Updated Citation Analysis – ‘Exploring the reach of the Census-based Longitudinal Studies 2010-2017’
(download as a PDF 709kB)
Overview
The Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study, ONS Longitudinal Study (England and Wales), and Scottish Longitudinal Study include a vast range of data relevant to many different types of research question. Their combination of administrative, census and health data across time make them a rich and unique set of resources. Examples of the types of research enabled by these features of the LSs include: Assessing the contributions of the workplace and employment history, the local area, and individual health and social factors from childhood and adulthood to extended working life, The role of subject choices in secondary education on further education studies and labour market outcomes and Population characteristics of stigma, condition disclosure and chronic health conditions.
As an exploration of the many ways in which the LSs have been used, CALLS have conducted an analysis of the journal papers produced by LS researchers. This citation analysis demonstrates the impressive range of academic fields to which LS-based research has contributed in the last 7 years. Research featured in over 70 journals, and spanned more than 50 Scopus subject categories.
Research based on the LSs is regularly published in top quality international peer reviewed journals such as Demography, the International Journal of Epidemiology and Population, Space and Place. Eighteen papers included in the citation analysis were published in journals ranked within the top 5 for one of the following SCImago subject areas:
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Epidemiology
- Demography
- Health (Social Science)
- Urban Studies
- Community and Home Care
- Applied Psychology
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
- Biotechnology
Papers had excellent citation rates indicating the unique contribution LS data offer. Forty papers had been cited 10 or more times, and 13 papers had more than 20 citations.
LS | n papers published | Total citation count |
NILS | 41 | 217 (avg 5.6) |
ONS LS | 70 | 454 (avg 7.2) |
SLS | 43 | 421 (avg 11.1) |
All LSs | 139 | 1018 (avg 8.0) |
The subject categories of papers using the LSs reflect the strengths of the data that they offer. Whilst the categories were very similar, ONS LS’s top 5 included ‘Demography’, whereas the SLS and NILS had a higher proportion of ‘Health (social science)’ papers, likely due to their excellent linkages with health data.
Overall the analysis shows the valuable contribution of the NILS, ONS LS and SLS to a diverse range of academic fields including medicine, demography, geography, economics, business, psychology, environmental science and more.
Although we only focus on publications in academic journals in this report, LS research has considerable impact in other formats such as briefing notes, books and presentations to government, and has also formed the basis of a variety of PhD Theses. A full list of outputs can be explored in our outputs database.
The raw data for the analysis can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.
Methods
Using the CALLS Hub outputs database a total of 139 published papers from the period January 2010 – October 2017 were identified from the three LSs. It should be noted that whilst CALLS and the RSUs actively solicit LS users to notify them of all outputs, and also conduct occasional literature searches to maximise capture, it is possible that some further papers exist.
All papers published in journals or regularly produced official publications – such as ONS Population Trends – were included. We did not include working papers in this analysis. Citation counts were gathered from Scopus, taking the final counts as of 21 November 2017. Impact Factors were taken from the Scopus project SCImago using the SJR2 indicator.
Results
The LSs combined
Of the 139 papers identified, 16 were from non-peer-reviewed journals such as Population Trends. Ten papers used more than one LS for their analysis. (see figure 1)
figure 1. Number of published papers per LS, Jan 2010 – October 2017. n = 139
Papers from the three LSs were published in a total of 73 different journals, spanning 52 SCImago Subject Categories in 13 Subject Areas (figure 2). SJR Impact Factors for the journals ranged from 0.104 to 10.113, with an average of 1.573.
The 5 most frequent subject categories for LS papers were:
- Public Health, Environment & Occupational Health (39 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (27 papers)
- Medicine(misc) (26 papers)
- Health(social science) (22 papers)
- Epidemiology (21 papers)
The ten most cited papers from the three LSs were:
Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study
During the period January 2010 to October 2017, a total of 41 journal papers were found which had used NILS data, including 3 paper which had used all 3 LSs and one which used the SLS and NILS. Five NILS publications appeared journals with top-5 ranked impact factor.
