Properties of Turkey-related publications in International emergency medical journals

Abstract

Aim: To examine the publication characteristics of articles written by Turkish academics published in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) emergency medical journals.

Materials and Methods: In this study, only publications from the field of emergency medicine (exluding emergency nursing and emergency pediatrics) broadcasting and that included in the Science Citation Index or SCI-E and published in 2003 and 2004 were investigated. The publications are summarized and classified according to the number of subjects and authors and the author's country.

Results: Among the 5,715 articles analyzed so far, only 195 of the publications (3.4%) originated from Turkey, whereas the rest of them (n = 5,520) were from other countries. The United States ranked first with 2,582 (45.1%) publications, and Turkey was ranked in sixth place with 195 (3.4%) publications. For the topics analyzed, pre-hospital care took first place, accounting for 20.8% (n = 1189) of the publications. In Turkey, the most frequent topic identified was cardiovascular (19.5%), followed by neurology (10.2%), bone and joint injury (8.2%), and trauma, resuscitation, and gastrointestinal emergencies (7.7%).

Conclusion: Turkey is ranked higher in the world ranking of countries that have contributed to the literature of emergency medicine. Although the trend in global publications is veering toward pre-hospital emergency topics, currently Turkish emergency academics do not give enough attention to this topic.