The Use of the IAEA Directory of RAdiotherapy Centres (DIRAC) in Scientific Literature
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PO-GePV-T-83 (Sunday, 7/10/2022) [Eastern Time (GMT-4)]
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Purpose: The IAEA DIRAC (https://dirac.iaea.org/) provides information on global radiotherapy infrastructure. The use of DIRAC as a scientific resource in publications was analysed.
Methods: 205 manuscripts published since 2001 referring to DIRAC in the main body, in the acknowledgements and/or as a reference were identified. Papers were classified according to main subjects and to the geographical setting of their research (if available). The year of publication as well as the affiliations of the authors by geographic and income region, were investigated.
Results: The number of new publications referring to DIRAC per year is increasing, with 76 out of the 205 papers published in the last two years. Four Journals, namely International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology and Physics, Radiotherapy and Oncology, Lancet Oncology and Clinical Oncology, published at least 10 papers each. In terms of subject matter, 147 (72%) papers deal mainly with health economics, 37 (18%) with radiotherapy delivery and outcome, and 21 (10%) with QA and dosimetry audits. Infrastructure and access to radiotherapy is the main subtopic in the health economics field (111 out of 147 papers). 30% of the first and co-authors are affiliated to institutions belonging to low- or middle-income countries. Before 2018, this proportion was 25%. The topical geographic analysis revealed that 69% of the 82 publications where a setting could be identified focused on Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) radiotherapy resources.
Conclusion: The analysis shows that there is an increasing use of DIRAC in scientific studies, particularly for publications in the health economics domains. A dedicated interactive tool has been introduced on the DIRAC website to provide information about these papers.
Keywords
Taxonomy
TH- External Beam- Photons: General (most aspects)
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