Introduction. Social and administrative pharmacy is a niche area of health services research, using both numerical measurements and qualitative approaches. However, pharmacy practice researchers often deal with epistemological issues of a quantitatively oriented education. To help establish rigor in their qualitative work, a group of pharmaceutical scholars published, in 2020, the open-access paper "Establishing trustworthiness and authenticity in qualitative pharmacy research." This paper focused on methods/strategies to assure trustworthiness and authenticity with a discussion on applications to pharmacy research and examples of when and how to use them.
Goals and Methods. To assess the bibliometric performance of a pharmacy-based qualitative paper using analytical indicators proposed by the Elsevier database, Scopus. Data comprised citation frequencies and type of documents, including country/region and subject area, amongst others, such as the Scopus Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI), registered until mid-September 2023.
Results. The paper's total number of citations is 73 (59 excluding self-citations), placing it presently in the 99th citation percentile. Many citations were from sources originating in Australia, the USA, and the UK but still were representative of 33 countries. The healthcare arena leads (~80%), followed by social sciences, environmental, agricultural, business and management, arts and humanities, and computer science papers. The FWCI scored 31.19, meaning the paper is 31 times more cited than expected compared to similar documents.
Conclusions. The paper's bibliometric performance has been momentous considering the publishing journal scope, potential target audience, and competition from dedicated journals and other sources. The noticeable leap in citation benchmarking, as well as the wide array of sources and scientific fields, from technology to tourism, indicate that the topics covered are transdisciplinary and relevant for most qualitative researchers. Putting this guidance into practice, researchers suggest revisiting reporting guidelines of trustworthiness and authenticity in qualitative research.