Journal Articles Authored by Forensic Pathologists Board Certified during the Years 1985-2010

Abstract

Using a list provided by the American Board of Pathology, the names of all board certified forensic pathologists (BCFPs) were entered into an electronic database, along with the year in which each was certified. The names of BCFPs were searched in PubMed/Medline against authors of journal articles. We limited study to 836 BCFPs who were certified in the years 1985 through 2010. We documented that at least 33% of BCFPs had been published authors, and that up to 66% could have been published authors. The total number of articles found and verified by authors was 2128. The average number of articles was 7.7 per published BCFP. Eleven journals accounted for 52% of the articles, and the remaining 48% of articles were published in 415 other journals of diverse subject scope. BCFPs were the lead author or solo author on 986 (45%) of the articles. The majority of articles were case reports. Two hundred and sixty-one articles (12%) included a categorization of “Research Support” which means that at least one author was supported with funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other government sources such as the Public Health Service. For this group of 261 articles with research support, a BCFP was the lead author, last author, or solo author on 80 (31%) of them. Using extrapolations based on our data, we estimate that BCFPs since 1959 have collectively published as many as 164 journal articles per year and possibly more than 8000 articles over the past 50 years.