Comparison of Characteristics and Performances of Emergency Medicine Journals Published in Turkey: Where Do We Stand?

Abstract

Aims: To our knowledge, the performances of Emergency Medicine (EM) journals have not been investigated in terms of contribution to scientific literature. This study, Aimed to reveal the characteristics of EM journals and compare them in terms of their qualitative and quantitative features.
 Material and Methods: Conducteda hand-searching on the websites of 8 EM journals. Also categorized the articles published in these journals into subgroups in terms of relevance to trauma and disaster medicine, cardiovascular and cardiology emergencies, pulmonary emergencies, toxicology, COVID-19, surgical emergencies, internal medicine/gastroenterological emergencies, medical treatment and marker studies, resuscitation and airway management, infectious diseases, sedation and analgesia, imaging, neurological emergencies, forensic medicine, epidemiological and statistical studies, hospital and emergency department management, intensive care and mechanical ventilation, prehospital care, experimental studies, elective surgery and surgical complications. The journals were also compared according to their contribution to COVID-19 literature.
 Results: Among 8 journals, only Ulus Travma Acil Cerrahi Derg is indexed in SCI-E. The top 3 journals according to the number of published articles and citations were as follows: Ulus Travma (1792 articles, 7834 citations), EAJEM (784 articles, 822 citations) and TJEM (646 articles, 3146 citations). Mean citation per article was the highest in TJEM (n=4.87) followed by Ulus Travma Acil Cerrahi Derg (n=4.37) and EAJEM (n=1,05). Ulus Travma Acil Cerrahi Derg has the highest H index (n=25). 
 Conclusion: Academic development of EM is strongly linked to the performance of EM journals. The quality, amount and number of grant-supported research should increase in EM.