Minnerup Jens, Wersching Heike, Diederich Kai, Schilling Matthias, Ringelstein Erich Bernd, Wellmann Jürgen, Schäbitz Wolf-Rüdiger
Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2010 Sep;30(9):1619-24. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.2010.74. Epub 2010 Jun 2.
Omitting quality characteristics in animal stroke studies leads to an overestimation of the efficacy of candidate stroke drugs. Nevertheless, the methodological quality of preclinical stroke studies is often limited. As publishing of research results in high-impact journals is an important motivation for scientists, we analyzed whether study quality predicts high-impact publishing. Animal stroke studies of neuroprotective drugs that were recently investigated in clinical phase II/III trials were included in the analysis. Data on the study quality and other important study characteristics were extracted. Regression analyses were performed to estimate the effect of the study characteristics on the journal's impact factor. We identified 117 studies that investigated 12 different drugs. Study quality was not associated with the impact factor before (beta=-0.2, P=0.50) and after adjustment for other study characteristics (beta=-0.3, P=0.19). There was a significant association of the number of investigated mechanisms and applied techniques with the impact factor (beta=1.4, P<0.0001). Our findings show that the quality of animal experimental stroke studies is not relevant for publishing in high-impact journals. The major predictor for accepting preclinical stroke studies in high-impact journals is the complexity of the investigation into a stroke drug's mode of action.
在动物中风研究中忽略质量特征会导致对候选中风药物疗效的高估。然而，临床前中风研究的方法学质量往往有限。由于在高影响力期刊上发表研究成果是科学家的一项重要动力，我们分析了研究质量是否能预测高影响力发表。分析纳入了近期在临床II/III期试验中研究的神经保护药物的动物中风研究。提取了关于研究质量和其他重要研究特征的数据。进行回归分析以估计研究特征对期刊影响因子的影响。我们确定了117项研究，这些研究调查了12种不同的药物。在调整其他研究特征之前（β=-0.2，P=0.50）和之后（β=-0.3，P=0.19），研究质量与影响因子均无关联。所研究的机制数量和应用技术与影响因子存在显著关联（β=1.4，P<0.0001）。我们的研究结果表明，动物实验性中风研究的质量与在高影响力期刊上发表无关。高影响力期刊接受临床前中风研究的主要预测因素是对中风药物作用模式研究的复杂性。
