science in surgical publishing – insights from a decade of scientific surgery
TRANSCRIPT
Science in surgical publishing – insights
from a decade of Scientific Surgery
Background
Background
Background
Scientific Surgery
• Established 1998• Only online archive of surgical trials• Updated to include BJS 2007 to 2009
Aim
• To determine whether randomised clinical trials have increased as a proportion of original articles in the surgical literature
Methods
• Scientific Surgery• Journal contents cross-referenced• Citation count determined from
Google Scholar• Five major general surgical journals
Scientific Surgery Contents
Total
124
164142
157178
148133
192 196
163
0
50
100
150
200
250
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Total
RCTs in leading surgical journals
Published RCTs
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Nu
mb
er
BJS
Annals
Surgery
Archives
AJS
RCTs in leading surgical journals
Published RCTs
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Nu
mb
er
BJS
P = 0.002
RCTs: proportion of original articles
0
5
10
15
20
25
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Per
cen
tag
e
BJS
Annals
Surgery
Archives
AJS
RCTs as proportion of original articles
RCTs as proportion of original articles
0
5
10
15
20
25
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
% BJS
P<0.001
Median citations per RCT
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Nu
mb
er
BJS
Annals
Surgery
Archives
AJS
Median citations per RCT
Median citations per RCT
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Nu
mb
er BJS
Annals
P=0.023
P=0.007
Comparison with medical journals
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1998 2003 2007
Year
Per
cen
tag
e BJS
JAMA
Am J Med
Archives
Comment
• Surgical publication pattern has changed• Now comparable with specialist medical journals• BJS publication pattern has significantly
changed