NILS journal papers were published in 27 different journals, spanning 13 SCImago Subject Areas and 33 Subject Categories (see below). SJR Impact Factors for the papers ranged from 0.216 to 4.914, with an average of 1.631.
The 5 most frequent subject categories for NILS papers were:
- Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health (15 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (10 papers)
- Health(social science) (10 papers)
- Epidemiology (7 papers)
- Medicine(misc) (5 papers)
The 10 most cited NILS papers were:
ONS LS
During the period in question, 70 journal papers were identified as having been produced from ONS LS projects (including 9 papers which also used other LSs). Of these, 14 appeared in non peer-reviewed journals. Nine papers appeared in top-5 ranked journals.
ONS LS papers appeared in 42 journals, and covered 27 SCImago Subject Categories in 9 Subject Areas. SJR Impact Factors for the journals ranged from 0.104 to 10.113 with an average of 1.443.
The most frequent subject categories in which ONS LS papers appeared were:
- Medicine(misc) (15 papers)
- Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health (14 papers)
- Demography (12 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (11 papers)
- Epidemiology (11 papers)
The most cited ONS LS papers were:
Scottish Longitudinal Study
During the period January 2010 – October 2017, 43 SLS-based journal papers were identified (including 10 papers which also used other LSs). Of these, 2 appeared in non peer-reviewed journals. Four papers were published in top-5 ranked journals.
The SLS papers were published in 33 different journals, spanning 32 SCImago Subject Categories in 12 Subject Areas. SJR Impact Factors for the journals ranged from 0.173 to 5.895, with an average of 1.466.
SLS papers appeared most frequently under the following subject categories:
- Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health (13 papers)
- Medicine(misc) (8 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (7 papers)
- Health(social science) (7 papers)
- Epidemiology (4 papers)
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences (misc) (4 papers)
- Biochemistry, Genetics & Molecular Biology (4 papers)
The 10 most cited SLS papers were:
Explore the full database of LS outputs
Raw data (Excel, 83kB)
Zengyi Huang, SLS-DSU
The SLS Birth Cohort of 1936 (SLSBC1936) is now available to external researchers. This cohort is structured around the existing SLS. We took the SLS birth date sample from the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947 (a cognitive ability test that included almost all Scottish children born in 1936) and linked it to the 1939 National Register, the NHS Central Register and the SLS. The outcome of the project is a powerful life-course dataset containing information from childhood to old age.
A new SLS Technical Working Paper 7: ‘The Scottish Longitudinal Study 1936 Birth Cohort’ describes the methodology used in creating the SLSBC1936, the quality of linkage and the data included in this cohort. A short description of this data linkage project can be found on the poster: The creation of an administration data based 1936 Birth Cohort Study.
The SLSBC1936 is a general-purpose resource, which is available for researchers via the SLS administration. Anyone interesting in accessing this dataset should contact the SLS-DSU at sls@lscs.ac.uk.
More detail: SLS Technical Working Paper 7
(download as a PDF 958kB)
Overview
The Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study, ONS Longitudinal Study (England and Wales), and Scottish Longitudinal Study include a vast range of data relevant to many different types of research question. Their combination of administrative, census and health data across time make them a rich and unique set of resources. Examples of the types of research enabled by these features of the LSs include: The role of subject choices in secondary education on further education studies and labour market outcomes and Population characteristics of stigma, condition disclosure and chronic health conditions.
As an exploration of the many ways in which the LSs have been used, CALLS have conducted an analysis of the journal papers produced by LS researchers.
This citation analysis demonstrates the impressive range of academic fields to which LS-based research has contributed in the last 6 years. Research featured in almost 60 journals, and spanned more than 40 Scopus subject categories.
Research based on the LSs is regularly published in top quality international peer reviewed journals such as Demography, the International Journal of Epidemiology and Population, Space and Place. Fifteen papers in the citation analysis were published in journals ranked within the top 5 for their field (articles ranked by SJR Impact Rating for the relevant subject category in the publication year).
