Publication Rates of U.S. Schools and Colleges of Pharmacy: A 22-year History

Abstract

Scientific publications are the primary means by which new pharmaceutical information isdissemi- nated.Establishment of the publication output for Schools and Colleges of Pharmacy (SCOP) would be useful in helping to define a normative baseline for assessing trends in the pharmaceutical sciences. The objective of this study is to provide a 5 year update (1993-4997) on previouslypublished data (Pharma- cotherapy 1995; 15: 487-494). Taken together, these data provide a 22-year history of publication rates for U.S. SCOP. Data were obtained from the Science Citation Index (SCI) Corporate Index.Citations were counted without regard to publication type (letter, abstract, review, etc.). Duplicative publications were eliminated. Faculty counts of the 78 SCOP included in the study were obtained from the AACP Roster of Faculty and Professional Staff for the inclusive years. The main endpoints used were publications/SCOP/year and publications/faculty/year. Total publication counts for the 1990's have aver aged near 30 publications per SCOP per year. Approximately13 (17%) of SCOP account for half the publications during this period. Medical center basedSCOPappeartobemore productivethannon- medicai center based SCOP (p<.05) as do public vs. private SCOP (p<.05). More than half the SCOP continue to be minimally productive, producing less than 20 publications/year or 0.5 publications/faculty/year. We can conclude from our results that a small group of SCOP produce the majority of publications. More than half of SCOP are minimally productive. During the 1990's, yearly publication counts were similar, averaging close to 30 publications per SCOP per year.