Medicine Research Articles Research Articles

Authorial Presence in English Research Articles in Medicine Written by American and Indonesian Authors

The present research attempts to investigate authorial presence in English research articles in medicine written by American and Indonesian authors. In doing so, the study first attempts to describe first-person pronouns used to express authorial presence. Secondly, the research aims to examine the discourse functions of first-person pronouns in the research articles. Data for the present research were taken from 20 English research articles in medicine, consisting of 10 articles published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (Wiley) and 10 in Medical Journal of Indonesia. A corpus of 81,657 words was analyzed with the help of a concordance program, WordSmith Tools 5.0 (Scott, 2008), to identify the occurrences of first-person pronouns used in research articles. A qualitative analysis was also conducted to examine the discourse functions of each first-person pronoun using the classification proposed by Filimonova (2005) and Tang and John (1999). Hopefully, the present research findings could indicate the intention of authorial presence in academic writing, specifically in medical research articles. The findings also contribute to investigating the difference between American and Indonesian authors in presenting themselves in academic writing.

Syntactic structures of Turkish research article titles in medicine and engineering

The title is of vital importance to research articles as it summarizes the content in several words and grabs the attention of readers. When selecting articles pertinent to their research, the prevalence of online publication leads readers to use online search engines like Google Scholar, which generally displays the first few words of a title, making the title highly important. This study aimed to investigate some key features, such as length, style, syntactic structure and punctuation marks of titles in Turkish research articles in medicine and engineering. To this end, we selected 1,200 titles in four leading journals publishing research articles in these disciplines. As a tool to collect data, document analysis was used in the study to analyze such features of titles and in analyzing the data, descriptive analysis technique was used. The study revealed that both medicine and engineering have almost the equivalent title length. Titles in both disciplines are dominated by single-unit ones and both single-unit and compound titles are predominated by nominal group construction. The results also suggested some disciplinary differences: Compound titles were more common in medicine than in engineering. Medical titles appear to have used more varied syntactic structures in forming titles. Moreover, medical titles have shown a high degree of complexity in terms of punctuation usage. The differences might be attributed to disciplinary practices set out in these two fields. The results of the present study will provide novice writers with ample opportunity to construct their titles as best they can while maintaining their effort to build and enhance their academic writing skills.

Inherited Metabolic Diseases from Past to Present: A Bibliometric Analysis (1968-2023).

Bibliometric studies on inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs) do not exist in the literature. Therefore, our research aims to conduct a bibliometric study to determine the current status, trending topics, and missing points of publications on IMDs. Between 1968 and 2023, we conducted a literature search with the keyword "inherited metabolic disease" in the SCOPUS database. We included research articles in medicine written in English and published in the final section. We created our data pool using VOSviewer, SciMAT, and Rstudio software programs for the bibliometric parameters of the articles that met the inclusion criteria. We performed a bibliometric analysis of the data with the R package "bibliometrix" and BibExcel programs. We included 2702 research articles published on IMDs. The top three countries that have written the most articles in this field are the USA (n = 501), the United Kingdom (n = 182), and China (n = 172). The most preferred keywords by the authors were: newborn screening (n = 54), mutation (n = 43), phenylketonuria (n = 42), children (n = 35), genetics (n = 34), and maple syrup urine disease (n = 32). Trending topics were osteoporosis, computed tomography, bone marrow transplantation in the early years of the study, chronic kidney disease, urea cycle disorders, next-generation sequencing, newborn screening, and familial hypercholesterolemia in the final years of the study. This study provides clinicians with a new perspective, showing that molecular and genetic studies of inherited metabolic diseases will play an essential role in diagnosis and treatment in the future.

An Update: NIH Research Funding for Palliative Medicine, 2011-2015.

The evidence base to support palliative care clinical practice is inadequate and opportunities to improve the palliative care evidence base remain despite the field's rapid growth. To examine current NIH funding of palliative medicine research, changes since our 2013 report, and trends since our 2008 report. We sought to identify NIH funding of palliative medicine from 2011 to 2015 in two stages: (I) we searched the NIH grants database "RePorter" for grants with key words "palliative care," "end-of-life care," "hospice," and "end of life" and (II) we identified palliative care researchers likely to have secured NIH funding using three strategies. We abstracted (1) the first and last authors' names from original investigations published in major palliative medicine journals from 2013 to 2015; (2) these names from a PubMed-generated list of original articles published in major medicine, nursing, and subspecialty journals using the above key words; and (3) palliative medicine journal editorial board members and key members of palliative medicine initiatives. We crossmatched the pooled names against NIH grants funded from 2011 to 2015. The author and NIH RePorter search identified 854 and 419 grants, respectively. The 461 grants categorized as relevant to palliative medicine represented 334 unique PIs. Compared to 2006-2010, the number of NIH-funded junior career development awards nearly doubled (6.1%-10%), articles published in nonpalliative care specialty journals tripled (13%-37%), published palliative care researchers increased by 2.5-fold (839-2120), and NIH-funded original palliative medicine research articles doubled (21%-39%). Despite the challenging NIH funding climate, NIH funding to palliative care remained stable. The increase in early stage career development funding, palliative care investigators, and palliative medicine research published in nonpalliative medicine journals reflects important advances to address the workforce and evidence gaps. Further support for palliative care research is still needed.

