The Archivesof Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at 100: A Century of Authorship

Abstract

ObjectiveTo describe the authors who have contributed articles to the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (APM&R) over the 100 years of its existence. DesignExtraction of relevant information from a sample of APM&R articles. SettingNot applicable. ParticipantsA total of 4933 authors contributing to 1787 articles. Main Outcome MeasuresNumber of authors and their gender, professional education, and country of residence. ResultsThe average number of authors per article increased from 1.1 in 1922 to 5.8 in 2017. The percentage of women authors grew from <5% to about 40%. In 1922 the majority of authors had an MD degree (85%); this declined to <30% by 2017, while the percentage of authors with a PhD grew from about 10% to about 30%. The percentage of contributors with a bachelor’s degree initially was about 1%, grew to 13%, and then declined again. While in APM&R’s early years, >90% of authors were from the United States, this percentage went into a steep decline beginning in about 1997 and now is around 35%. ConclusionsThe APM&R has seen major transformations in the nature of its contributors over a century of publication; many of these parallel the changes seen in other areas of health care and medical science, but some characteristics and shifts (especially in gender and level of training of its authors) appear unique.