Measuring the policy citation rate of United Kingdom (UK) paramedic and ambulance service research: a bibliometric evaluation using BMJ Impact Analytics and the amber repository
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Context/Objective
Demonstrating real-world impact is increasingly important for prehospital researchers. While biomedical sciences show high altmetric coverage, policy citation density in paramedicine remains largely unknown. This study evaluates the policy citation rate of UK ambulance service research, measures uptake differences between clinical practice guidelines and broader health policies and maps its geographic dissemination.
Methods
Following the BiBLio reporting guidelines, all publications with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) where at least one author was working in an NHS ambulance service were extracted from the amber repository covering 2006 to 2026 (N=2,095). Policy and clinical guideline citations were tracked using BMJ Impact Analytics. Document classifications and issuing organisation metadata were analysed in Microsoft Excel using descriptive bibliometrics.
Key Findings
The overall policy citation rate was 23.48% (n=492/2,095), with 53.66% of cited papers cited once and 1.63% achieving 10 or more citations. A total of 1,143 citations were identified across 760 clinical practice guidelines (66.49%) and 383 health policies (33.51%), producing a guideline-to-policy ratio of 1.98:1. Multicentre clinical trials accrued high scholarly and policy citation volumes, whereas service design and workforce studies achieved high policy translation despite modest scholarly citations. Of 704 citations with resolvable geographic metadata, 46.45% (n=327) were domestic UK citations, 32.67% (n=230) originated from international Anglophone jurisdictions, 13.07% (n=92) from non-Anglophone European nations, and 4.83% (n=34) from international bodies.
Conclusion/Significance
UK paramedic and ambulance service research demonstrates measurable translation into clinical practice guidelines and health policy, although its 23.48% policy citation rate places it towards the lower end of comparable empirical healthcare portfolios. The disproportionate uptake in clinical guidelines highlights the reliance of guideline panels on high-quality prehospital evidence. Maximising translational reach requires active dissemination by embedded researchers, explicit practice recommendations within publications, and systematic green open access preservation via sector repositories such as amber .
