Recent trends in publication of basic science and clinical research by United States investigators in anesthesia journals

Abstract

BackgroundUnited States anesthesia research production declined sharply from 1980-2005. Whether this trend has continued despite recent calls to improve output is unknown. We conducted an observational internet analysis to quantify American basic science and clinical anesthesia research output in 14 anesthesia journals with impact factors greater than one at three-year intervals during the past decade.ResultsAmerican investigators published 1,486 (21.7%) of the total of 6,845 research articles identified in anesthesia journals in 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2010. Approximately two-thirds of all US articles were published in Anesthesiology and Anesthesia and Analgesia. There was a significant correlation (r2 = 0.316; P = 0.036) between the number of articles published by American authors in each anesthesia journal and the corresponding journal's impact factor in 2010. Significantly (P < 0.05; Pearson's Chi-square) fewer basic science articles were published in 2007 and 2010 compared with 2001. US clinical research output also declined in 2007 (201; 15.7%) compared with 2001 (266; 19.1%) and 2004, but an increase occurred in 2010 (279; 21.8%, P < 0.05 versus 2007).ConclusionsThe results indicate that US anesthesia research output continued to decrease from 2001 to 2007. An increase in clinical but not basic science research was observed in 2010 compared with 2007, suggesting that a modest recovery in clinical research production may have begun.

Worldwide research productivity in nuclear medicine literature

“…The proportion of annual publications in worldwide nuclear medicine research is declining in the United States. Similar results were also found in the other medical fields (13,15,17). This finding means that contributions from the United States in the field of nuclear medicine progressively decreased from Lei J et al: 10-year survey on worldwide research productivity in nuclear medicine literature 2008 to 2017.…”

“…Multiple factors, such as increased pressure in obtaining funding, expanding clinical works, and shrinking time devoted to research may be responsible for the decrease (13,15,17). Most importantly, emerging countries, such as China and India, have contributed an increasing amount of research to the world (13,15,17). This study determined that China had a 2.3-fold increase in the number of papers published.…”

“…This finding means that contributions from the United States in the field of nuclear medicine progressively decreased from Lei J et al: 10-year survey on worldwide research productivity in nuclear medicine literature 2008 to 2017. Multiple factors, such as increased pressure in obtaining funding, expanding clinical works, and shrinking time devoted to research may be responsible for the decrease (13,15,17). Most importantly, emerging countries, such as China and India, have contributed an increasing amount of research to the world (13,15,17).…”

Analysis of the number of publications by Canadian anesthesiology departments from 2000-2013

“…This result is comparable with the findings of Pagel and Hudetz who studied the publication output of American anesthesiology departments. 4 As shown in the Figure, the total number of publications and RCTs fluctuates from year to year, suggesting that the time frame covered in our original analysis may have been too small to provide an accurate depiction of publication trends.…”

The Thermoregulation Story

“…The Consortium coordinates approximately 100 studies at any given time, and publishes an average of a full paper per week-representing approximately 10% of the world's clinical anesthesia research. 41 Fig . 5.…”