Trends in American and Canadian Contribution to the Otolaryngology Literature

Abstract

Objectives:

Assess the 2008-2012 American and Canadian contribution to the world otolaryngology literature.

Methods:

All articles published from January 2008 to December 2012 in 8 otolaryngology journals were reviewed. Book reviews, letters, correspondence, and meeting abstracts were excluded. Nationality, author numbers, and study types were extracted. Nationality of the article was defined by the publishing department’s country of origin. Articles were categorized into primary clinical research, primary basic science research, secondary research such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and other articles that did not fit the aforementioned classifications. Articles originating from the United States, Canada, and the rest of the world were statistically compared using Mantel-Haenszel Common Odds Ratio Estimate, Pearsons chi-squared, and Fisher exact tests.

Results:

A total of 3635 articles published in the journals surveyed were analyzed. Canadian-authored papers decreased from 12.8% in 2008-2009 to 10.2% in 2011-2012, whereas American-authored papers increased from 27.9% in 2008-2009 to 30.1% in 2011-2012. These changes were statistically significant (P = .031). Multiauthorship (≥5 authors) increased in Canadian papers (P = .015), whereas this trend had not been observed in American papers (P = .566). Study types from the United States and Canada had not significantly changed from 2008-2009 to 2011-2012 (P = .137).

Conclusions:

There were significant changes in otolaryngology publishing trends in the United States and Canada. Increase in multiauthorship in Canadian-authored papers possibly suggests increased collaboration with multi-disciplines and decreased investigator productivity.