LS | n papers published | Total citation count |
NILS | 29 | 119 (avg 4.1) |
ONS LS | 51 | 264 (avg 5.2) |
SLS | 32 | 259 (avg 8.1) |
All LSs | 106 | 588 (avg 5.6) |
Papers had excellent citation rates indicating the acknowledgement of the unique contributions LS data offer. Papers published within the last 2-3 years were amongst the most highly cited. Eighteen papers had been cited 10 or more times.
The subject areas of papers using the LSs reflect the strengths of the data that they offer: SLS and NILS had a higher proportion of health-related papers, likely due to their excellent linkages with health data. Looking at subject categories for the LSs also reflect these variations: whilst the categories were very similar, ONS LS’s top 5 included ‘Demography’, whereas the SLS and NILS included ‘Health(social science)’.
Overall the analysis shows the valuable contribution of the NILS, ONS LS and SLS to a diverse range of academic fields including medicine, demography, geography, economics, business, psychology, environmental science and more.
Although we only focus on publications in academic journals here, LS research has considerable impact in other formats such as briefing notes, books and presentations to government, and has also formed part of a variety of PhD Theses. The full list of outputs can be explored in our Outputs database.
The raw data for the analysis can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.
Methods
Using the CALLS Hub outputs database a total of 106 published papers from the period January 2010 – May 2016 were identified from the three LSs. It should be noted that whilst CALLS and the RSUs actively solicit LS users to record all outputs, and also conducts literature searches to maximise capture, it is possible that some further papers exist.
All papers published in journals or regularly produced official publications – such as ONS Population Trends – were included. We did not include working papers in this analysis. Citation counts were gathered from Scopus, taking the final counts as of 30 June 2016. Impact Factors were taken from the Scopus project SCImago using the SJR2 indicator.
Results
The LSs combined
Of the 106 papers identified, 16 were from non-peer-reviewed journals such as Population Trends. Four papers used more than one LS for their analysis. (see figure 1)
figure 1. Number of published papers per LS, Jan 2010 – May 2016. n = 106
Papers from the three LSs were published in a total of 59 different journals, spanning 41 SCImago Subject Categories in 11 Subject Areas (figure 2). SJR Impact Factors for the papers ranged from 0.128 to 9.893, with an average of 1.577.
The 5 most frequent subject categories for LS papers were:
- Public Health, Environment & Occupational Health (30 papers)
- Medicine(misc) (25 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (20 papers)
- Epidemiology (17 papers)
- Health(social science) (16 papers)
The ten most cited papers from the three LSs were:
Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study
During the period January 2010 to May 2016, a total of 29 journal papers were found which had used NILS data, including one paper which had used all 3 LSs. Five NILS publications appeared journals with top-5 ranked impact factor.
NILS journal papers were published in 18 different journals, spanning 8 SCImago Subject Areas and 22 Subject Categories (see below). SJR Impact Factors for the papers ranged from 0.219 to 4.381, with an average of 1.632.
The 5 most frequent subject categories for NILS papers were:
- Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health (11 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (7 papers)
- Health(social science) (7 papers)
- Epidemiology (6 papers)
- Medicine(misc) (5 papers)
The 10 most cited NILS papers were:
ONS LS
During the period in question, 51 journal papers were identified as having been produced from ONS LS projects (including 4 papers which also used other LSs). Of these, 14 appeared in non peer-reviewed journals. Seven papers appeared in top-5 ranked journals.
ONS LS papers appeared in 33 journals, and covered 20 SCImago Subject Categories in 7 Subject Areas. SJR Impact Factors for ONS LS papers ranged from 0.128 to 9.893 with an average of 1.453.
The most frequent subject categories in which ONS LS papers appeared were:
- Medicine(misc) (14 papers)
- Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health (11 papers)
- Epidemiology (8 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (7 papers)
- Demography (7 papers)
The most cited ONS LS papers were:
Scottish Longitudinal Study
During the period January 2010 – May 2016, 32 SLS-based journal papers were identified (including 4 papers which also used other LSs). Of these, 2 appeared in non peer-reviewed journals. Three papers were published in top-5 ranked journals.
