Survey of Saudi Publications in the Highest Impact Medical Journals

Jamjoom HZ 1, Jamjoom  AM 2, Jamjoom AB 3

1Hasan Z Jamjoom, Medical Student, FRCS (SN) University of Birmingham, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, Edgbaston Birmingham, UK B15, TT, 2Ammer M Jamjoom, Medical Student, University of Hull and York Medical School, Hertford Building, Hull, UK HU6 7RX, 3Abdulhakim B Jamjoom, Section of Neurosurgery, King Khalid National Guards Hospital, Saudi Arabia.

Address for Correspondence: Professor Abdulhakim Jamjoom FRCS (SN), Chairman, Department of Surgery King Khalid National Guards Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, E- mail:jamjoomab@gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives: The four Highest Impact Medical Journals (HIMJs) and their 2015 impact factors (IF)s are: New England Journal of Medicine (55.8), Lancet (45.2), Journal of the American Medical association (35.3) and British Medical Journal (17.5). The purpose of this study is to evaluate publications in HIMJs that originated from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and to assess the influence of time on their characteristics. Methods: Using the key word Saudi Arabia an advanced online search was carried out in the web sites of the four HIMJs in August 2015. The inclusion criteria were publications in HIMJs during 1985-2015 in which at least one KSA researcher was included in the authorship. The influence of time on the publications characteristics was assessed by comparing articles published in the recent 4 years with those published in the other 27 years based on a number of parameters and using a chi-squared test. Results: 30 KSA articles that were published in the HIMJs during 1985-2015. The median IF was 45.2.The annual rates for KSA publication in HIMJs had increased eight folds in the recent 4 years compared to the other 27 years (4/year versus 0.5/year). Furthermore, publications in recent years had significantly more major KSA contribution and more were Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) -related. However, the journal IF, authors number, first author affiliation, international collaboration, research type and citation numbers were not found to be influenced by the timing of publication. Conclusions: There has been an encouraging recent upsurge of KSA publications in HIMJs. The increasing ability of KSA researchers to publish articles in HIMJs reflects scientific evolution. However, most of the research of late had been MERS-related. The paucity of pioneering research in other topics and in the undertaking of trials is indicative of shortage of innovative ideas. KSA needs to develop its own elite research minds.

Key words: Highest Impact Medical Journals, Saudi Publications, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome

Manuscript received: 02nd Dec 2015, Reviewed: 14th Dec 2015
Author Corrected: 25th Dec 2015, Accepted for Publication: 04th Jan 2016

Introduction

Journal impact factor (IF) is considered a popular measurement that is indicative of the scientific creditability of publication. The “Highest Impact Medical Journals” (HIMJs) are four well established clinical journals with IFs that are consistently higher than other medical journals [1]. These journals and their 2105 If care as follows: New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM IF=55.8), Lancet (IF=45.2), Journal of the American Medical association (JAMA IF=35.3) and the British Medical Journal (BMJ IF=17.5) [2]. Over the last 30 years researchers from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) had contributed significantly to the literature [3, 4]. Up-to-date there has been no reports that examined the characteristics of Saudi publications in HIMJs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate KSA articles published in HIMJs and to assess the influence of time on the features of these publications.

Methods

An advanced online search was carried out in the web sites of the four HIMJs using the key word “Saudi Arabia” in August 2015. The inclusion criteria were articles published in HIMJs during 1985-2015 in which at least one KSA researcher was included in the authorship. Studies with participation by KSA investigators but without their inclusion in the authorship were excluded. The KSA contribution was considered “major” when the first author or 50% or more of authors were from KSA. It was judged “minor” when they were represented by less than 50% of authorship. Citation numbers were obtained from “Google Scholar”. The influence of time on the publications’ characteristics was assessed by comparing articles that were published inthe“recent”4 years (2012-2015) with those published over the “other” 27 years (1985-2011). Using the median as a cut-off point, publications during the two periods were compared using the following parameters: journal IF, first author from KSA, number of authors, international collaboration, extent of KSA contribution, research topic, research type and citation numbers. For statistical analysis a chi-squared test was calculated using Social Sciences Statistics [5] and significance was determined when P was less than 0.05.

Results

Our search identified 30 KSA articles that were published in the four HIMJs during the period 1985-2015 (Appendix 1). The annual publication rate over the “recent” years was 4/year compared to a rate of 0.5/year over the “other” years. The publishing journals and number of articles were: NEJM 13(43.3%), Lancet 4(13.3%), Lancet Infectious Diseases (IF=22.4) 3(10%), Lancet Respiratory Medicine (IF=9.6) 1(3.3%), Lancet Oncology (IF=24.7) 1(3.3%), JAMA 4(13.3%) and BMJ 4 (13.3%). The journals IF ranged from 55.8 to 9.6 (median 45.2). KSA researchers’ contribution to authorship was considered “major” in 15(50%) article sand “minor” in the remaining 15(50%) articles. In 2 (6.7%) of the BMJ articles, KSA was represented by one author who had an adjunct faculty status with a Saudi university. The overall number of authors per article ranged from 2 to 40 (median 12) and the number of KSA authors per article ranged from 1 to 12 (median 2). A Saudi researcher was the first author in 11(36.7%) articles while the percentage of KSA representation in the overall authorship of the 30 articles ranged from 4% to 100% (median 18%). International collaboration was documented in 23(76.7%) articles. The research topic was related to Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 11(36.7%) articles. The research type was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in 8(26.7%) articles with the Saudi contribution being “major” in only 2(6.7%) of them. The citation numbers ranged from 773 to 2 (median 100). The correlation between the timing of publication in relation to a number of parameters is summarized in Table 1

