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Global distribution of publications in anesthesiology

A bibliometric analysis from 1999 to 2018

Globale Verbreitung von Publikationen über Anästhesiologie

Eine bibliometrische Analyse von 1999 bis 2018

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A Leserbriefe to this article was published on 30 August 2021

Abstract

Purpose

Only few studies have analyzed the global distribution of anesthesia research. This study was designed to reveal the current global research status of anesthesiology.

Methods

Articles published between 1999 and 2018 in international journals in the field of anesthesiology were retrieved from the PubMed database. The top 20 ranked countries were identified. The gross domestic product (GDP) of each country was also retrieved to reveal the correlation between research outputs and the economy. The total outputs and outputs per 10 million inhabitants in each country were calculated and compared. To analyze the quality of publications among the top 10 ranked countries, the impact factor (IF), article influence score (AIS), and immediacy index (ImI) were calculated and analyzed. In addition, the keywords of publications were retrieved to conduct co-occurrence analysis in order to determine the research focus in anesthesiology.

Results

A total of 112,918 articles were published in 30 selected journals from 1999 to 2018. There was a positive correlation between research outputs and GDP of 10 countries (p < 0.001, r = 0.825). The USA ranked 1st with 21,703 articles, followed by the UK (8393 articles) and Germany (6504 articles). Canada had the highest number of publications per 10 million inhabitants in 2018. The UK had the highest average IF (4.70), average AIS (1.16), and average ImI (1.64) among the 10 countries. The research highlights in the field of anesthesiology included “mechanism and management of pain”, “cardiac anesthesia”, “pediatric anesthesia and airway management”, “analgesia” and “anesthetic agents”.

Conclusion

Regarding quantity trend, the output of global production in anesthesiology increased continuously as the number of articles from the high-output countries showed an increasing trend; however, there was still a gap between developing and developed countries in research quality. High-quality research should be encouraged in developing countries.

Zusammenfassung

Zweck

Nur wenige Studien haben die globale Verteilung der Anästhesieforschungen analysiert. Diese Studie soll den aktuellen globalen Forschungsstand der Anästhesiologie aufzeigen.

Methoden

Artikel, die zwischen 1999 und 2018 in internationalen Zeitschriften auf dem Gebiet der Anästhesiologie veröffentlicht wurden, wurden aus der Datenbank PubMed abgerufen. Zwanzig Länder mit höchsten Zahlen wurden identifiziert. Das Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) jedes Landes wurde ebenfalls abgerufen, um die Korrelation zwischen Forschungsprodukten („research outputs“) und der Wirtschaft aufzuzeigen. Die gesamten Forschungsprodukte sowie Produkte pro 10 Mio. Einwohner in jedem Land wurden berechnet und verglichen. Um die Qualität der Publikationen in den Top-10-Ländern zu analysieren, wurden Impact Factor (IF), Article Influence Score (AIS) und Immediacy Index (ImI) berechnet und ausgewertet. Zusätzlich wurden die Schlüsselwörter der Publikationen abgerufen, anhand deren eine Co-Occurrence-Analyse durchgeführt wurde, um den Forschungsschwerpunkt in der Anästhesiologie zu bestimmen.

Ergebnisse

Insgesamt wurden 112.918 Artikel in 30 ausgewählten Journalen von 1999 bis 2018 veröffentlicht. Es gab eine positive Korrelation zwischen Forschungsprodukten und BIP von 10 Ländern (p < 0,001, r = 0,825). Auf Platz 1 lagen die USA mit 21.703 Artikeln, gefolgt von Großbritannien (8393 Artikel) und Deutschland (6504 Artikel). Kanada hatte im Jahr 2018 die höchste Anzahl an Publikationen pro 10 Mio. Einwohner. Großbritannien hatte die höchste durchschnittliche IF (4,70), durchschnittliche AIS (1,16) und durchschnittliche ImI (1,64) unter den 10 Ländern. Zu den Forschungsschwerpunkten im Bereich der Anästhesiologie gehörten „Mechanismus und Management von Schmerzen“, „Herzanästhesie“, „Pädiatrische Anästhesie und Atemwegsmanagement“, „Analgesie“ und „Anästhesie“.

Fazit

Hinsichtlich des Quantitätstrends stieg weltweit die Anzahl der Forschungsprodukte in der Anästhesiologie kontinuierlich an, da die Anzahl der Artikel aus den Top-Ländern eine steigende Tendenz zeigte. Es gab jedoch immer noch eine Lücke zwischen Entwicklungsländern und Industrieländern in der Forschungsqualität. Hochwertige Forschung sollte in Entwicklungsländern gefördert werden.

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Abbreviations

AIS:

Article influence score

GDP:

Gross domestic product

IF:

Impact factors

ImI:

Immediacy index

ISI:

Institute for Scientific Information

JCR:

Journal citation reports

RCT:

Randomized controlled trials

SCIE:

Science citation index expanded

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China

    Qian-bo Chen & Yan-wei Lv

  2. Department of Gastroenterology, Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China

    Huai-yu Yang & Liang-hao Hu

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Changzheng Hospital, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China

    Da-shuang Chen & Hong-bin Yuan

Authors
  1. Qian-bo Chen
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  2. Huai-yu Yang
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  3. Da-shuang Chen
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  4. Yan-wei Lv
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  5. Liang-hao Hu
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  6. Hong-bin Yuan
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Liang-hao Hu or Hong-bin Yuan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Q.-b. Chen, H.-y. Yang, D.-s. Chen, Y.-w. Lv, L.-h. Hu and H.-b. Yuan declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical standards

For this article no studies with human participants or animals were performed by any of the authors. All studies performed were in accordance with the ethical standards indicated in each case.

Additional information

Diese Arbeit wurde für Der Anaesthesist in Englisch eingereicht und angenommen. Die deutsche Zusammenfassung wurde daher etwas ausführlicher gestaltet.

The authors Qian-bo Chen, Huai-yu Yang, Da-shuang Chen, and Yan-wei Lv contributed equally to the manuscript.

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Chen, Qb., Yang, Hy., Chen, Ds. et al. Global distribution of publications in anesthesiology. Anaesthesist 70, 854–862 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00101-021-00969-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00101-021-00969-w

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