Dental Research Institute (DRI): Lessons from 625 Research Papers

The DRI has over 625 published research papers (1954-2004). Objectives: A systematic analysis of the papers was undertaken for research trends and author characteristics. Methods: Each paper was obtained and flagged for identifiers in 38 categories for descriptive statistics. Results: Papers per decade varied from 83 in (1954-64) 197 in (1975-84) and 100 in (1995-2004). Content was mainly histology and ultrastructure (45%), dental materials (18%) and epidemiology (16%). Most frequent clinical disciplines were periodontology, oral pathology and orthodontics. Ethics approval was first reported in 1976 and in the last 5 years in 86% papers. Statistical analysis of data has increased from 22% to 78% of papers. Study design was mainly descriptive in the first decade to validation studies in the last. Papers were published in 125 journals The SADJ was the most favoured journal for publication (171 papers). Overseas journals depended on the research interests of the presiding director ie. Nature, Irving (1954-60, 13 pubs); J Dent Res, Retief (1970-75, 18 pubs) and Community Dent Oral Epidemiol, Cleaton-Jones (1977- , 24 pubs). Local journal publication peaked in 1973; overseas publication dominated from 1985. Papers were produced by 307 authors generally male (93%-68%) and white (100%-89%). Twelve authors produced 50% of all papers. There was a marked difference between the number of papers produced by a researcher as first or co-author. Authors were mainly from DRI (48%) with 37% being local collaborators largely from the attached dental school (25%). Overseas collaboration (8% authors) peaked during 1985-1994. Co-authorship increased with time with the first 8 author paper appearing in 1994. Conclusions: This retrospective analysis shows that DRI research trends reflect local research priorities and global research methodologies. Current author characteristics are more representative of SA society. This study provides reference data for other research entities wishing to do similar audits.