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Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals

Purpose: Research output of once-leading countries in surgical journals is decreasing despite an overall increase of scientific publications by 8% per year. We aimed to assess research outputs of German, Dutch, and Israeli pediatric surgeons in dedicated pediatric surgical journals in order to get i...

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Autores principales: Oetzmann von Sochaczewski, Christina, Muensterer, Oliver J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7188787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32391292
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.00152
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author Oetzmann von Sochaczewski, Christina
Muensterer, Oliver J.
author_facet Oetzmann von Sochaczewski, Christina
Muensterer, Oliver J.
author_sort Oetzmann von Sochaczewski, Christina
collection PubMed
description Purpose: Research output of once-leading countries in surgical journals is decreasing despite an overall increase of scientific publications by 8% per year. We aimed to assess research outputs of German, Dutch, and Israeli pediatric surgeons in dedicated pediatric surgical journals in order to get insight into trends in pediatric surgical research. Methods: We collected bibliographic information on all original articles in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, European Journal of Pediatric Surgery, and Pediatric Surgery International in 1985–1988, 2000–2003, and 2015–2018 that had a German, Dutch or Israeli last author from a department of pediatric surgery. Citation counts were obtained from the Web of Science. Results: Research output of German pediatric surgery decreased from 19 manuscripts in 1988 (0.1/surgeon/year) to eight manuscripts in 2017 (0.02/surgeon/year), whereas those of the Netherlands increased from two manuscripts in 1985 (0.08/surgeon/year) to 12 manuscripts in 2016 (0.3/surgeon/year). The declining German research output negatively correlated with increasing numbers of specialist pediatric surgeons for total (τ = −0.54; P = 0.0156) and manuscripts per surgeon (τ = −0.79; P = 0.0001), resulting in a negative trend over time (χ(2) = 11.845, P = 0.0006). Analyses of citation patterns revealed that manuscripts by Dutch pediatric surgeons and those published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery had higher absolute citation counts than the reference category of a German manuscript in the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery. Age-corrected citation rates resembled this result by increasing from 2000 to 2003 ([Formula: see text] = 0.799, range: 0–3.368) to 2015–2018 ([Formula: see text] = 2, range: 0–5) (P = 0.035) for the Netherlands. Assessment of manuscript types revealed that the proportion of prospective studies increased in the German sample (χ(2) = 5.05, P = 0.0246), but remained the lowest among the comparators. Surprisingly, the proportion of non-clinical manuscripts from Germany also increased over time (χ(2) = 4.001, P = 0.0455), whereas it remained constant in both the Netherlands and Israel. Conclusion: German pediatric surgical research output decreased in the last thirty years based on the sample of dedicated pediatric surgical journals, while Dutch productivity increased. Citation rates—as a measure of scientific impact—were associated and increased with Dutch manuscripts. The involved factors remain to be determined and whether this represents a shift toward other journals or mirrors a general development.
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spelling pubmed-71887872020-05-08 Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals Oetzmann von Sochaczewski, Christina Muensterer, Oliver J. Front Pediatr Pediatrics Purpose: Research output of once-leading countries in surgical journals is decreasing despite an overall increase of scientific publications by 8% per year. We aimed to assess research outputs of German, Dutch, and Israeli pediatric surgeons in dedicated pediatric surgical journals in order to get insight into trends in pediatric surgical research. Methods: We collected bibliographic information on all original articles in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, European Journal of Pediatric Surgery, and Pediatric Surgery International in 1985–1988, 2000–2003, and 2015–2018 that had a German, Dutch or Israeli last author from a department of pediatric surgery. Citation counts were obtained from the Web of Science. Results: Research output of German pediatric surgery decreased from 19 manuscripts in 1988 (0.1/surgeon/year) to eight manuscripts in 2017 (0.02/surgeon/year), whereas those of the Netherlands increased from two manuscripts in 1985 (0.08/surgeon/year) to 12 manuscripts in 2016 (0.3/surgeon/year). The declining German research output negatively correlated with increasing numbers of specialist pediatric surgeons for total (τ = −0.54; P = 0.0156) and manuscripts per surgeon (τ = −0.79; P = 0.0001), resulting in a negative trend over time (χ(2) = 11.845, P = 0.0006). Analyses of citation patterns revealed that manuscripts by Dutch pediatric surgeons and those published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery had higher absolute citation counts than the reference category of a German manuscript in the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery. Age-corrected citation rates resembled this result by increasing from 2000 to 2003 ([Formula: see text] = 0.799, range: 0–3.368) to 2015–2018 ([Formula: see text] = 2, range: 0–5) (P = 0.035) for the Netherlands. Assessment of manuscript types revealed that the proportion of prospective studies increased in the German sample (χ(2) = 5.05, P = 0.0246), but remained the lowest among the comparators. Surprisingly, the proportion of non-clinical manuscripts from Germany also increased over time (χ(2) = 4.001, P = 0.0455), whereas it remained constant in both the Netherlands and Israel. Conclusion: German pediatric surgical research output decreased in the last thirty years based on the sample of dedicated pediatric surgical journals, while Dutch productivity increased. Citation rates—as a measure of scientific impact—were associated and increased with Dutch manuscripts. The involved factors remain to be determined and whether this represents a shift toward other journals or mirrors a general development. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-04-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7188787/ /pubmed/32391292 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.00152 Text en Copyright © 2020 Oetzmann von Sochaczewski and Muensterer. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Pediatrics
Oetzmann von Sochaczewski, Christina
Muensterer, Oliver J.
Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals
title Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals
title_full Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals
title_fullStr Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals
title_full_unstemmed Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals
title_short Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals
title_sort pediatric surgical research output in germany in the last 30 years – an assessment and international comparison of three dedicated paediatric surgical journals
topic Pediatrics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7188787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32391292
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.00152
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