What we write and what we cite: A comment on Mantzoukas (2009)

Abstract

Recently Mantzoukas (2009) undertook the very ambitious task of carefully reading and content analyzing the abstracts from all 2574 research articles published in the top 10 general nursing research journals from 2000 to 2006. The overall goal of his efforts was to identify potential barriers that limit the implementation of published research evidences in the practice context. His approach was to group articles using three categorization schemes: research methodology employed, type of evidence produced, and issue of study. In addition to addressing his stated objective, the aggregate-level analyses he provides are informative in their own right in that they describe the overall state of recent research activities in nursing. For example, he reports that only 7% of all articles published employed experimental methods. The data he tabulated have considerable value beyond that discussed in his article. For instance, the detailed tables he presents allow for calculation of correlations between journal impact factor scores and the characteristics of the research articles (according to his categorization schemes) published in these top nursing research journals. Scientific progress builds on a cohesive progression of empirical validation and extension from one study to the next, not simply a sort of ‘‘restarting’’ of the process with