High Impact Research in Digestive Diseases Is Becoming More Multi-National and Is Performed by Larger Teams: A Trend Analysis of Publications From 1997-2017

Abstract

Introduction: Multiple factors impact the ability to perform high quality research, including the availability of governmental funding and access to collaborators. Little is known about temporal trends in high impact publications in gastroenterology (GI). The aim is to assess temporal trends in the country of origin, size of the research team, and the likelihood of multinational collaboration in high impact GI research. Methods: We assessed original manuscripts from the three highest impact journals publishing original GI research, Gastroenterology, Gut, and the American Journal of Gastroenterology (AJG). We abstracted all original, full-length manuscripts from 1997, 2007, & 2017 for each journal. Letters to the editor, brief reports, reviews, and editorials were excluded. Data extracted included year of publication, journal, gender of the first and senior author, type of research (clinical vs. basic/translational), country of origin of first and senior author, total number of authors, and multinational collaboration (Y/N). Country of origin was classified by reported academic affiliation. A publication was multinational if any author listed a country affiliation different than that of the first author. Bivariate analyses were used to assess temporal trends using STATA. Results: A total of 2,128 articles were evaluated from 1997, 2007, and 2017 from Gut (584), Gastroenterology (884), and AJG (660). Approximately 2/3's were clinical, and 1/3 basic science. These journals published progressively fewer original manuscripts in the years assessed (888, 753, and 487 in 1997, 2007, and 2017, respectively, p<0.01). U.S. first authorship was stable, at about 33% for all years assessed. Of the 41 other countries with authorship, China and the Netherlands showed marked increases (China: 1% in 1997 increasing to 6% in 2017; the Netherlands: 3% in 1997 increasing to 7% in 2017), while the UK and Japan showed decreases (UK: 12% in 1997 decreasing to 6% in 2017; Japan: 8% in 1997 decreasing to 2% in 2017). There was a dramatic increase in the proportion of multinational papers (Figure). Similarly, the average number of authors per paper markedly increased from 6.0 in 1997 to 14.0 in 2017 (p<0.01). Conclusion: The character of high impact research in GI has changed in the last 20 years, with larger research teams and more multinational collaboration. American authorship has remained stable, while China and the Netherlands have increased productivity.1138 Figure 1 No Caption available.