Brennan P A, Mitchell D A, Walker T W, Cascarini L, Oeppen R S
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, UK.
Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2010 Apr;48(3):167-72. doi: 10.1016/j.bjoms.2010.01.008. Epub 2010 Feb 12.
The British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (BJOMS) accepts many types of papers that include leading articles, reviews, full length articles, and short communications. Many of the latter are isolated case reports of rare or interesting pathology, or personal experience of a difficult or unexpected complication. Case reports are considered to have a relatively low value in the advancement of medical knowledge, and with increasing pressure for space in paper publications, many journals now limit them to online publication only. We evaluated all 142 short communications published in BJOMS during 2008/2009. Most (87%) were single case reports, and they covered virtually the whole remit of the specialty. There were also 14 formal studies that included two laboratory-based research projects; these were excluded from the analysis. We used established criteria to assess the possible educational value of each publication, and found that 61/128 papers (48%), while interesting and informative, probably added little to existing knowledge. The remaining papers described new or unreported cases, rare or unexpected outcomes, and adverse effects or complications of treatment. We discuss the possible implications of this study for readers of BJOMS and for the journal itself.
《英国口腔颌面外科杂志》（BJOMS）接受多种类型的论文，包括述评、综述、全文文章和简短通讯。后者中的许多是罕见或有趣病理学的孤立病例报告，或是关于困难或意外并发症的个人经验。病例报告在医学知识的推进方面被认为价值相对较低，并且随着纸质出版物篇幅压力的增加，许多期刊现在仅将其限制为在线发表。我们评估了2008/2009年期间在BJOMS上发表的所有142篇简短通讯。大多数（87%）是单病例报告，它们几乎涵盖了该专业的全部领域。还有14项正式研究，其中包括两个基于实验室的研究项目；这些被排除在分析之外。我们使用既定标准评估每篇出版物可能的教育价值，发现61/128篇论文（48%）虽然有趣且信息丰富，但可能对现有知识贡献不大。其余论文描述了新的或未报告的病例、罕见或意外的结果以及治疗的不良反应或并发症。我们讨论了这项研究对BJOMS读者以及该期刊本身可能产生的影响。
