Man Jonathan P, Weinkauf Justin G, Tsang Monica, Sin Don D
Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia & James Hogg iCAPTURE Center for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research, St Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Eur J Epidemiol. 2004;19(8):811-7. doi: 10.1023/b:ejep.0000036571.00320.b8.
National factor(s) influencing publication output in the highest ranked medical journals are largely unknown. We sought to examine the relationship between national research funding and English proficiency on publication output. We identified all original research articles appearing in the five highest ranked general medical journals between 1997 and 2001. Using the country of the corresponding author as the source nation for each article, we determined a standardized publication rate across developed nations. We used multiple regression techniques to determine the influence of national expenditures on research and scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), a surrogate for English proficiency, on publication output. There was a significant relationship of national spending on research and TOEFL scores to publication output of developed countries (p = 0.04; p < 0.01, respectively). These two variables explained approximately 71.5% of the variation in publication rate across developed nations around the world (R = 0.85; p < 0.01). Normalized for population size, English-speaking nations and certain northern European countries such as Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden had the highest rate of publication in the five highest ranked general medical journals, while Asian countries had generally low rates of publication. Research spending and English proficiency were strongly associated with publication output in the highest ranked general medical journals. While these data cannot be considered definitive due to their observational nature, they do suggest that for English-language medical journals, research funding and English proficiency may be important determinants of publication.
影响在排名最靠前的医学期刊上发表论文数量的国家因素在很大程度上尚不明确。我们试图研究国家研究经费与英语水平对论文发表数量之间的关系。我们确定了1997年至2001年间发表在五本排名最靠前的综合医学期刊上的所有原创研究文章。以每篇文章的通讯作者所在国家作为来源国，我们计算了发达国家的标准化发表率。我们使用多元回归技术来确定国家研究支出以及作为英语水平替代指标的托福考试成绩对论文发表数量的影响。国家研究支出和托福考试成绩与发达国家的论文发表数量之间存在显著关系（分别为p = 0.04；p < 0.01）。这两个变量解释了全球发达国家发表率变化的约71.5%（R = 0.85；p < 0.01）。按人口规模进行标准化后，英语国家以及丹麦、荷兰、瑞士和瑞典等某些北欧国家在五本排名最靠前的综合医学期刊上的发表率最高，而亚洲国家的发表率普遍较低。研究经费和英语水平与排名最靠前的综合医学期刊上的论文发表数量密切相关。虽然由于这些数据的观察性质不能被视为定论，但它们确实表明，对于英语医学期刊而言，研究经费和英语水平可能是论文发表的重要决定因素。
