Abstract
PurposeThis bibliometric analysis maps the landscape of knowledge syntheses in medical education. It provides scholars with a roadmap for understanding where the field has been and where it might go in the future, thereby informing research and educational practice. In particular, this analysis details the venues in which knowledge syntheses are published, the types of syntheses conducted, citation rates they produce, and altmetric attention they garner.MethodIn 2020, the authors conducted a bibliometric analysis of knowledge syntheses published in 14 core medical education journals from 1999 to 2019. To characterize the studies, metadata were extracted from PubMed, Web of Science, Altmetrics Explorer, and Unpaywall.ResultsThe authors analyzed 963 knowledge syntheses representing 3.1% of the total articles published (n = 30,597). On average, 45.9 knowledge syntheses were published annually (SD = 35.85, median = 33), and there was an overall 2620% increase in the number of knowledge syntheses published from 1999 to 2019. The journals each published, on average, a total of 68.8 knowledge syntheses (SD = 67.2, median = 41) with Medical Education publishing the most (n = 189; 19%). Twenty-one types of knowledge synthesis were identified, the most prevalent being systematic reviews (n = 341; 35.4%) and scoping reviews (n = 88; 9.1%). Knowledge syntheses were cited an average of 53.80 times (SD = 107.12, median = 19) and received a mean Altmetric Attention Score of 14.12 (SD = 37.59, median = 6).ConclusionsThere has been considerable growth in knowledge syntheses in medical education over the past 20 years, contributing to medical education’s evidence base. Beyond this increase in volume, researchers have introduced methodological diversity in these publications, and the community has taken to social media to share knowledge syntheses. Implications for the field, including the impact of synthesis types and their relationship to knowledge translation, are discussed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40037-020-00626-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
There is a need to move from opinion-based education to evidence-based education Harden (2000) [1].As the 20th century came to a close, Harden challenged the field of medical education to developKnowledge syntheses in medical education: A bibliometric analysis 79its evidence base in an effort to empower medical educators to act as evidence-informed teachers [1]
There has been considerable growth in knowledge syntheses in medical education over the past 20 years, contributing to medical education’s evidence base
Over the past two decades, there has been considerable growth in knowledge syntheses in medical education, including an increased variety of synthesis types and the emergence of scoping reviews as an important approach for synthesizing the medical education literature
Summary
There is a need to move from opinion-based education to evidence-based education Harden (2000) [1].As the 20th century came to a close, Harden challenged the field of medical education to developKnowledge syntheses in medical education: A bibliometric analysis 79its evidence base in an effort to empower medical educators to act as evidence-informed teachers [1]. More than two decades later, medical education has seen a steady rise in knowledge syntheses; yet, there has been limited effort to understand this growth and map the landscape of these knowledge syntheses in medical education. This lack of understanding is problematic because without knowing where the field has been it is difficult to chart our future to ensure a robust evidence base moving forward. Systematic reviews are often a gateway for medical students starting their own lines of research [5] and are essential for graduate students entering the field To this end, BEME reports a 50% increase in the number of reviews undertaken by authors over a recent five-year period [9]
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