A systematic investigation on the research publications that have used the medical expenditure panel survey (MEPS) data through a bibliometrics approach
ISSN: 0737-8831
Article publication date: 17 March 2020
Issue publication date: 4 November 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to examine how Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data have been used to support scientific discoveries in biomedical and health sciences, and provide insight to researchers who are interested in using MEPS regarding collaborations and dissemination of research output.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric approach was used to systematically examine the publications that used MEPS data and were indexed by PubMed and Web of Science (WoS). Microsoft Excel and bibliometric tools (WoS and VOSviewer) were utilized for quantitative and bibliometric network analysis. The measures were investigated on the total number of publications by year, research categories, source journals, other datasets/databases co-used with MEPS, funding sources, collaboration patterns, and research topics.
Findings
A total of 1,953 eligible publications were included in this study with the numbers growing significantly over time. MEPS data were primarily used in healthcare services, public environmental and occupational health research. The journals that published the most papers using MEPS were all in the healthcare research area. Twenty-four other databases were found to be used along with MEPS. Over 3,200 researchers from 1,074 institutions in 25 countries have contributed to the publications. Research funding was supported from federal, private, local, and international agencies. Three clusters of research topics were identified among 235 key terms extracted from titles and abstracts.
Originality/value
Our results illustrated the broad landscape of the research efforts that MEPS data have supported and substantiated the value of AHRQ's effort of providing MEPS to the public.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Sarah Wright, a senior librarian at the UNC Health Sciences Library for helping us with PubMed search queries.
Citation
Liu, J., Yu, F. and Song, L. (2020), "A systematic investigation on the research publications that have used the medical expenditure panel survey (MEPS) data through a bibliometrics approach", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. 705-721. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-09-2019-0185
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited