Analysis of publication trends in two internationally renowned ophthalmology journals.
(49/793)
International journals represent a forum for exchange of current information with contributions from all over the world. High standards are essential. In this report, we compared the publishing trends of two internationally renowned ophthalmology journals--the British Journal of Ophthalmology (BJO) and the American Journal of Ophthalmology (AJO). (+info)
Comparing frequency of word occurrences in abstracts and texts using two stop word lists.
(50/793)
Retrieval tests have assumed that the abstract is a true surrogate of the entire text. However, the frequency of terms in abstracts has never been compared to that of the articles they represent. Even though many sources are now available in full-text, many still rely on the abstract for retrieval. 1,138 articles with their abstracts were downloaded from Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, and the Lancet. Based on two stop word lists, one long and one short, content bearing words were extracted from the articles and their abstracts and the frequency of each word was counted in both sources. Each article and its abstract were tested using a chi-squared test to determine if the words in the abstract occurred as frequently as would be expected. 96% to 98% of the abstracts tested were not significantly different than random samples of the articles they represented. In these four journals, the abstracts are lexical, as well as intellectual, surrogates for the articles they represent. (+info)
JAT's impact factor--room for improvement? Journal of Analytical Toxicology.
(51/793)
The impact factor of a scientific journal is simply the ratio of the number of citations to the number of citable items (articles and reviews) over a given time period, usually two years after the year of publication. Trends in the impact factor of Journal of Analytical Toxicology (JAT) are reviewed and compared with other leading journals in the forensic sciences and toxicology. In particular, the journals that frequently cite JAT articles (citing journals) and the journals cited in articles published in JAT (cited journals) are compared and contrasted. The reasons for citing a particular article are considered, and some suggestions are made for improving the impact factor of JAT, if this is deemed necessary. This could be achieved in a number of ways, such as speeding the editorial-handling and peer-review processes, by including one or more invited review articles in each issue of the journal, or by increasing the number of references cited so the references/article ratio increases. Regardless of journal impact factor, an article should be judged by its usefulness to the field and not the prestige of the journal where it is published. (+info)
A historical overview of pressure ulcer literature of the past 35 years.
(52/793)
This article discusses a study of publications on pressure ulcers from 1965 to 1999 using the information available in Medline. Results show that .06% of all articles relate to pressure ulcers. Of all the articles about pressure ulcers, 49% were research articles and 51% were clinical articles. When comparing the total percentage of articles on pressure ulcers to the costs of pressure ulcers in healthcare (1.3% of the total Netherland healthcare budget), one can conclude that clinicians and scientists insufficiently appreciate pressure ulcers as a problem. The number and the proportion of pressure ulcer articles are growing, as well as initiatives to urge researchers studying the same topic to start international working groups, but more research is needed. This article offers insight into the current status of pressure ulcer literature and addresses some reasons for the lack of interest in the pressure ulcer problem. (+info)
Youth targeting by tobacco manufacturers since the Master Settlement Agreement.
(53/793)
The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between tobacco manufacturers and forty-six states bans manufacturers from targeting minors through advertising. To determine how youth targeting in magazine cigarette advertisements changed after the MSA, we analyzed magazine readership and cigarette ads in U.S. magazines from 1997 to 2000. In 2000 all three major manufacturers (Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Brown and Williamson) failed to comply with the MSA's youth-targeting ban, selectively increasing their youth targeting. Banning all magazine advertising of cigarettes may be necessary to eliminate youth targeting in magazines. (+info)
Empirically supported treatments in pediatric psychology: where is the diversity?
(54/793)
OBJECTIVE: To examine the extent to which studies used to support empirically supported treatments for asthma, cancer, diabetes, and obesity address issues of cultural diversity. METHOD: We chose original articles (71) of treatments used to support empirically supported treatments (ESTs) published as part of a special series on ESTs in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Trained coders reviewed each study to determine if the following were reported: race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) of the sample, moderating cultural variables, cultural assumptions or biases of the treatment, larger cultural issues, and measurement or procedure bias. RESULTS: Results revealed that few studies addressed cultural variables in any way. Only 27% of the studies reported the race or ethnicity and 18% reported the SES of research participants. Additionally, 6% discussed potential moderating cultural variables. The remaining variables were addressed in 7% or less of the studies. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the criticism that ESTs fail to address important issues of culture and call into question the external validity of ESTs to diverse populations. Future research should explicitly address cultural issues according to the nine recommendations described here. (+info)
Geographical distribution of publications in the field of medical education.
(55/793)
BACKGROUND: The geographical distribution of publications as an indicator of the research productivity of individual countries, regions or institutions has become a field of interest. We investigated the geographical distribution of contributions to the two leading journals in the field of medical education, Academic Medicine and Medical Education. METHODS: PubMed was used to search Medline. For both journals all journal articles in each year from 1995 to 2000 were included into the study. Then the affiliation was retrieved from the affiliation field of the MEDLINE format. If this was not possible, it was obtained from the paper version of the journal. RESULTS: Academic Medicine published contributions from 25 countries between 1995 and 2000. Authors from 50 countries contributed to Medical Education in the same period of time. Authors from the USA and Canada wrote ca. 95% off all articles in Academic Medicine, whereas authors from the UK, Australia, the USA, Canada and the Netherlands were responsible for ca. 74% of all articles in Medical Education in the investigated period of time. CONCLUSIONS: While many countries contributed to both journals, only a few of them were responsible for the majority of all articles. (+info)
Twenty years of public health research: inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations.
(56/793)
OBJECTIVES: This study determined to what extent lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations have been studied over the past 20 years of public health research. METHODS: From MEDLINE English-language articles on human subjects published between 1980 and 1999, I identified articles that included LGBT individuals. The abstracts were analyzed with a coding procedure that categorized the content by topic, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: LGBT issues were addressed by 3777 articles, or 0.1% of all Medline articles; 61% of the articles were disease-specific, and 85% omitted reference to race/ethnicity. Research unrelated to sexually transmitted diseases addressed lesbians and gay men with similar frequency, whereas bisexual persons were less frequently considered, and the least amount of research focused on transgender individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Findings supported that LGBT issues have been neglected by public health research and that research unrelated to sexually transmitted diseases is lacking. (+info)