Publication Patterns of Two International Medical Education Journals

The analysis of published research pertaining to medical education can provide valuable information regarding the present status of such education and also future trends in this field. This study examined peer-reviewed research articles published in the period 1996 to 2000 in the two major medical education journals, Academic Medicine (AM) and Medical Education (ME). Each article was reviewed by one reviewer of our group according to five different categories (main subject of research, research type, content of research, affiliation of the principal author and country of article’s origin). Seven hundred and sixty nine articles (50.5% from AM) were included in the final analysis. The major single subject of studies (43%) pertained to medical students. The largest single category of research design (37.6%) was survey and/or descriptive studies. The most frequent single topic of research (30.4%) concerned medical students’ attitudes, characteristics, performance, and satisfaction, followed by studies relating to program development and evaluation (21.2%). The most frequent authors were clinicians (40%), especially physicians from family medicine and general practice. Educational professionals contributed to 14.7% of the research conducted. Most medical education research originated in the United States (48.1%), and approximately 20% of the research derived from England. Academic Medicine published a greater number of studies pertaining to teachers, programs and institutions, more correlative and comparative studies, more studies on career choice, more studies from clinician authors and non-medical researchers and accepted more studies from North America, than was the case for ME.

並列關鍵字

medical education ； publication ； review

國際替代計量

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