The SLS papers were published in 26 different journals, spanning 23 SCImago Subject Categories in 8 Subject Areas. Impact Factors for the papers ranged from 0.226 to 5.667, with an average of 1.6.
SLS papers appeared most frequently under the following subject categories:
- Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health (9 papers)
- Medicine(misc) (8 papers)
- Geography, Planning & Development (6 papers)
- Health(social science) (5 papers)
- Epidemiology (3 papers)
The 10 most cited SLS papers were:
Explore the full database of LS outputs
Raw data (Excel, 82kB)
On Friday 18th March we held the largest of our UK LS Roadshows to date and we hope the audience enjoyed the day as much as we did.
The first part of the Roadshow showcased research examples from all three LSs – the Scottish Longitudinal Study, Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study and ONS LS, and you can download slides here:
Pathways between socioeconomic disadvantage and growth in the Scottish Longitudinal Study, 1991-2001 (PDF 4MB) Dr Richard Silverwood, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine |
Ethnic differences in intragenerational social mobility between 1971 and 2011 Dr Saffron Karlsen, University of Bristol |
Are Informal Caregivers in Northern Ireland more likely to suffer from Anxiety and Depression? A Northern Ireland Longitudinal (NILS) Data Linkage-Study Dr Stefanie Doebler, Queen’s University Belfast |
On Nov 10th, our UK LS Roadshow moved to Bristol as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science.
The first part of our Roadshow showcased some of the different types of research that the ONS LS for England & Wales has been used for, and you can download the slides here:
Family size and educational attainment in England and Wales Prof Tak Wing Chan, University of Warwick |
Overall and Cause-specific Mortality differences by Partnership status in 21st Century England and Wales (PDF 645 kB) Sebastian Franke, University of Liverpool |
Ethnic differences in intragenerational social mobility between 1971 and 2011 Dr Saffron Karlsen, University of Bristol |
Fiona Cox, CALLS Hub
Results from an SLS-based study have been featured in several news outlets this week including Medical News Today, Oncology Nurse Advisor and Science Daily.
Hannah Dale and colleagues from the University of St Andrews have found some key markers for vulnerability to psychological problems in men experiencing cancer. Their results were presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology in Glasgow on Dec 3rd 2014.
For their research, a group of 127 men aged 18 and over with a cancer diagnosis were recruited through the National Health Service and cancer charities between April 2009 and April 2011.
The participants were assessed for demographic factors, social support, anxiety and depression, and distress (Distress Thermometer). Data for cancer patients from the Scottish Longitudinal Study were examined to make sure the sample was representative of men with cancer as a whole.
The findings indicated that participants who were separated and divorced had lower social support and greater depression. Younger age was related to higher anxiety, and distress. Living in an area of higher deprivation indicated greater depression and anxiety. Social support was also a key indicator of psychological health.
Given these findings, they say it is important to target those at greatest risk of psychological problems following a diagnosis of cancer for psychosocial support.
Hannah Dale says:
“Men typically have smaller networks than women and often rely on their wives for support. Some men who are separated or divorced lack such support, which can leave them more vulnerable to depression.
“Other findings suggest that age and living in an area of higher deprivation are associated with men with cancer being more vulnerable to poor psychosocial health. More research is needed to confirm these findings, but this study highlights an area that has historically been neglected in the literature.”
SLS-DSU Project page: 2010_002
BPS press release
On Tuesday 4th November 2014, the SLS-DSU (supported by National Records of Scotland and CALLS Hub), held a launch event to announce the linkage of 2011 Census data to the Scottish Longitudinal Study.
The event was held at Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and around 70 people attended to hear about the new data, as well as examples of how it could be used. The welcome was given by Prof Andrew Morris, Scottish Government Chief Scientist.
UPDATE: You can now download full audio + slide presentations here.
Rachel Stuchbury of CeLSIUS and Kevin Ralston of SLS-DSU share their reflections on this years excellent BSPS conference at the University of Winchester.
