The following data are related to an NIGMS Feedback Loop post from June 18, 2015, on Further Analysis of Renewal Rates for New and Established NIGMS Investigator Projects.
Figure 2. Total weighted citation numbers through the end of calendar year 2014 for publications within 5 years following the fiscal year of the initial award per million dollars of total cost for new R01 projects from new and established investigators funded by NIGMS between Fiscal Years 2004-2007. Citation counts were retrieved from Scopus (Elsevier) . Weighted citation counts were calculated as the sum of the weighted citations for all publications associated with each project. The weighting factor was determined as described in Figure 1. Weighting the citation counts for how many NIH research grants were acknowledged in each publication more strongly affected the results for established investigator projects than for new investigator projects.
Figure 2A. Unweighted citation numbers per million dollars of total cost for new R01 projects from new and established investigators funded by NIGMS between Fiscal Years 2004-2007.
While the distribution of unweighted citation numbers for those projects for which a renewal application was submitted was shifted toward higher median counts for established investigator projects versus new investigator projects (Figure 2A), the new investigator projects had higher unweighted and weighted median citation counts when considering all new R01 grants funded by NIGMS between Fiscal Years 2004-2007 (see Figure 2B).
Figure 2B. Comparison of citation counts for all new R01 projects from new and established investigators funded by NIGMS between Fiscal Years 2004-2007.