Bibliometric and authorship trends over a 30 year publication history in two representative US sports medicine journals

Abstract

Bibliometric studies are important to understand changes and improvement opportunities in academia. This study compared bibliometric trends for two major sports medicine/arthroscopy journals, the American Journal of Sports Medicine® (AJSM®) and Arthroscopy® over the past 30 years. Trends over time and comparisons between both journals were noted for common bibliometric variables (number of authors, references, pages, citations, and corresponding author position) as well as author gender and continental origin. Appropriate statistical analyses were performed. A p < 0.001 was considered statistically significant. One representative year per decade was used. There were 814 manuscripts from AJSM® and 650 from Arthroscopy®. For AJSM® the number of manuscripts steadily increased from 86 in 1986 to 350 in 2016; for Arthroscopy® the number of manuscripts increased from 73 in 1985/1986, to 267 in 2006, but then dropped to 229 in 2016. There were significant increases in all bibliometric variables, except for the number of citations which decreased in Arthroscopy®. There were significant differences in manuscript region of origin by journal (p ¼ 0.000002). Arthroscopy® had a greater percentage of manuscripts from Asia than AJSM® (19.3% vs 11.5%) while AJSM® had a greater percentage from North America (70.3% vs 59.2%); both journals had similar percentages from Europe (18.2% for AJSM® and 21.6% for Arthroscopy®). For AJSM® the average percentage of female first authors was 13.3%, increasing from 4.7% in 1986 to 19.3% in 2016; the average percentage of female corresponding authors was 7.3%. For Arthroscopy®, the average percentage of female first authors was 8.1%, increasing from 2.8% in 1985/1986 to 15.7% in 2016 (p ¼ 0.00007). In conclusion, AJSM® and Arthroscopy® showed an increase in most variables analyzed. Although Arthroscopy® is climbing at a higher rate than AJSM® for female authors, AJSM® has an overall greater percentage of female authors.

Comparing the gender diversity and affiliation trends of the authors for two orthopaedics journals from the Arab world

“…Active participation in scientific research and subsequent article publication is essential for scientists in general and orthopaedic surgeons in particular (both males and females, either juniors or seniors) for the sake of career improvement and academic upgrading. 3 , 9 Conducting bibliometric studies that discuss and analyse aspects like authorship and affiliation trends is of utmost importance to monitor the scientific advancement of a specific journal or a medical community. 9 The authorship gender gap in medical and surgical fields has become a specific area of concern in the past decade.…”

“…3 , 9 Conducting bibliometric studies that discuss and analyse aspects like authorship and affiliation trends is of utmost importance to monitor the scientific advancement of a specific journal or a medical community. 9 The authorship gender gap in medical and surgical fields has become a specific area of concern in the past decade. 1 , 2 , 5 , 10 , 20 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 Although there has been excellent advancement in the Arab world's scientific research activities in the last decade, 32 the existing bibliometric studies monitoring this advancement are deficient.…”

“… 1 , 2 , 3 The gender, number, and affiliations of authors have been the topic of various reports in different medical and scientific fields 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ; in the orthopaedic literature in particular, this issue has been thoroughly examined in many publications. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 …”

“…Many studies have found an increasing trend regarding the number of female authors, an improvement in the cooperation among institutions, and the involvement of a larger number of authors per article, 9 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 However, the gender gap in the number of authors is still an issue of concern across different medical specialities, 17 , 21 , 22 , 23 including orthopaedic and trauma surgery, as discussed in many studies. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27…”

Trends in knee surgery research in the official journal of the Korean Knee Society during the period 1999–2018: a bibliometric review

“…Analysis of research topics using titles and keywords helps readers to know not only current research trends in a specific field, but also past research trends [13]. Bibliographic analysis of the topic of the articles enables one to know the most frequent research topics in a specific journal, and the changes in frequency of a specific topic as times change.…”