Abstract
BackgroundThe contents of pharmaceutical industry sponsored supplements to medical journals are perceived to be less credible than the contents of their parent journals. It is unknown if their contents are cited as often. The objective of this study was to quantify the citability of original research and reviews contained in supplements and compare it with that for the parent journal.Methodology/Principal FindingsThis was a cohort study of 446 articles published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (JCP) and its supplements for calendar years 2000 and 2005. The total citation counts for each article up to October 5, 2009 were retrieved from the ISI Web of Science database. The main outcome measure was the number of citations received by an article since publication. Regular journal articles included 114 from calendar year 2000 and 190 from 2005. Articles from supplements included 90 from 2000 and 52 from 2005. The median citation counts for the 3 years post-publication were 10 (interquartile range [IQR], 4–20), 14 (IQR, 8–20), 13.5 (IQR, 8–23), and 13.5 (IQR, 8–20), for the 2000 parent journal, 2000 supplements, 2005 parent journal, and 2005 supplements, respectively. Citation counts were higher for the articles in the supplements than the parent journal for the cohorts from 2000 (p = .02), and no different for the year 2005 cohorts (p = .88). The 2005 parent journal cohort had higher citation counts than the 2000 cohort (p = .007), in contrast to the supplements where citation counts remained the same (p = .94).Conclusions/SignificanceArticles published in JCP supplements are robustly cited and thus can be influential in guiding clinical and research practice, as well as shaping critical thinking. Because they are printed under the sponsorship of commercial interests, they may be perceived as less than objective. A reasonable step to help improve this perception would be to ensure that supplements are peer-reviewed in the same way as regular articles in the parent journal.
Highlights
Supplements to biomedical journals can be used as a forum to highlight a particular disease state or intervention
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (JCP) is the official publication of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology [28] and is provided to its members as a benefit; the only regular content that is directly attributable to activities of this society is a column, the ‘‘ASCP Corner.’’ According to JCP’s information for media planners [29], the journal has 35,613 subscribers and is the 3rd most cited psychiatric journal in the world with a journal impact factor of 5.533 as of December 2008, and ranks highest in the mean total number of office- and hospital-based issue readers of psychiatric journals according to a June 2008 FocusH Readership Study
Reprints of individual articles and supplements can be widely distributed as part of marketing and informational campaigns conducted by the pharmaceutical industry
Summary
Supplements to biomedical journals can be used as a forum to highlight a particular disease state or intervention. The contents of pharmaceutical industry sponsored supplements to medical journals are perceived to be less credible than the contents of their parent journals. It is unknown if their contents are cited as often. The objective of this study was to quantify the citability of original research and reviews contained in supplements and compare it with that for the parent journal
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