Authorial Presence in French and English: “Pronoun + Verb” Patterns in Biology and Medicine Research Articles

Certain subjective qualities of scientific research articles are exposed when authors refer to themselves through various means including pronoun use. Drawing upon the online bilingual “Scientext” corpus, we compare personal pronoun and syntactically linked verb constructions within 180 published articles in English and French in the fields of medicine and biology. This study found that overall pronoun frequency was significantly higher (χ2 = 69.45, df = 1, p < 0.001) in English (22.6 per 10,000) than in French (14 per 10,000) and that the French on [one] (23.8%) was significantly more frequent (χ2 = 163.35, df = 1, p < 0.001) than the English pronoun “one” (3.8%). Furthermore, while most French verbs were limited to the present and passe compose, English conjugation was distributed mainly between the simple past, the simple present, and the present perfect. Both the lexis and the conjugation vary with the progression of the research article and the author roles of researcher, writer, arguer, and evaluator. This paper contributes to the discussion of the representation of objectivity in scientific discourse.

Structure of Lexical Bundles in Introduction Section of Medical Research Articles

Lexical bundles defined as recurrent sequences of words are considered as important building blocks of written and spoken academic discourse. This study investigated the use of four-word lexical bundles in introduction section of published research articles in medicine. For identifying lexical bundles, a number of computer softwares such as Antconc 3.2.3, and WordSmith Tools 5 were used. The results of the study showed that 161 lexical bundles differ structurally and most of the writers of medical research articles rely on noun phrases and phrasal bundles for establishing their written academic discourse.

Titles in Veterinary Medicine research articles

Titles are the first point of contact between authors and readers. They call for attention and provide concise and exhaustive information on the research. State of the art in the medical field shows that titles have a mean word count ranging from 15.48 to 15.85 and that they can be arranged into four different formats: nominal, full-sentence, compound and question. Veterinary Medicine has not been object of study and is an underrepresented field in genre analytical surveys. This research wants to fill in part this gap by discussing a pilot survey on veterinary research article titles. To this aim, six issues from three veterinary journals were scanned and the samples labelled "original research article" were examined. The corpus, consisting of 74 specimens, was analysed to elicit the mean word count and the format. Results reveal a mean length of 14.06 words per title and the prevalence of nominal and compound titles. These data are shared to offer a preliminary framework that can serve to inform on the practices adopted by veterinary researchers to communicate findings.

An update: NIH research funding for palliative medicine 2006 to 2010.

Palliative care clinical and educational programs are expanding to meet the needs of seriously ill patients and their families. Multiple reports call for an enhanced palliative care evidence base. To examine current National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of palliative medicine research and changes since our 2008 report. We sought to identify NIH funding of palliative medicine from 2006 to 2010 in two stages. First, we searched the NIH grants database RePorter for grants with key words "palliative care," "end-of-life care," "hospice," and "end of life." Second, we identified palliative care researchers likely to have secured NIH funding using three strategies: (1) We abstracted the first and last authors' names from original investigations published in major palliative medicine journals from 2008 to 2010; (2) we abstracted these names from a PubMed generated list of all original articles published in major medicine, nursing, and subspecialty journals using the above key words Medical Subject Headings (MESH) terms "palliative care," "end-of-life care," "hospice," and "end of life;" and (3) we identified editorial board members of palliative medicine journals and key members of palliative medicine research initiatives. We crossmatched the pooled names against NIH grants funded from 2006 to 2010. The NIH RePorter search yielded 653 grants and the author search identified an additional 352 grants. Compared to 2001 to 2005, 589 (240%) more grants were NIH funded. The 391 grants categorized as relevant to palliative medicine represented 294 unique PIs, an increase of 185 (269%) NIH funded palliative medicine researchers. The NIH supported 21% of the 1253 original palliative medicine research articles identified. Compared to 2001 to 2005, the percentage of grants funded by institutes other than the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute for Nursing Research (NINR), and the National Institute of Aging (NIA) increased from 15% to 20% of all grants. When compared to 2001-2005, more palliative medicine investigators received NIH funding; and research funding has improved. Nevertheless, additional initiatives to further support palliative care research are needed.

