Do journals contribute to the international publication of research in their field? : A bibliometric analysis of palliative care journal data

Walshe, Catherine and Ahmed, Faraz and Preston, Nancy (2020) Do journals contribute to the international publication of research in their field? : A bibliometric analysis of palliative care journal data. Palliative Medicine, 34 (4). pp. 541-546. ISSN 0269-2163

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Abstract

Background: Research is important internationally, impacting on health service provision and patient benefit. Journals play an important dissemination role, but there may be geographical bias, potentially affecting access to evidence. Aim: To understand if there is a relationship between the continent of journals and that of contributing authors. Design: Bibliometric analysis of journal citation report data (June 2018). Odds ratio of association of an author being from region, region of journal publication, publication model and the number of papers. Setting: Journals specialising in palliative care research, with an impact factor above the median impact factor for their most common indexing category. Results: Five journals; 3 published in Europe (Palliative Medicine, BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, BMC Palliative Care), 2 in North America (Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Journal of Palliative Medicine). Authors were from 30+ countries, but mostly North American (54.18%) or European (27.94%). Preliminary sensitivity tests show that the odds of an author being from a North American institution increase 16.4 times (p<0.01; 95%CI 12.9, 20.8) if the region of journal publication is North American. The odds of an author being from a European institution is 14.0 times (p<0.01; 95%CI 10.9, 17.9) higher if the region of journal publication is European. Conclusions: Publishers, editors and authors are concentrated in North America or Europe. North American authors are more present in North American journals, and European authors in European journals. This polarised approach, if replicated across readerships, may lead to research waste, duplication, and be suboptimal for healthcare development.