Department of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095-7039, USA.
J Neurosurg. 2011 Dec;115(6):1262-72. doi: 10.3171/2011.8.JNS11857. Epub 2011 Aug 26.
While research is important for the survival, growth, and expansion of neurosurgery, little work has been done to quantify the status and trends of neurosurgical publications. The purpose of this bibliometric study was to quantitatively analyze trends in neurosurgical publications, including changes in worldwide productivity, study methodology, subspecialty topic, and funding.
This was a retrospective bibliometric study using MEDLINE to record all publications between 1996 and 2009 by first authors affiliated with neurosurgical departments. Country of origin, MEDLINE-defined methodology, study topic, and funding sources (for US articles) were recorded. Linear regression was used to derive growth rates.
Total articles numbered 53,425 during the study period, with leading global contributors including the US with 16,943 articles (31.7%) and Japan with 10,802 articles (20.2%). Countries demonstrating rapid growth in productivity included China (121.9 ± 9.98%/year, p < 0.001), South Korea (50.5 ± 4.7%/year, p < 0.001), India (19.4 ± 1.8%/year, p < 0.001), and Turkey (25.3 ± 2.8%/year, p < 0.001). While general research articles, case reports, and review articles have shown steady growth since 1996, clinical trials and randomized controlled trials have declined to 2004 levels. The greatest overall subspecialty growth was seen in spine surgery. Regarding funding, relative contribution of National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded publications decreased from 30.2% (290 of 959) to 22.5% (356 of 1229) between 1996 and 2009.
Neurosurgical publications demonstrate continued increases in productivity as well as in global expansion, although US contributions remain dominant. Two challenges that the neurosurgical community is facing include the preponderance of case reports and review articles and the relative decline in NIH funding for US neurosurgical publications, as productivity has outpaced government financial support.
尽管研究对神经外科学的生存、发展和扩张至关重要，但很少有人致力于量化神经外科学出版物的现状和趋势。本研究旨在对神经外科学出版物进行定量分析，包括世界范围内的生产力变化、研究方法、亚专科主题和资金来源。
这是一项回顾性的文献计量学研究，使用 MEDLINE 记录了 1996 年至 2009 年期间，以神经外科部门为第一作者的所有出版物。记录了原始国、MEDLINE 定义的方法、研究主题和资金来源（美国文章）。使用线性回归得出增长率。
研究期间共发表文章 53425 篇，主要的全球贡献者包括美国 16943 篇（31.7%）和日本 10802 篇（20.2%）。生产力增长迅速的国家包括中国（121.9±9.98%/年，p<0.001）、韩国（50.5±4.7%/年，p<0.001）、印度（19.4±1.8%/年，p<0.001）和土耳其（25.3±2.8%/年，p<0.001）。虽然自 1996 年以来，一般研究文章、病例报告和综述文章的数量稳步增长，但临床试验和随机对照试验的数量已降至 2004 年的水平。脊柱外科是总体亚专科增长最大的领域。关于资金，美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）资助的出版物的相对贡献从 1996 年的 30.2%（959 篇中的 290 篇）降至 2009 年的 22.5%（1229 篇中的 356 篇）。
神经外科学出版物的生产力和全球影响力持续增长，尽管美国的贡献仍然占主导地位。神经外科学领域面临的两个挑战包括病例报告和综述文章的优势地位以及 NIH 对美国神经外科学出版物的资金相对减少，因为生产力的增长超过了政府的财政支持。
