Declining Proportion of Publications by American Authors in Major Anesthesiology Journals

Abstract

A decline in the proportion of articles published by American authors in medical journals has been reported. We therefore sought to determine whether the contributions of authors from the United States to the three leading anesthesia journals changed between the years 1980 to 2000. The journals Pain, Anesthesiology, and Anesthesia & Analgesia were selected for evaluation on the basis of their respective impact factors. All clinical studies and basic science studies published in the years 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, and 2000 were evaluated. The country of origin of the lead author of each article was determined by two of the investigators. chi(2) Tests and least squares linear regression analyses were used to determine associations between the source of publication (United States or abroad) and year of publication. The proportion of American publications in the leading anesthesia specialty journals was found to be decreasing over the period 1980-2000 because of an increase in the rate of publication from abroad that is disproportionate to the increase in the total number of publications in the journals over that time. The reasons for changes in anesthesia-related publications by American authors were not established by this study. The authors speculate that multiple factors are involved, including an increased emphasis on clinical care over research because of economic constraints, American publication in journals other than the leading specialty journals, and the increased quality of submissions from abroad.

National representation in the anaesthesia literature: a bibliometric analysis of highly cited anaesthesia journals*

“…Potential causes, notably inadequate funding, have been raised in . Similar concerns have been expressed regarding a decline in randomised controlled trials from Canadian departments [4] and in contributions to anaesthesia journals from departments in the United States [3,10,11] and these results are also consistent with our data. These authors have suggested shortages of anaesthesia providers, lack of research time for anaesthetists and a lack of formalised research programs for trainees in anaesthesia as contributory factors.…”

“…A decade ago, previous research analysed the proportion of publications that were produced by different countries in highly cited anaesthesia journals and found that high-income countries, in particular the United States, dominated global anaesthesia publications [2]. However, several groups of investigators have expressed concern that the relative contributions of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have diminished [1,3,4].…”

Ľavenir des départements universitaires ďanesthésie au Canada

“…2 Aux États-Unis, on est préoccupé par le déclin de la proportion de publications par les auteurs américains dans les revues d'anesthésie. 3 Au Canada, notre rôle pédagogique fait en sorte que notre position est assurée. Les départements universitaires d'anesthésie du Royaume-Uni envient la responsabilité que les départements canadiens se sont donnée pour l'enseignement doctoral et postdoctoral.…”

How international is bioethics? A quantitative retrospective study

“…Such a trend has been observed for example in the field of anesthesiology [21], reproductive medicine [22], in clinical-research journals [23] and in surgical journals [24,25]. This relative reduction is research productivity reflects the increasing participation of Western European (mainly the United Kingdom, some Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands) countries to the field of bioethics.…”