Analysis of endodontic publications in PubMed, indexed in JCR (1998-2008)

To quantify the total output of endodontics documents, available in PubMed, published in journals with impact factor indexed in the Journal of Citation Reports, on an eleven years period, between 1998 and 2008. To identify productivity trends, which are the most productive countries, most productive journals, author’s collaboration (number of signatures), collaboration coefficient and variations throughout the studied period.

Method:

Development of a search in JCR and in PubMed databases, between 1998-2008. At JCR Science Edition (ISI-JCR), for each year of the study period, in the category "Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine". At PubMed, having for limits each journal obtained at the JCR search and using "endodontics" as descriptor. The documents were numbered and classified according to the parameters defined and Inserted into a database and analyzed.

Result:

In JCR where obtained 61 journals. In Pubmed were collected 3798 documents on endodontics. Only 55 of the 61 previous journals presented, at least, one paper on endodontics. The U.S. is the most productive country with about a quarter of total production. The sum of all European countries represents approximately 36% of the total. The most productive journal is the Journal of Endodontics with 1307 documents. There are four journals which contribute with two thirds of production on endodontics. There is an increasing collaboration between authors. The number of authors per paper increased as well as the coefficient of collaboration, which rose from 0.57 in 1998 to 0.66 in 2008.

Conclusion:

Throughout the studied period there is a tendency of increased production of documents. The USA and European countries are responsible for a significant part of the collected documents. There are few journals which represents a large percentage of production in endodontics. In this studied period there is a clear increasing tendency of collaboration.