Visualizing clinical evidence: Citation networks for the incubation periods of respiratory viral infections
Public Deposited- Creator
-
Reich, N.G
- Other Affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
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Perl, T.M
- Other Affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
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Cummings, D.A.T
- Other Affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
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Lessler, J
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
- Other Affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Abstract
- Simply by repetition, medical facts can become enshrined as truth even when there is little empirical evidence supporting them. We present an intuitive and clear visual design for tracking the citation history of a particular scientific fact over time. We apply this method to data from a previously published literature review on the incubation period of nine respiratory viral infections. The resulting citation networks reveal that the conventional wisdom about the incubation period for these diseases was based on a small fraction of available data and in one case, on no retrievable empirical evidence. Overall, 50% of all incubation period statements did not provide a source for their estimate and 65% of original sources for incubation period data were not incorporated into subsequent publications. More standardized and widely available methods for visualizing these histories of medical evidence are needed to ensure that conventional wisdom cannot stray too far from empirically supported knowledge.
- Date of publication
- 2011
- Keyword
- Review Literature as Topic
- adenovirus infection
- measles
- literature
- epidemic
- Respiratory Tract Infections
- Viruses
- Databases, Bibliographic
- Coronavirus infection
- methodology
- statistical analysis
- publication
- bibliographic database
- human
- Data Interpretation, Statistical
- viral respiratory tract infection
- influenza B
- metabolism
- Parainfluenza virus infection
- virology
- severe acute respiratory syndrome
- Infectious Disease Incubation Period
- article
- respiratory syncytial virus infection
- Evidence-Based Medicine
- incubation time
- Publications
- Rhinovirus infection
- Human metapneumovirus infection
- influenza A
- Research Design
- systematic review
- respiratory tract infection
- Humans
- standard
- evidence based medicine
- virus
- disease transmission
- DOI
- Identifier
- Resource type
- Article
- License
- Attribution 4.0 International
- Journal title
- PLoS ONE
- Journal volume
- 6
- Journal issue
- 4
- Language
- English
- Version
- Publisher
- Funder
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIGMS: U54GM088491
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science
Relations
- Parents:
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