Abstract
The current paradigm of science is to accumulate as much research data as possible, with less thought given to navigation or synthesis of the resulting mass, which hampers locating and using the research. The aim here was to describe the number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews (SRs) focusing on exercise, and their journal sources, that have been indexed in PubMed over time. Descriptive study conducted at Bond University, Australia. To find RCTs, a search was conducted in PubMed Clinical Queries, using the category "Therapy" and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) term "Exercise". To find SRs, a search was conducted in PubMed Clinical Queries, using the category "Therapy", the MeSH term "Exercise" and various methodological filters. Up until 2011, 9,354 RCTs about exercise were published in 1,250 journals and 1,262 SRs in 513 journals. Journals in the area of Sports Science published the greatest number of RCTs and journals categorized as belonging to "Other health professions" area (for example nursing or psychology) published the greatest number of SRs. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was the principal source for SRs, with 9.8% of the total, while the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise published 4.4% and 5.0% of the RCTs, respectively. The rapid growth and resulting scatter of RCTs and SRs on exercise presents challenges for locating and using this research. Solutions for this issue need to be considered.
Highlights
The current paradigm of science is to accumulate as much research data as possible,[1] with less thought given to navigation or synthesis of the resulting mass
systematic reviews (SRs), with 9.8% of the total, while the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise published 4.4% and 5.0% of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs), respectively
To answer questions about the effectiveness of interventions, the study designs that provide the highest levels of evidence are randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as primary research, and systematic reviews (SRs) for research synthesis.[4,5]
Summary
The current paradigm of science is to accumulate as much research data as possible,[1] with less thought given to navigation or synthesis of the resulting mass. The research community has become more critical of the quality of the information and there have been, and continue to be, many efforts to create methods to sift, evaluate and synthesize what has been published.[3]. To answer questions about the effectiveness of interventions, the study designs that provide the highest levels of evidence are randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as primary research, and systematic reviews (SRs) for research synthesis.[4,5] These two methods are important for decision-making and the number of published papers that have used these study designs is extremely high and increasing rapidly: as of May 2012, over 2.3 million RCTs and 127,000 SRs were indexed in Medline.[6]
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