[Dutch medical specialists as authors of scientific publications in English on clinical drug research (1997/'03)].

OBJECTIVE

To determine the number and type of medical specialists in Dutch hospitals that were authors of scientific papers published in English in the field of clinical drug research in the period 1997/'03.

DESIGN

Descriptive.

METHOD

PubMed was searched for articles on clinical drug research published in February 1997-January 2003. (Co)authors were included if they were registered in the Geneeskundig Adresboek 2002-2003 (Medical Address Book 2002-2003) as a medical specialist working in a hospital. Hospitals were categorized as academic, non-academic teaching, general or non-affiliated. Journals were categorized by the type of published research: fundamental or biomedical, disease-specific, or specialty-specific.

RESULTS

A total of 1776 articles in 426 journals were retrieved with at least 1 medical specialist listed as a (co)author. 1728 medical specialists were identified as authors, which represents 11% of the 16.065 registered medical specialists in The Netherlands. Most authors were involved in the nonsurgical specialties, primarily internist subspecialties, followed by paediatrics, cardiology, and neurology. The authors were employed in nearly all Dutch hospitals. The 1728 specialists had a total of 4952 authorships; 57% of the authors and 70% of the authorships came from academic hospitals. The average impact factor, the number of articles and the number ofauthorships were greatest in the disease-specific journal category. In the period 1997/'03 the number of authorships from non-academic teaching hospitals and general hospitals decreased, while the number of authorships from academic hospitals increased, particularly with regard to the number of co-authorships.