Publication Activity and Impact of the International Pediatric Simulation Society Cureus Channel: 2014 to 2018

Introduction In November 2013, the International Pediatric Simulation Society (IPSS) launched a channel on Cureus.com. We performed the following analysis to examine the use of the channel, the reach of its publications, and their impact within the medical literature. Methods The IPSS Cureus channel’s Administrative Dashboard was used to collect data on manuscript type, manuscript submission date, publication date, total views, and total downloads for each article from publication date through December 31, 2018. Web of Science and Google Scholar were used to determine which channel publications had been cited during the study period, and those citations were reviewed to develop an estimate of the global reach of the publications. Results A total of 15 articles were published via the IPSS Cureus channel from April 18, 2014 to December 31, 2018, with a mean time between submission and publication of 46 days. These articles have been viewed an average of 736 times per article. The PDF download rate averaged 446 per article. These 15 articles have been cited a total of 37 times, averaging 2.5 citations per article. The sources for those citations were published in English (29), Spanish (4), Portuguese (2), Arabic (1), and Ukrainian (1). Conclusion Publications on the IPSS Cureus channel have a clear impact, in terms of the number of views, number of downloads, citation counts, and global reach. The channel also offers a rapid publication cycle. Further education in the pediatric simulation community on the use of the channel and promotion of the benefits of this resource for scholarships are warranted.