The International Journal of Emergency Medicine: a new journal for a new era

The past decade has witnessed the emergence and substantial growth of the specialty of emergency medicine as a truly international medical discipline that refuses to be restrained by barriers of language, culture or geography. While the formal recognition of the specialty of emergency medicine is relatively young in most countries and nonexistent in some, the provision of emergency care is as ancient as the art of medicine itself. Descriptions of emergency care are documented in the Ebers Papyrus of ancient Egypt (2600 BC) [1], in the ancient teachings of traditional Chinese [2] and Ayurvedic [3] medicine and in the earliest writings of western medical care [4]. The growth of emergency medicine globally has been spurred by a number of factors, including population growth, urbanization, globalization and increasing expectations of patients around the world who are aware of what can be done to provide for emergency care [5]. The international growth of emergency medicine has resulted in an expanding presence of emergency medicine and related topics in scientific journals. In addition, the US has recently seen substantial growth in the number of international emergency medicine fellowship programs [6], and the international section and interest groups of emergency medicine societies are typically among the largest and most active in these organizations. A recent review of international emergency medicine from 2006 noted that one of the greatest obstacles to continue the growth of international emergency medicine remains the lack of high-quality, consolidated, and easily accessible evidence-based literature in this field [7]. This review of the literature from 2006 identified 25 international emergency medicine research articles. These articles include broad categories that cover the areas of evaluating EMS and trauma care services in both developed and developing countries, the global spread of emergency medicine and ways to improve emergency care for special populations within a developing country. A large proportion of international emergency medicine studies examines the methods for evaluating morbidity and mortality and improving the delivery of humanitarian aid during disasters and conflicts. The field of international emergency medicine has several major components that have been identified. These include (1) relief and disaster medicine, (2) prehospital care systems and infrastructure, (3) health-care policy at the national, regional and local levels, (4) clinical emergency medicine including the provision of emergency care in settings of limited resources, (5) emergency medicine research and (6) emergency medicine education. All of these domains have enjoyed development and continue to grow robustly.

Research Funding for Palliative Medicine

Medical care for seriously ill patients has been acknowledged to be inadequate and multiple reports have called for increased investment in palliative medicine research. To identify funding sources of palliative medicine research published form 2003-2005 and to examine National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of palliative medicine research from 2001-2005. We sought to identify United States publications related to adult palliative medicine research from 2003-2005 and their funding sources. We reviewed all articles published in the major palliative medicine journals and additionally, we reviewed all articles published in major medicine journals and relevant sub-specialty journals which were identified in Pub-Med using the key words "palliative care," "end-of-life care," "hospice" and "end-of-life." From all identified articles, we abstracted all sources of funding detailed. We then compiled a list of U.S. palliative medicine researchers from 2001-2005 using the published first and last authors in the above article review, the editorial boards of palliative medicine journals, and other organizations. To examine NIH funding, we cross-matched this list of researchers against all NIH grants funded from 2001-2005. We identified 388 palliative medicine research articles and 2,197 investigators. Seventy-two percent of papers identified received extramural funding: 31% from the NIH, 51% from foundations, and 16% from other sources. Only 109 investigators received NIH funding and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), and National Institute on Aging (NIA) funded 85% of all NIH awards. Research funding, particularly federal funding, for palliative medicine research is inadequate to support improvements in care for the most seriously ill patients and their families.

Research Published in 2003 by U.S. Family Medicine Authors

The discipline of family medicine seeks to build its research enterprise. To assess the state of family medicine research in the United States, this study identifies and describes research articles published by family medicine researchers from the United States in 2003 and assesses the growth in articles, authors, and publishing journals since 2000. We searched for all research articles published in 2003 in scholarly, English-language journals authored by individuals in US family medicine organizations and by family physicians from the United States. Search approaches included a hard copy review of 22 journals and Medline searches of articles by family medicine authors and organizations. Similar search approaches, previously reported, were used to identify articles published in 2000. For 2003 we found 790 research articles dispersed across 285 journals from 801 family medicine researcher-authors. Twenty-nine journals published 6 or more family medicine research articles; 159 journals published just 1 research article from the discipline. Family medicine journals published 18% of the discipline's research articles. People in academic departments authored the vast majority (89%) of the discipline's research. Between 2000 and 2003 family medicine's research articles increased by an estimated 58%, its authors increased by 41%, and journals used increased by 82%. Family medicine's research enterprise in the United States is larger and more productive than generally recognized, and it is growing. Nevertheless, family medicine likely publishes fewer research articles than some other clinical disciplines.

Appraising qualitative research articles in medicine and medical education

Although qualitative research is gaining recognition in medicine and in medical education, most clinical teachers do not know how to perform a critical appraisal of articles in these fields. This article describes a grid for the critical appraisal of qualitative research articles so that clinical teachers are in a better position to evaluate this type of research and to teach the critical appraisal of it. The grid is comprised of 12 items with an explanation and suggestions for additional reading for each item.

