Trends in paediatric anaesthesia research publications and the impact of author sex, country of origin, topic, and external funding

BJA open Pub Date : 2025-04-15 DOI:10.1016/j.bjao.2025.100397

Andy Jeon , Aine Sommerfield , Britta S. von Ungern-Sternberg

{"title":"Trends in paediatric anaesthesia research publications and the impact of author sex, country of origin, topic, and external funding","authors":"Andy Jeon , Aine Sommerfield , Britta S. von Ungern-Sternberg","doi":"10.1016/j.bjao.2025.100397","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The current research landscape has become increasingly competitive with approximately 35% of submitted manuscripts accepted for publication by peer-review journals. It is known that studies with certain ‘favourable characteristics’ have an increased likelihood of acceptance for publication, such as prospective study design, multiple sites, and notable authors.</div><div>We aimed to identify the characteristics of original research publications in paediatric anaesthesiology and the impact of these characteristics on citations. The characteristics selected were study design, topic choice, region of origin, sex of authors (as defined by first name), and presence of external funding.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This bibliometric study reviewed all paediatric anaesthesiology original research articles published between 2012 and 2021 from five high-impact general anaesthesiology journals and from the subspecialty's top-ranking specialist journal, <em>Pediatric Anaesthesia</em>. Original research articles (<em>n</em>=1119) were independently assessed by two investigators for the following characteristics: primary research topic, study design, region of origin, number of sites involved, external funding status, sex of first and last author, and number of citations.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The principal findings in our study showed that highly cited articles in paediatric anaesthesiology were more likely to display publication characteristics such as prospective study design (66% <em>vs</em> 61%), multi-site (23%% <em>vs</em> 14%), and being externally funded (53% <em>vs</em> 46%).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Our report highlights the need to consider consumer priorities for research, to encourage collaboration across institutions, and to generally improve access to funding for paediatric anaesthesiology research. In addition, the findings underline the already recognised need to reach better sex equality in academic paediatric anaesthesiology publications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72418,"journal":{"name":"BJA open","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100397"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BJA open","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772609625000218","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

The current research landscape has become increasingly competitive with approximately 35% of submitted manuscripts accepted for publication by peer-review journals. It is known that studies with certain ‘favourable characteristics’ have an increased likelihood of acceptance for publication, such as prospective study design, multiple sites, and notable authors.

We aimed to identify the characteristics of original research publications in paediatric anaesthesiology and the impact of these characteristics on citations. The characteristics selected were study design, topic choice, region of origin, sex of authors (as defined by first name), and presence of external funding.

Methods

This bibliometric study reviewed all paediatric anaesthesiology original research articles published between 2012 and 2021 from five high-impact general anaesthesiology journals and from the subspecialty's top-ranking specialist journal, Pediatric Anaesthesia. Original research articles (n=1119) were independently assessed by two investigators for the following characteristics: primary research topic, study design, region of origin, number of sites involved, external funding status, sex of first and last author, and number of citations.

Results

The principal findings in our study showed that highly cited articles in paediatric anaesthesiology were more likely to display publication characteristics such as prospective study design (66% vs 61%), multi-site (23%% vs 14%), and being externally funded (53% vs 46%).

Conclusions

Our report highlights the need to consider consumer priorities for research, to encourage collaboration across institutions, and to generally improve access to funding for paediatric anaesthesiology research. In addition, the findings underline the already recognised need to reach better sex equality in academic paediatric anaesthesiology publications.

查看原文本刊更多论文

儿科麻醉研究出版物的趋势以及作者性别、原籍国、主题和外部资助的影响

背景目前的研究竞争日益激烈，约有 35% 的投稿被同行评审期刊接受发表。众所周知，具有某些 "有利特征 "的研究更有可能被接受发表，如前瞻性研究设计、多研究地点和知名作者。我们旨在确定儿科麻醉学原创研究论文的特征以及这些特征对引用率的影响。我们选择的特征包括研究设计、选题、原籍地区、作者性别（根据名字定义）以及是否有外部资助。方法这项文献计量学研究回顾了2012年至2021年期间发表的所有儿科麻醉学原创研究文章，这些文章来自五种影响力较大的普通麻醉学期刊以及该亚专业排名第一的专业期刊《儿科麻醉学》（Pediatric Anaesthesia）。原创性研究文章（n=1119）由两名研究人员根据以下特征进行独立评估：主要研究课题、研究设计、来源地区、涉及的研究机构数量、外部资助情况、第一作者和最后作者的性别以及引用次数。结果我们研究的主要结果显示，儿科麻醉学领域的高引用率文章更有可能显示出前瞻性研究设计（66% 对 61%）、多研究机构（23% 对 14%）和外部资助（53% 对 46%）等发表特征。此外，研究结果还强调了在儿科麻醉学术出版物中更好地实现性别平等的必要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