BSPS 14 from the England & Wales perspective
Rachel Stuchbury, CeLSIUS
Four CeLSIUS staff attended BSPS and promptly dispersed among the six simultaneous sessions available – going to BSPS entails making hard choices among so many tempting possibilities. Did we sneak off and rubber-neck our way round beautiful Winchester at all? If so, we are certainly not going to admit it.
But you’ll be asking – did we give any presentations? No, not one. We claim this is because we are worker bees rather than honey bees (and definitely not queens). OK, we did muster three posters between us. But personally I spent much time listening admiringly to my SLS and NILS colleagues, a dazzlingly bright lot and a shining example to the rest of us. How they get all that research done as well as supporting large numbers of user-led projects is a mystery.
In addition, of course, we CeLSIUS types sigh with envy at the expanding array of interesting data being linked to SLS and NILS, unlike the dear old LS which hasn’t had a new type of data linked for many decades. (But watch this space, there are agents provocateurs at work.)
On the positive side I was also able to admire presentations of many LS projects which have been supported by CeLSIUS. I’ve lost count but there were around eight of them and all of a quality that would make the heart of any worker bee swell with pride. Which is not to say that I always understood them – some of these young PhD students can pronounce three- and even four-syllable words while simultaneously using a screen pointer, they will certainly all be professors one day and let’s hope they still remember and love the Longitudinal Studies then. But signs are good; it was gratifying to hear the three Studies mentioned so frequently. Apart from in-house events I’ve never been to a gathering where such a high proportion of attenders appeared to know about them.
Will we be going to BSPS next year? You bet. Wherever it is, and whatever the weather’s like, we’ll be there. We might even manage to stand up and say something.
Rachel Stuchbury
Second time at the BSPS
Kevin Ralston, SLS-DSU
This year saw another successful British Society for Population Studies conference from the point of view of the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) research group. I managed see a bit of the historic town of Winchester on the afternoon of the conference dinner. A combination of the weather, the beautiful location, the convenient transport links together with the spellbinding scientific output on show made this one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended.
As usual many of our team were involved across all stands of activities at the conference. I presented: Assessing the potential impact of markers of social support on levels of ‘excess’ mortality in Scotland and Glasgow compared to elsewhere in the UK from a project involving Zhiqiang Feng, Chris Dibben and David Walsh at the Scottish Public Health Observatory.
Dr Beata Nowok presented: Generating synthetic microdata to widen access to sensitive data sets: method, software and empirical examples. This project also involved Gillian Raab and Chris Dibben, and Dr Nowok showcased the results of the SYLLS project which, amongst other things, provides and curates the R package ‘synthpop’ that generates anonymous synthetic data. This is particularly useful for anyone involved teaching and projects using sensitive data.
Dr Zhiqiang Feng gave a presentation entitled The long‐term impacts of NEET experiences on health: evidence from the Scottish Longitudinal Study. This is part an ongoing project for the Scottish Government and involves me, and Chris Dibben.
There were also two SLS posters on show, with Dr Lee Williamson hosting the Progress and developments of the Digitising Scotland (DS) Project poster. Meanwhile, Susan Carlsey presented An Introduction to the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS).
In addition to these contributions Dr Zhiqiang Feng, in conjunction with Celia Macintyre from the National Records of Scotland, also ran a training session in How to analyse UK census flow data.
This sample of output illustrates what an outstanding year it has been for the team and we look forward to next year’s conference where the continued development of our work should mean we maintain a large presence.
Kevin Ralston
Note: Information on all SLS, NILS and ONS LS presentations and posters from BSPS 2014 can be found in our outputs database
Susan Carsley, SLS-DSU
The Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) has recently received approval to include all SLS members’ GP registered postcodes since 2001 in the SLS database. The inclusion of this data will enable researchers to more accurately link to other environmental and geographical data in the intercensal period.
