Who writes what? The academic age patterns of review genres in biomedicine

Abstract

The recent rise in attempts to standardize biomedical review articles promises to counteract some of the unintended consequences of today's evaluative culture in academia. Insights about the users and early adopters of standardizations can be valuable in steering attempts for further dissemination and implementation of standards. This study uses bibliometric data to track and characterize the users of the PRISMA reporting standard for systematic reviews in terms of their academic age. It shows how especially early career researchers are prominent users of PRISMA and are among the first users of its most recent versions. It argues that the integration of guidelines into educational frameworks can leverage the dissemination of standards, especially if those only slowly become mandatory publishing requirements.