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Medical journals
rated
by importance to clinicians
|
TOP
20
JOURNALS,
by
number
of
highly
rated
papers
published
in
2000.
(Following
each
journal's
title
is
its
total
number
of
highly
rated
papers,
and
percentage
of
papers
that
were
highly
rated.)
-
Cochrane
Database
of
Systematic
Reviews*,
422
(95%)
-
Lancet
134
(3.5%)
-
Journal
of
Clinical
Oncology
445
(15.4%)
-
British
Medical
Journal,
93
(2.7%)
-
Circulation,
92
(6.8%)
-
Journal
of
Advanced
Nursing,
92
(15.1%)
-
Obstetrics
and
Gynecology,
88
(18.4%)
-
JAMA,
87
(4.5%)
-
New
England
Journal
of
Medicine,
83
(5.4%)
-
Archives
of
Internal
Medicine,
81
(13.1%)
-
Journal
of
the
American
College
of
Cardiology,
76
(10.7%)
-
Pediatrics,
76
(9.4%)
-
American
Journal
of
Cardiology,
72
(8.5%)
-
American
Journal
of
Obstetrics
and
Gynecology,
72
(10.2%)
-
Critical
Care
Medicine,
70
(7.2%)
-
Chest,
66
(7.5%)
-
Stroke,
59
(9.7%)
-
Neurology,
58
(4.3%)
-
American
Journal
of
Gastroenterology,
56
(2.8%)
-
Diabetes
Care,
55
(10.4%)
TOP
5
BY
CATEGORY
Internal
medicine
New
England
Journal
of
Medicine,
25
(16.9%)**
JAMA,
25
(16.9%)
Lancet,
22
(14.9%)
Cochrane
Database
Systematic
Reviews*,
11
(7.4%)
Annals
of
Internal
Medicine,
8
(5.4%)
General/family
practice
JAMA,
18
(12.5%)
BMJ,
(11.8%)
Lancet,17
(11.8%)
New
England
Journal
of
Medicine,
13
(9.0%)
Cochrane
Database
of
Systematic
Reviews*,
8
(5.6%)
General
practice
-
nursing
Qualitative
Health
Research,
10
(10.4%)
Cochrane
Database
of
Systematic
Review*,
8
(8.3%)
Pediatrics,
8
(8.3%)
JAMA,
7
(7.3%)
Lancet,
6
(6.3%)
Mental
health
Archives
of
General
Psychiatry,
12
(12.5%)
Cochrane
Database
of
Systematic
Reviews*,
6
(6.3%)
American
Journal
of
Psychiatry,
5
(5.2%)
British
Journal
of
Psychiatry,
5
(5.2%)
JAMA,
5
(5.2%)
*A
database
that
publishes systematic
quarterly
reviews of the literature.
For
purposes
of
this
study
it
was
considered
a
separate
journal.
**In
the
by-category
tables,
the
criterion
used
for
highly-rated
papers
was
stricter |
Posted
Sept.
5,
2004
Biomed
Central
and
World
Science
Staff
Doctors
can't
waste
time
reading
articles of little clinical
importance.
A study published today in BMC
Medicine rates 170 medical
journals
by
number of clinically useful articles that they
publish,
as
assessed
by
clinicians
based
on
the
importance
of
the
findings
and
soundness
of
the
methodology.
Ann McKibbon
of
McMaster University,
Canada,
found that "the majority of important articles for each discipline were sequestered in a small subset of journals." General broad interest titles such as Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, The Lancet and the BMJ featured in the list of the top five most useful titles.
"All lists of important journals included both North American and European titles," said McKibbon. She stresses that, "reading choices for clinicians cannot be based on national or discipline boundaries."
The researchers assessed over 60,000 articles from 170 journals for their clinical relevance and importance, to decide which articles should be highlighted in four healthcare review publications on internal medicine, general/family practice, nursing and mental health.
To be included the articles had to be about the healthcare of humans, have at least one clinically important outcome and contain appropriate statistical analyses. In addition to other selection criteria, the article had to be approved by an editorial group of practicing clinicians who confirmed that the findings were not already known or applied, and that the condition discussed was not a rare one.
3,059 original research articles and 1,073 review articles met the inclusion criteria in eight categories.
For the internal medicine review title, ACP Journal Club, four journals provided 56.5% of the content. 53.2% of the content in the mental health title, Evidence-Based Mental Health, was taken from a selection of only nine different journals.
The researchers hope that their findings will help clinicians to focus their full text reading. As journals and books are the main source of information for clinicians, it is important that they choose carefully which journals to subscribe to and read. "This decision should not be based on intuition alone," says McKibbon.
The
full
BMC
Medicine
paper
can
be
found
here.
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