At present the SLS holds Census postcode data (current address and address one year ago, workplace/place of study), for all SLS members, also available are postcodes from registration data (births, deaths and marriages) and a postcode from the School Census data (where applicable). Although researchers do not have direct access to postcode data, they are essential in being able to identify different ecological factors associated with SLS members. Using postcode (thus grid references derived from them) researchers are able to link to any higher level geographies via lookup tables or to geographical and environmental indicators using GIS operations.
The main benefit of having this more frequent data will be the ability to start identifying any changes of address between censuses. This will be particularly useful for studies of mobility – for example how this interacts with labour market involvement. The data will also be very useful in studies of environmental exposure e.g. to pollution and having more frequent and accurate postcode data will become increasingly beneficial as we continue to add in more datasets to the SLS which provide annual data.
The addition of this data to the SLS will not only open doors to many new projects, it will also be beneficial to some projects currently being investigated. For example:
In this project postcodes of residence (mother’s address from birth registration) and workplace (from census) are used for linking to SIMD (datazone) and air pollution data (1km square). This allowed the researchers to explore whether levels of air pollution at residence and workplace are associated with low birth weight. More frequent postcode data could help improve the study by identifying whether a member moved to an area with different level of pollution. Thus helping more accurately identify how long a member stayed in a highly polluted area, as length of time exposure to pollution is highly relevant in study on its effect. Previously this project was only able to compare postcode from census and birth registration to see whether a member moved to an area with a different level of pollution and whether this has impact on low birth weight, this ignored the possibility of a member moving between the census time and vital registration. The addition of this more frequent data will reduce this problem.
On Thursday 6th March 2014 CALLS Hub organised a very successful launch event to mark the linkage of 2011 Census data to the UK LSs on behalf of the LSs, ONS, NISRA, NRS and ESRC. This was held at Church House, Westminster, and over the day a total of 120 people attended.
A special morning event was introduced by Prof Paul Boyle (CEO of ESRC), and the linkage officially announced by Sir Andrew Dilnot (Chair, UK Statistics Authority). We were honoured to hear how highly regarded the LSs are held.
You can see some of the tweets from the day in our Storify roundup, and speaker slides and handouts from the day can be downloaded below.
Morning session
- Delegate list (PDF 2MB)
- Programme (PDF 2MB)
- 2011 Census Data link to the LSs: The Potential for Policy and Influence – Dr Ian Shuttleworth, Director, NILS-RSU (PDF 2MB)
- Using the ONS LS for research on ethnicity and social mobility – Prof Lucinda Platt, Director, Millennium Cohort Study, Professor of Sociology, LSE (PDF 8MB)
Afternoon session
- Delegate list (PDF 2MB)
- Programme (PDF 2MB)
- Beta-test Posters (PDF 4MB)
- Introduction to the UK LS & Census 2011 Data Linkage – Dr Nicola Shelton, Director, CeLSIUS (PDF )
- New LS Developments and Official Announcement of CALLS Hub – Prof Chris Dibben, Director, Longitudinal Studies Centre Scotland, PI Census & Administrative data LongitudinaL Studies Hub (PDF MB)
- Synthetic Data Estimation for the UK Longitudinal Studies (SYLLS) – Dr Adam Dennett, Lecturer, CASA, UCL (PDF 6MB)
- Are we becoming more migratory? An analysis of internal migration rates, 1971- 2011 – Prof Tony Champion, Newcastle University (PDF 234KB)
- Social and economic transitions and their effect on young people’s health and social wellbeing – Dr Mark McCann, Queen’s University Belfast (PDF 23KB)
- Characteristics of and living arrangements amongst informal carers at the 2011 and 2001 censuses: stability, change and transition – Dr James Robards, University of Southampton (PDF 82KB)
- Does religious exogamy (mixed marriage) increase the risk of marital dissolution in Northern Ireland? – Dr David Wright, Queen’s University Belfast (PDF 105KB)
- Inter-cohort trends in intergenerational mobility in England and Wales: income, status, and class (InTIME) – Dr Franz Buscha, University of Westminster (PDF 27KB)