Authorship, collaboration, and predictors of extramural funding in the emergency medicine literature.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study were to examine the last decade of general emergency medicine (EM) literature published in the United States for trends with regard to authorship and multidisciplinary collaboration and to estimate the effect on extramural funding. METHODS: Print articles published in the Academic Emergency Medicine, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Journal of Emergency Medicine, and American Journal of Emergency Medicine between 1994 and 2003 were reviewed. Original research, case reports/series, and others (consensus/educational) were considered; abstracts, book reviews, and editorials were not. The author byline was reviewed for number, specialty, nationality, collaboration, and presence of extramural funding. Multidisciplinary collaboration was defined as authors from 2 or more specialties, whereas multi-institutional collaboration was defined as EM authors from more than one institution. Logistic regression was used to identify predictors of extramural funding from the variables collected. RESULTS: Of 5728 articles identified, there were 3278 (57%) original research, 1437 (25%) case reports/series, and 975 (17%) classified as others. The percentage funded was 22% for all articles (32% for original research). The literature had at least one EM investigator as coauthor 84% of the time. Article location of origin was the United States (63%), foreign (15%), and combined (22%). Multidisciplinary collaboration increased overall from 33% in 1994 to a high of 43% in 2003. Multi-institutional collaboration also increased from 16% in 1994 to 26% in 2003. The percentage of articles having 6 or more authors increased from 12% to 18% over the decade. Of all variables studied, only article type (original research: odds ratio, 4.8; 95% confidence interval, 4.0-5.6) and foreign source (non-United States: odds ratio, 1.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-1.5) predicted extramural funding. CONCLUSIONS: The number of authors per article in the EM literature has steadily increased over the last decade, as has evidence of collaboration with other specialties. This increase in collaboration and author number has not been associated with increased extramural funding in the general EM literature published in the United States.

Funding and publishing trends of original research by emergency medicine investigators over the past decade.

OBJECTIVES: To update the profile of author-reported funding of reports of original research published since 1994 in the four U.S. peer-reviewed general emergency medicine (EM) journals. METHODS: For the primary analysis, articles published in Academic Emergency Medicine, American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Annals of Emergency Medicine, and Journal of Emergency Medicine between 1994 and 2003 were reviewed by two emergency physicians trained in abstracting from the literature. Original research was identified; case reports, case series, abstracts, and meta-analysis were excluded. Articles were classified by author report of extramural funding as government (public), private nonprofit (foundation), for profit (industry), or multiple. Data are reported as percent per year per journal. A secondary analysis of MEDLINE was performed to identify publishing trends by EM investigators outside of these four journals over the same period. RESULTS: The primary analysis identified 5,728 articles; 3,278 (57%) were considered original research, with 32% of these reporting extramural funding. In 1994, there were 292 articles with 28% funded (28% public, 43% foundation, 17% industry, and 12% multiple). By 2003, there were 358 articles with 36% funded (42% public, 30% foundation, 18% industry, and 10% multiple). There was a trend toward increased extramural funding in all four journals (p = 0.007), with an estimated growth of 3.6% (95% confidence interval = 1.0% to 6.3%) per year over the past decade. The primary review identified 48% of all articles published by EM investigators. CONCLUSIONS: Author-reported extramural funding rates for original research have increased in the EM literature over the past decade. Foundations have funded the largest number of studies, with public (government) sources increasing in 2003.