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Comparative Study
. 2019 May 29;3(5):696-703.
doi: 10.1002/bjs5.50172. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Surgical publication activity in the English literature over a 10-year interval

D L Hinrichs  1 , E S Debus  1 , R T Grundmann  1
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Surgical publication activity in the English literature over a 10-year interval

D L Hinrichs et al. BJS Open. .

Abstract

Background: Surgical publication activity in the English literature over a 10-year interval may have changed. This study sought to identify which countries make the most contributions and whether significant shifts have occurred in this time.

Methods: Screening of 17 international journals in PubMed was performed for the time periods 2006-2007 and 2016-2017, for papers published by a first author belonging to a general surgical department. Data were collected by country regarding the total number of publications, cumulative impact factors (IFs), publications per inhabitant, IFs per inhabitant, and number of RCTs, meta-analyses and systematic reviews per country in both periods.

Results: A total of 2247 and 3029 papers were found for 2006-2007 and 2016-2017 respectively. In 2006-2007, most papers (605, 26·9 per cent; 2697·3 IFs) came from the USA, followed by Japan (284, 12·6 per cent; 1042·1 IFs) and the UK (197, 8·8 per cent; 923·1 IFs). In 2016-2017, the USA led again with 898 papers (29·6 per cent; 4575·3 IFs), followed by Japan with 414 papers (13·7 per cent; 1556·6 IFs) and the Netherlands with 167 (5·5 per cent; 885·2 IFs). From the top 15 countries, Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland contributed the most articles per inhabitant during both time periods. During both periods, the UK published the most RCTs, meta-analyses and systematic reviews.

Conclusion: Surgeons from the USA were the most productive in total number of publications during both time periods. However, smaller European countries were more active than the USA in relation to their population size.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram for the study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Increase in total number of articles and cumulative impact factors between 2006–2007 and 2016–2017. Values are shown for the top ten countries in 2006–2007. Abbreviations from ISO Country Codes for Selected Countries7: GB, UK; IT, Italy; AU, Australia; DE, Germany; SE, Sweden; JP, Japan; US, USA; NL, the Netherlands; FR, France; CN, China. CIFs, cumulative impact factors
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. US National Library of Medicine ; National Institutes of Health. PubMed Database https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ [accessed 14 November 2018].
    1. van Rossum M, Bosker BH, Pierik EG, Verheyen CC. Geographic origin of publications in surgical journals. Br J Surg 2007; 94: 244–247. - PubMed
    1. Clarivate Analytics . InCites Journal Citation Reports http://jcr.incites.thomsonreuters.com/JCRLandingPageAction.action [accessed 14 November 2018].
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    1. Wikipedia . Demographics of Taiwan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan [accessed 14 November 2018].

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