Publication in infectious diseases journals from Chinese authors: 10-year survey of literature.

China is a major contributor to the worldwide infectious diseases burden because of its population size. However, to-date little is known about China's contribution to the field of infectious diseases. The present study was designed to determine publication in infectious diseases journals during 1999-2008 in the 3 main regions of China--the Mainland (ML), Hong Kong (HK) and Taiwan (TW). Articles published in 51 journals related to infectious diseases were retrieved from the PubMed database. The total number of articles, impact factor (IF), and articles published in the top 10 infectious diseases journals were identified. The numbers and percentages of articles showed significantly positive trends in ML and TW. From 2005 onwards, the accumulated IF from ML exceeded that from HK, and in 2007 ML exceeded TW. Our analysis determines the research output in the infectious diseases research field of the 3 main regions of China. Also, the results of this study imply that China lags behind the developed countries in conducting infectious diseases research.