A Metric of Progress for Family Medicine Research

How productive is the discipline of family medicine in research? NAPCRG’s Committee on Building Research Capacity and the Academic Family Medicine Organization (AFMO) Research Subcommittee has undertaken an initiative to document the progress family medicine has made in research and its successes in reaching the discipline’s strategic plan goals for research expansion.1 Key measurable indicators are changes in the volume and focus of published family medicine research articles and changes in the number and types of individuals and organizations that produce these articles. In 2001, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were charged with designing and undertaking a process for periodically identifying and quantifying family medicine’s published research. The process undertaken and findings from the first round of this project were posted recently on NAPCRG’s Web site (http://www.napcrg.org/org.html) and are described briefly here.

Traces of self and others in research articles. A comparative pilot study of English, French and Norwegian research articles in medicine, economics and linguistics

This article presents a pilot study which has been undertaken as preparation for a comparative research project called “Cultural identity in academic prose”. The general aim of the project is to study which aspects of scientific activity are most important for what we may call cultural identity in academic writing. Whether such identities are primarily national or discipline‐specific is discussed. The project involves research articles from three disciplines – medicine, economics and linguistics – and three languages – English, French and Norwegian. The central questions are related to authorial presence and stance, to the manifestation of other researchers’ voices and to the authors’ promotion of their own research. This article takes a linguistic approach, and the pilot study focuses on the use of the following categories: first person pronouns, metatextual comments, explicit and implicit references and lexical items. The pilot study comprises 18 research articles; in the large‐scale study the corpus will consist of about 500 articles. In the pilot study presented here the main finding is that the proposed categories seem to be well suited to the purposes of the large‐scale study. The data also allow some preliminary hypotheses about ‘non‐expressive medical researchers’, ‘shy economists’ and ‘polemic linguists’ to be formulated.

Chart Reviews In Emergency Medicine Research: Where Are The Methods?

Study objective: Medical chart reviews are often used in emergency medicine research. However, the reliability of data abstracted by chart reviews is seldom examined critically. The objective of this investigation was to determine the proportion of emergency medicine research articles that use data from chart reviews and the proportions that report methods of case selection, abstractor training, monitoring and blinding, and interrater agreement. Methods: Research articles published in three emergency medicine journals from January 1989 through December 1993 were identified. The articles that used chart reviews were analyzed. Results: Of 986 original research articles that were identified, 244 (25%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 22% to 28%) relied on chart reviews. Inclusion criteria were described in 98% (95% CI, 96% to 99%), and 73% (95% CI, 67% to 79%) defined the variables being analyzed. Other methods were seldom mentioned: abstractor training, 18% (95% CI, 13% to 23%); standardized abstraction forms, 11% (95% CI, 7% to 15%); periodic abstractor monitoring, 4% (95% CI, 2% to 7%); and abstractor blinding to study hypotheses, 3% (95% CI, 1% to 6%). Interrater reliability was mentioned in 5% (95% CI, 3% to 9%) and tested statistically in .4% (95% CI, 0% to 2%). A 15% random sample of articles was reassessed by a second investigator; interrater agreement was high for all eight criteria. Conclusion: Chart review is a common method of data collection in emergency medicine research. Yet, information about the quality of the data is usually lacking. Chart reviews should be held to higher methodologic standards, or the conclusions of these studies may be in error. [Gilbert EH, Lowenstein SR, Koziol-McLain J, Barta DC, Steiner J: Chart reviews in emergency medicine research: Where are the methods? Ann Emerg Med March 1996;27:305-308.]

MEDERA (Medical Experimental Research Articles): A self-access computer-based course for advanced learners of english who need to write research articles in medicine

MEDERA is aimed at guiding medical students (postgraduate researchers who are usually also advanced learners of English) towards an understanding of the organization and conventions of the medical experimental research article (ERA) to promote a “discourse consciousness”—the awareness and the acquisition of the rhetorical skills associated with the medical ERA in English—with the overall aim of aiding students in writing their own ERAs. Conceived as a self-access course, the project has attempted to adapt insights into the language and structure of the ERA gained from register and genre analysis to a computer-bused mode of instruction. The current version of MEDERA. limited to ERA Introductions, uses Swales' CARS (Create a Research Space) Model as a pedagogical tool in the design of task-based materials using authentic texts. The research setting, the practical constraints on the project, the linguistic and pedagogical assumptions behind the materials design and the testing of the course ure discussed. A preliminary evaluation of the materials is given and modifications to MEDERA in the light of testing are suggested. Finally, directions for further research are outlined and the possibility of extending the methodology to other disciplines is discussed.