Influence of Global AIDS Professionals / Part II

Sunday, October 17. 2004

In June we considered the Influence of Global AIDS Professionals by counting Google citations of various individuals involved with global AIDS. We queried Google with the search format ("firstname lastname" aids). We repeated the exercise this week with the same names to see if the numbers were at all consistent. Here is the updated list:

Name / Organization / Google Citations / Change Since June

Peter Piot / UNAIDS / 27400 / 5.8%
Paul Farmer / Harvard University / 6140 / -2.7%
Richard Feachem / Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria / 5810 / 7.8%
Helene Gayle / Gates Foundation / 4690 / 5.9%
Alan Whiteside / University of Natal, South Africa / 3510 / 7.3%
Seth Berkley / International AIDS Vaccine Initiative / 3220 / 17.5%
Tom Coates / UCLA / 2364 / -65.1%
Paulo Teixeira / Ministry of Health, Brazil / 1860 / -12.3%
Mechai Viravaidya / Population and Community Development Association, Thailand / 1680 / 149.3%
Vadim Pokrovsky / Russian Center for AIDS Prevention and Control / 1580 / 19.7%
John Stover / Futures Group / 972 / -36.1%
Geeta Rao Gupta / International Center for Research on Women / 937 / 2.5%
Debrework Zewdie / World Bank / 897 / -7.6%
Marina Mahathir / Malaysian AIDS Council / 835 / 15.8%
Zeda Rosenberg / Internation Partnership for Microbicides / 770 / 39.2%
Catherine Hankins / UNAIDS / 769 / 8.0%
Milly Katana / Health Rights Action Group, Uganda / 752 / 10.6%
Mead Over / World Bank / 710 / -5.1%
William Makgoba / Medical Research Council, South Africa / 660 / 14.0%
Michael Merson / Yale School of Medicine / 654 / 0.5%
Peter Lamptey / Family Health International / 597 / 14.1%
Bernhard Schwartlander / WHO / 547 / 3.8%
David Serwadda / Makere University, Uganda / 540 / 1.9%
Salim Abdool Karim / University of Natal, South Africa / 525 / -11.5%
Rafael Mazin / Pan American Health Organization / 499 / 19.4%
Ties Boerma / WHO / 432 / -11.7%
Susan Kippax / University of New South Wales, Australia / 421 / -5.0%
Awa Marie Coll-Seck / Ministry of Health, Senegal / 283 / -6.0%
Yiming Shao / National Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and Control, China / 237 / 3.9%

We understand that Google citations and influence are very different things (and the methodology itself is limited), but nonetheless we draw serveral conclusions:

The majority of names changed little (less than 10%), and the majority of names increased -- both characterstics we would expect to see if Google's algorithm's are consistent;

A few names showed big swings, but are probably explainable, whether they go up (Viravaidya and Bangkok conference?) or down (Coates leaving UCSF?);

The list still suggests there is Peter Piot and there is everybody else. Dr. Piot's ability to be the "voice for global AIDS" has implications for how he should define his role.

Posted by Jim Cashel in Policy at 18:38 | Comments (4) | Trackback (1)

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Other Prominent AIDS Voices
We recently looked at the relative "influence" (actually, "e-visibility") of various AIDS professionals. Three had more than 5000 citations in Google: Peter Piot, Paul Farmer and Richard Feachem. Are there other AIDS professionals of comparably high pro

Weblog: AIDS Matters
Tracked: Oct 26, 17:35

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Peter Piot's name is everywhere. And the voice of Kathleen Cravero the UNAIDS Deputy Director is being heard more often in Asia. It is my view that they both need to be more careful in their comparisons of Asian and African subepidemics.

But Google hit numbers may not measure influence at all. They may only measure e-visibility and mass media visibility. One Associated Press quote by Piot may be picked up by hundreds of American newspapers sites ...

#1 Jamie Uhrig (Homepage) on 2004-10-24 22:47 (Reply)

Thanks for the comments Jamie. I agree that Google hit numbers track e-visibility (nice term) rather than true influence (I mean, I have more hits than the head of China's AIDS program...). I do believe, though, that e-visibility matters a lot (as your example about Piot being picked up by hundreds of newspapers suggests).

#1.1 Jim Cashel (Homepage) on 2004-10-25 00:38 (Reply)

I found Tony Barnett: about 40 000 hits at Google and Stuart Gillespie with 15 900 hits, using their names and aids in the search line. So, it seems like you have missed some really visible persons...

#1.1.1 Linda Andersson on 2004-11-17 05:50 (Reply)

Thanks Linda. I'm sure the list does neglect many high profile people. Note that I put quotes around the names. When doing it this way Tony's and Stuart's totals are 3840 and 672 respectively.

#1.1.1.1 Jim Cashel (Homepage) on 2004-11-17 11:20 (Reply)

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