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From Research to Impact: Assessing a Decade of CDC's Public Health Science by Topic Area, 2014-2023
Joy Ortega1, Victoria E Dunkley1, Martha Knuth1
1Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Objectives:
To provide a sound foundation for public health policy and practice, scientific work must address priority topics and reach appropriate audiences. This analysis provides an evaluation of a large public health scientific publication portfolio. We explored the relevance and impact of a decade of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-authored publications.
Methods:
We used Science Clips, a CDC library database, to identify 34 104 scientific publications published from 2014 through 2023 with ≥1 CDC-affiliated author. To identify public health topics, we applied a large language modeling framework using BERTopic to publication titles and abstracts. We obtained bibliometric indicator data from Altmetric, Dimensions, and BMJ Impact Analytics. We assessed the percentage of publications with online attention, academic citations, and policy citations; the median Altmetric Attention Score; and the median number of academic citations by topic area.
Results:
Of CDC-authored publications published during 2014-2020, 94.6% were cited by academic articles and 52.4% were cited in clinical guidance or policy. Of those published during 2014-2023, 83.8% garnered online attention. Publications clustered into 46 public health topics. Fungal infections had the highest median number of academic citations (36.5 per publication), mining safety and health had the highest proportion of articles with policy citations (92.5%), and substance abuse or opioids received the highest median Altmetric Attention Score (14.0). More than one-quarter of topics ranked in the top 5 for ≥1 of the 3 indicators.
Conclusions:
CDC-authored scientific publications in this collection addressed an array of public health topics and demonstrated resonance in academic and policy arenas and with the public. Evaluating publication portfolios can strengthen science, policy, and communications partnerships.
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