Table-1

Correlation between the timing of publication in the HIMJs and a number of parameters

Feature

Recent Articles(2012-2015)

 

 

 

Other Articles (1985-2011)

P Value

Journals IF

< 45.2≥ 45.2

6(20%) 10(33.3%)

7(23.3%)7(23.3%)

P=0.491(NS)

First Author from KSA:

Yes No

7(23.3%) 9(30%)

 

4(13.3%)10(33.3%)

P=0.391(NS)

Number of Authors

 

<12≥12

5(16.7%) 11(36.7%)

 

8(26.7%) 6(20%)

P= 0.153(NS)

International Collaboration

No

Yes, No

12(40%) 4(13.3%)

11(36.7%)3(10%)

P= 0.818(NS)

KSA Contribution

 

 

 

Minor

Major, Minor

11(36.7%) 5(16.7%)

4(13.3%)10(33.3%)

P=0.028(Sig)

Research Topic

 

Others

MERS Other topics

11(36.7%) 5(16.7%)

 

0(0%) 14(46.7%)

P<0.001(Sig)

Research Type

 

RCTs Other types

3(10%) 13(43.3%)

5(16.7%) 9(30%)

P=0.295(NS)

Citation Numbers

 

<100≥100

10(33.3%)6(20%)

5(16.7%) 9(30%)

P=0.143(NS)

Abbreviations KSA: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, HIMJs: Highest Impact Medical Journals, NS: not significant, Sig: Significant, MERS: Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome,RCTs : Randomized Controlled Trials

Discussion

It is recognized that publishing in HIMJs is difficult and extremely competitive. HIMJs publications are more likely to have higher level of evidence (LOE) [1], produce a bigger impact on medical practice and give a boost to the researchers’ career prospect. Highly cited researchers are recognized by being listed in the “Institute for Science Information”. The latter has been an important ingredient for university ranking, a matter which attracted controversy in recent years [6]. KSA research activity had increased during 2008-2012 but the trend had been to publish in local journals with low IF [4]. In a review of 1562 KSA papers that were published over a 5 year period Lat if [4] reported that only 0.26% were published in journals with IF ≥ 7. Thirty KSA publications in HIMJs over three decades is a relatively small number for a country that is ranked 16th among the nations of the world in biomedical research with reference to population size [3]. Our findings showed that the annual rates for KSA publications in HIMJs had increased eight folds in the last 4 year period. Such trend is encouraging and reflects progress in the quality of research in KSA. Our results also revealed that some of the characteristics of KSA publications in HIMJs had been influenced by time. We observed that articles published over the last 4 years compared to those published during the other 26 years had significantly more “major” KSA contribution (P=0.028) and more of them were MERS-related (P<0.001). The dominance of MERS-related research in recent years is not surprising as KSA is where MERS was originally described. Furthermore, the disease is new, serious and posed concern of a potential epidemic. Our study also demonstrated a number of characteristics of KSA publications in HIMJs which were not significantly influenced by the timing of publication. These include: journal IF≥ 45.2, number of authors per article <12, first author being from KSA, presence of international collaboration, research type being an RCT and citation numbers ≥100.

The study may have limitations. It was dependent on the accuracy of the journal’s web site search engines hence it is possible that a few articles may have been missed. A small number of articles may have been accepted for publications but not published yet. We included articles that were published in the Lancet Specialty Journals as they are subjected to a similar editorial scrutiny as the main journal even though they have a lower IF. The exact role of KSA researchers in articles that had international collaboration was not investigated.

Conclusions

In conclusion, 30 Saudi publications in HIMJs over the last three decades is a relatively small number. There has been an increase in KSA publications in HIMJs in recent years. Most of the research of late had been MERS-related. The paucity of pioneering research in other topics and in the undertaking of trials is indicative of shortage of innovative ideas. KSA needs to develop its own elite research minds. This may be achieved by promoting “research culture” and establishment of academic departments staffed by Saudi PhD-holders and the development of PhD programs that are linked to strong international universities.

Disclosure: The authors declare that there is no conflicting interest and that the study has not been supported or funded by a drug company or any organization. The abstract of this article has been accepted for publication in the Saudi Medical Journal.

Funding: Nil, Conflict of interest: None initiated
Permission from IRB: Yes

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How to cite this article?

Jamjoom HZ, Jamjoom AM, Jamjoom AB. Survey of Saudi Publications in the Highest Impact Medical Journals. Int J Med Res Rev 2016;4(1): 113-117. doi: 10.17511/ijmrr.2016.i01.017.