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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Torrecilla JCorresponding AuthorQuijano-Sánchez LCorresponding Author
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Evolution and study of a copycat effect in intimate partner homicides: A lesson from Spanish femicides

Publicated to:PLoS ONE. 14 (6): e0217914-e0217914 - 2019-06-06 14(6), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217914

Authors: Torrecilla, Jose L; Quijano-Sanchez, Lara; Liberatore, Federico; Lopez-Ossorio, Juan J; Gonzalez-Alvarez, Jose L

Affiliations

Minist Interior, Secretaria Estado Seguridad, Gabinete Coordinac & Estudios, Madrid, Spain - Author
Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Dept Comp Sci, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Dept Math, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Carlos III Madrid, UC3M BS Inst Financial Big Data, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Complutense Madrid, Fac Math, Dept Stat & Operat Res, Madrid, Spain - Author
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid - Author
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid - Author
Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Author
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Abstract

© 2019 Torrecilla et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Objectives This paper focuses on the issue of intimate partner violence and, specifically, on the distribution of femicides over time and the existence of copycat effects. This is the subject of an ongoing debate often triggered by the social alarm following multiple intimate partner homicides (IPHs) occurring in a short span of time. The aim of this research is to study the evolution of IPHs and provide a far-reaching answer by rigorously analyzing and searching for patterns in data on femicides. Methods The study analyzes an official dataset, provided by the system VioGén of the Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (Spanish State Secretariat for Security), including all the femicides occurred in Spain in 2007-2017. A statistical methodology to identify temporal interdepen-dencies in count time series is proposed and applied to the dataset. The same methodology can be applied to other contexts. Results There has been a decreasing trend in the number of femicides per year. No interdependen-cies among the temporal distribution of femicides are observed. Therefore, according to data, the existence of copycat effect in femicides cannot be claimed. Conclusions Around 2011 there was a clear change in the average number of femicides which has not picked up. Results allow for an informed answer to the debate on copycat effect in Spanish femicides. The planning of femicides prevention activities should not be a reaction to a perceived increase in their occurrence. As a copycat effect is not detected in the studied time period, there is no evidence supporting the need to censor media reports on femicides.

Keywords
Gender equalityPeace, justice and strong institutions

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal PLoS ONE due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Multidisciplinary. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 6.68, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions May 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-05-10, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 12
  • Scopus: 13
  • Europe PMC: 5
  • OpenCitations: 13
Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-05-10:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 62.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 62 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 23.8.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 17 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/689079
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 5 - Gender Equality, ODS 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels, with a probability of 44% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (TORRECILLA NOGUERALES, JOSE LUIS) .

the authors responsible for correspondence tasks have been TORRECILLA NOGUERALES, JOSE LUIS and QUIJANO SANCHEZ, LARA.