Lewison G, Tootell S, Roe P, Sullivan R
School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Br J Cancer. 2008 Aug 19;99(4):569-76. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6604531. Epub 2008 Jul 29.
This study examined cancer research stories on the BBC web archive (July 1998-June 2006). There were about 260 BBC stories per year, of which about 170 were classed as relevant to reports of cancer research. The stories focused heavily on breast cancer, and over one-third of them mentioned this (compared with a cancer disease burden of 13%); the next most covered sites were lung and prostate cancers, although the former was much less mentioned than its cancer disease burden of almost 20% would have suggested. The focus of the stories was often on new or improved drugs or vaccines (20% of stories), with lifestyle choices (12%), genetic developments (9%), and food and drink (8%) also featuring fairly prominently. The BBC stories cited about 1380 research papers that could be identified as journal articles. About three-quarters of the cited papers were in the field of cancer. The papers of these authors came from over 60 countries, and 40% were from the United Kingdom and 36% from the United States. UK cancer research was heavily overcited, by about 6:1, relative to its presence in world oncology research and US research was cited about in proportion. That of most other countries, especially Japan, Germany, and Austria, was relatively undercited. These cited papers also acknowledged more funding bodies. Most of the BBC stories were put in context by external commentators, of whom the large majority was from the UK's cancer research charities.
本研究调查了英国广播公司（BBC）网络存档（1998年7月至2006年6月）中的癌症研究报道。每年约有260篇BBC报道，其中约170篇被归类为与癌症研究报告相关。这些报道主要聚焦于乳腺癌，超过三分之一的报道提及了乳腺癌（相比之下，乳腺癌疾病负担占13%）；接下来报道最多的部位是肺癌和前列腺癌，尽管前者的提及频率远低于其近20%的疾病负担比例。报道重点往往是新的或改良的药物或疫苗（占报道的20%），生活方式选择（12%）、遗传学进展（9%）以及饮食（8%）也相当突出。BBC的报道引用了约1380篇可确定为期刊文章的研究论文。约四分之三的被引用论文属于癌症领域。这些作者的论文来自60多个国家，40%来自英国，36%来自美国。相对于其在世界肿瘤学研究中的占比，英国癌症研究被过度引用，约为6倍；美国研究的引用比例大致合理。大多数其他国家，尤其是日本、德国和奥地利的研究被引用得相对较少。这些被引用的论文还提及了更多的资助机构。大多数BBC报道都有外部评论员进行背景解读，其中绝大多数来自英国的癌症研究慈善机构。
