Otorhinolaryngology publication from Chinese authors: a 11-year survey of the literature

Abstract

Objective: Scientific publication is the reflection of the capability of not only an individual scholar, but also a group, even a country. Over the past few decades, Chinese researchers have made great progress in medical scientific field. However, the status about the quantity and quality of the publications in otorhinolaryngology have not been reported. The aim of this study was to compare the output by Chinese authors from three regions of China: Mainland China (MC), Taiwan (TW) and Hong Kong (HK).

Methods: Literature was retrieved from the 43 otorhinolaryngology journals based on the subject category ‘otorhinolaryngology’ of the Science Citation Index Expanded (2015) from Web of Science Core Collection. The first authors of these articles were limited in three regions of China: MC, TW and HK from 2006 to 2016 by using the data mining software Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA). Evaluation criteria are based on total number of articles, impact factors (IFs), citations, articles published in high-impact journals and funding support.

Result: A total of 59,832 articles were published worldwide in 43 otorhinolaryngology related journals from 2006 to 2016. Publications from MC was rapidly increasing and the total number contributed the most articles of the China (1931/3362, 57.44%), followed by TW (1220/3362, 36.29%) and HK (211/3362, 6.28%). The quantity of annual publications from MC has exceeded that of TW since 2010. MC was in the first place for cumulative IFs, but the last place for average IF. For total and average citations, MC was in the same situation of IF. Acta Otolaryngol was the most popular journal to choose in MC, and for TW and HK was Head & Neck.

Conclusions: The total number of otorhinolaryngology articles in China increased markedly from 2006 to 2016, especially for MC. Despite the rapid growth in the number of articles from MC, the quality was not that satisfactory.

Chinese abstract

目的：科学出版物不仅反映了个人学者的能力, 还反映了一个群体、甚至一个国家的能力。近几十年来, 中国研究人员在医学科学领域取得了长足的进步。然而, 耳鼻咽喉科出版物的数量和质量状况尚未有报道。本研究的目的是比较中国大陆（MC）、台湾（TW）和香港（HK）三个地区的中国作者的发表量。

方法：根据”科学引文索引补充”（2015年）”科学核心集”的主题类别”耳鼻咽喉科学”, 从43种耳鼻咽喉科杂志中检索文献。在2006年至2016年期间, 使用Thomson数据分析仪（TDA）进行了数据挖掘, 将这些文章的第一作者局限在中国的三个地区（MC, TW和HK）。评估标准基于文章总数、影响因子（IF）、被引用量、在高影响力期刊上发表的文章和资金支持。

结果：2006年至2016年共有59832篇文章发表在43个耳鼻喉科学杂志。来自大陆的出版物迅速增加, 中国文献总数最高（1931/3362, 占57.44％）, 其次是T台湾（1220/3362, 36.29％）, 第三是香港（211/3362, 6.28％）。自2010年以来, 大陆的年度出版物数量已经超过台湾。大陆的累计影响因子占首位, 但是平均影响因子是最末。对于总体引用和平均引用, 大陆与其影响因子的情况相同。 Acta Otolaryngol是大陆最受欢迎的杂志, 而Head and Neck杂志在台湾和香港受欢迎。

结论：2006年至2016年, 中国耳鼻咽喉科杂志总数明显增加, 特别是在中国大陆。尽管大陆的文章数量快速增长, 但质量并不理想。

137385：科学出版反映了不仅是个人学者, 还有一个群体, 甚至一个

Keywords:

• Otorhinolaryngology
• Chinese authors
• science citation index expanded (SCIE)
• impact factor (IF)
• citations
• funding support

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.