Academic institutions that collaborate the most on a global scale are seeing their research have a greater impact in the fight against melanoma. This is according to an analysis conducted by information and analytics provider, Elsevier, in the lead up to Melanoma Awareness Month, this month.
The analysis, which looked at the 50 institutions from around the world with the most prolific contribution in this field, finds that across the past six years, the research institutions that collaborate internationally the most typically have the greatest impact in melanoma research.
Overall, the top 20 international collaborators make 11 per cent more of an impact with their research than the 20 institutions that collaborate internationally the least on average. Measured by field weighted citation impact, in which 1.00 represents the global average for similar publications, the most internationally collaborative institutions register an impact of 5. At the same time, almost 60 per cent of their research is performed in collaboration with an institution from another country compared to the global average of 45 per cent.
The five most internationally collaborative institutions in melanoma research across the past six years are: Karolinksa Institutet, Medical University of Vienna, University of Zurich, University of Manchester and Institut Gustave Roussy.
The insights taken from Elsevier’s collaboration, analysis and evaluation tools, suggest the role that collaboration among academic institutions plays in tackling some of the world’s most prominent diseases, including melanoma.
Maria de Kleijn, SVP Analytical Services at Elsevier, said: “Melanoma Awareness Month provides us with an opportunity to champion some of the institutions leading the fight against cancer. Researchers go into academia to make a difference – to get science into society. We believe in the role collaboration can play in hastening impact. That’s why we will continue to develop tools and platforms that make it easier for researchers to collaborate with people beyond their existing networks.”
Taking the United States as an example, melanoma is the fifth most common cancer, with just under 100,000 new cases and 7,230 deaths expected in 2019 according to the National Cancer Institute.
The research community is playing a vitally important role to minimise these tragic statistics.
The tools and platforms Elsevier provides to help researchers analyse and evaluate large volumes of data give it a bird’s eye view on which institutions are leading the charge in the fight against melanoma.
