. Canadian Medical Association journal,
2018-Sep-04, 2018-09-04, 20180904, Letnik:
190, Številka:
35
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Recent reports that PubMed, one of the world's leading biomedical databases, includes predatory journals and their publications is cause for concern. PubMed handles millions of queries daily and ...represents a key source of knowledge for health researchers worldwide. Much medical research that underpins clinical practice relies on the findings generated by peer-reviewed studies that are retrieved via biomedical databases, in particular, those that are free to search such as MEDLINE and PubMed. Thus, it is imperative that these databases are free of contamination by the outputs of predatory journals with their critically flawed peer review procedures. Most predatory journals are active in the biomedical sphere. Predatory publishing practices allow bad research that is poorly peer-reviewed, or published without peer review, to be published alongside real science that is rigorously reviewed, thus obscuring scientific truth. Furthermore, predatory publications may be included in the resumes of scholars seeking employment or promotion and tenure.
To prevent and fight the increase of daily sedentary time and to promote and stimulate the positive effects of physical activity and exercise on health, both traditional interventions and new ...strategies are important for breast cancer survivors (BCS). The research goal was to compare the effects of weekly personal feedback, based on objectively measured physical activity, on the trends of both daily sedentary time and on the physical activity of BCS (E
group) with those of an intervention also including online supervised physical exercise sessions (E
group), during the Italy COVID-19 lockdown.
The Italian COVID-19 emergency allowed the possibility to also observe the effects of social and personal limitations. A total of 51 BCS were studied over an 18-week period and had an objective registration of day-to-day sedentary time, physical activity, and sleep. Both subsamples received weekly or fortnight personal feedback. Data were analysed considering four key periods, according to the COVID-19 emergency steps.
Statistical analysis showed an additive effect for sedentary time and a multiplicative effect both for light-to vigorous and light-intensity physical activities. The E
group had a high overall sedentary time and a different trend of light-to vigorous and light-intensity physical activities, with a reduction from the 1st to the 2nd periods (national and personal restrictions), showing a significant rise just at the end of the national restrictions.
The use of an activity tracker and its accompanying app, with the reception of weekly tailored advice and supervised online physical exercise sessions, can elicit proper physical activity recomposition in BCS in the COVID-19 era.
Sarcopenia and muscle strength reduction are a frequent disorder in non-communicable chronic diseases. The aims of this study are: (a) to verify if the absolute and relative to body weight muscle ...strength of lower limb is affected by the presence of pathology; (b) to verify if the trends are different among knee and ankles joints. One-hundred and forty-five elderly were recruited (16 liver transplant recipients, 48 kidney transplant recipients, 52 elderly with obesity, 30 healthy elderly). Muscular strength of lower limb was evaluated. Evaluation protocol included maximal isometric knee extension, maximal isokinetic knee extension and flexion, maximal isokinetic ankle (both right and left) extension and flexion. A statistically significant interaction between measurement and group membership was found for absolute strength measure (F (4.23, 170.56) = 3.316, p = 0.011, partial η2 (η2p) = 0.076), and relative strength measure(F (4.44, 174.72) = 16.407, p < 0.01, partial η2 (η2p) = 0.294). Elderly patients living with kidney transplants showed the lower level of absolute muscular strength, while relative muscular strength is mainly lacking in the elderly with obesity. The strength profile of elderly subjects is affected by obesity, liver transplantation, and kidney transplantation.
The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the effect of Nordic Walking (NW) on anthropometric parameters, body composition, cardiovascular parameters, aerobic capacity, blood sample, and ...glucose tolerance in overweight and obese subjects. The main keywords "Nordic Walking" or "Pole Walking", associated with either "obese", "obesity", "overweight", or "weight loss" were used on the online database MEDLINE, PubMed, SPORTDiscus and Scopus. Additionally, references of the studies included were screened to identify eligible articles. Applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, ten manuscripts were considered as eligible for this review. The results of the studies were categorized in several domains with regard to "anthropometric parameters and body composition", "cardiovascular parameters and aerobic capacity", and "blood sample and glucose tolerance". The results showed positive effects on the anthropometric parameters, body composition, cardiovascular parameters, blood sample, and glucose tolerance. The greatest improvements were observed in supervised and high weekly frequency of NW interventions. NW could be considered as an effective modality through which to involve the obese in physical activity. For weight loss, NW should be prescribed 4-5 times per week, at least 60 min per session, preferably combined with diet control.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of an integrated inertial sensor (IIS) for cervical range of motion assessment. An integrated inertial sensor was placed on the ...forehead center of thirty older adults (OA) and thirty younger adults (YA). Participants had to perform three continuous rotations, lateral bandings and flexion-extensions with their head. Test-retest reliability was assessed after 7 days. YA showed moderate to good agreement for rotation (0.54-0.82), lateral bending (0.74-0.8), and flexion-extension (0.74-0.81) movements and poor agreement for zero point (ZP). OA showed moderate to good agreement for rotation (0.65-0.86), good to excellent agreement in lateral bending (0.79-0.92), and poor to moderate agreement for flexion-extension (0.37-0.72). Zero point showed poor to moderate agreement. In conclusion, we can affirm that this IIS is a reliable device for cervical range of motion assessment in young and older adults; on the contrary, the ZP seems to be unreliable and the addition of an external reference point could help the subject to solve this shortcoming and reduce possible biases.
Objective
To evaluate the evidence of effectiveness of exergame‐based rehabilitative interventions on health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in persons with chronic diseases.
Type
Systematic review ...and meta‐analysis.
Literature survey
Randomized and nonrandomized controlled trials of exergame rehabilitation interventions in populations with chronic diseases reporting HRQoL outcomes were identified by searching PubMed, Scopus, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and Google Scholar, using keywords and MeSH terms for papers published between January 2005 and March 2019.
Methodology
Risk of bias was assessed by using the PEDro scale. The Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used to score the quality of evidence. Pooled effects were reported as standardized mean differences (SMDs) or weighted mean difference (MDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), using a random‐effects model. Heterogeneity was weighted by inconsistency I2 tests.
Synthesis
Thirty‐four trials were identified (1594 participants). Overall, the evidence was low quality. Exergames significantly improved HRQoL in populations with chronic diseases, with a small effect size (32 studies; 1544 participants; SMD 0.24; 95% CI 0.1 to 0.4; I2 = 27%) and specifically in people with neurological disorders (20 studies, 956 participants, SMD 0.22; 95% CI 0.2 to 0.4; I2 = 49%), rheumatologic diseases (four studies, 210 participants, SMD 0.39; 95% CI 0.1 to 0.7; I2 = 4%), and cardiorespiratory and chronic metabolic conditions (five studies, 309 participants, SMD 0.23; 95% CI 0.0 to 0.5; I2 = 0%). Exergaming interventions in health care settings demonstrated similarly small but positive effects (22 studies, 905 participants, SMD 0.30; 95% CI 0.1 to 0.5; I2 = 41%), whereas those carried out in home‐based contexts did not.
Conclusions
Exergame‐based rehabilitative interventions performed in health care settings led to small but statistically significant improvements in HRQoL in persons with chronic diseases.
Highlights • Predatory open-access threatens the credibility of genuine open-access publishing, particularly in biomedical research. • Predatory journals retrieved in neuroscience and neurology are ...not listed in the DOAJ, Scopus and MEDLINE. • 11% and 20% of predatory journals retrieved in neuroscience and neurology, respectively, are indexed in PubMed. • Predatory journals outnumber legitimate journals in neurology (108 versus 73). • Methodological steps are provided to help scholars identify predatory practices when submitting to open-access journals.
PDF
