Special theme
LI Wei Ping, CHAN Hon Fai
Objective To explore the academic characteristics and development trends of the Medical Journal of Kiang Wu, as well as the development level of various disciplines at Kiang Wu hospital in different periods through statistical analysis of medical literature information and author information from the Medical Journal of Kiang Wu for thirty years after its resumption. Methods All the journals published in the Medical Journal of Kiang Wu over the past 30 years since its resumption. Medical literature was selected from the titles of each issue, and data on the number, classification, authors, and author affiliations were collected. Background data of the first author, including education level, graduation year, work experience, and professional and technical title, were also collected. Using descriptive statistics and chi-square test methods, we calculated and analyzed the annual and cumulative publication volume, the distribution and change in publication types, the composition of authors and publication units, and the relationship between the first author's different backgrounds and the publication volume of different literature types and the characteristics of the core authors. Results Between 1993 and 2022, the Medical Journal of Kiang Wu published a total of 40 issues, with a total of 1516 articles of various types, including 1248 medical studies (1216 in Chinese and 32 in English). The annual publication volume increased from 25 articles at the beginning to 72 articles in the later period, and the publication cycle was changed from annual to semiannual. The proportions of various articles were 23% for clinical study, 34% for clinical experience, 23% for case report, 6% for medical humanities, 11% for reviews, and 3% for technical introduction. The proportions of case reports and medical humanities articles showed an increasing trend, while the proportions of reviews and technical introductions articles showed a decreasing trend. The departments that contributed to more than 5% of the total literature were Imaging, Pediatrics, Cardiology, Pathology, Orthopedics, Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, and Nursing. There were a total of 743 signed authors, including 476 first authors (12 of whom were from outside the hospital). Of the authors, 46.1% published one article, while 20.5% published two articles. Authors with a publication volume of 5 or more were defined as core authors, with a total of 69 people, accounting for 14.5%, and 42.1% of all the publications. The highest number of publications by an author is 36. A total of 251 papers (20.1%) had independent authorship, while 997 papers (79.9%) were authored collaboratively. 1144 articles (91.7%) were signed by a single department, while 104 articles (8.3%) were signed in collaboration with multiple departments. 64 were signed in collaboration with internal departments, and 40 were signed in collaboration with internal and external institutions. Another 118 articles (9.5%) were signed with 6 or more signed authors. The first author had a bachelor's degree or above, and the number of papers published was significantly greater than that of the authors with a technical secondary school or college degree (P=0.000). Authors with a bachelor's degree tend to publish articles in the clinical research category, authors with a master's degree tend to publish articles in the case report category rather than in the medical humanities category, and authors with a vocational school or college degree tend to publish articles in the clinical experience and medical humanities categories rather than in the clinical research and case report categories. There was a positive correlation between the author's publication year and the number of publications. There are significant differences between the publication years ≤ 5 years group and the 16-20 years group, as well as between the ≤ 5 years group and the ≥ 26 years group (P=0.04 and P =0.000); Authors with a publication period of ≤ 5 years tend to publish articles of the review type, rather than articles of the technical introduction type; Authors with a publication period of 6-10 years tend to publish articles of the review type, rather than articles of the clinical experience or medical humanities type; Authors with a publication period of 11-15 years tend to publish articles in the category of case report, but are not inclined to publish articles in the categories of clinical studies, medical humanities, and reviews; Authors with a publication period of 16-20 years tend to publish articles of clinical experience type, and are not inclined to publish articles of medical humanities, review, and technical introduction type; Authors with a publication period of 21-25 years tend to publish articles of clinical experience type, and do not prefer articles of case report type; Authors with a publication period of more than 26 years tend to publish articles in the field of medical humanities, and are less inclined to publish articles in the fields of clinical experience and case reports. The number of articles published by authors with work experience in more than one hospital was significantly higher than that of authors who worked in only one hospital (P =0.003). Analysis of professional and technical titles showed that the number of papers published by the first author in the current register exhibited a positive correlation with technical title (P <0.001). The average number of papers published per technical title was as follows: 5.5 papers for senior titles, 4.8 papers for deputy senior titles, 2.3 papers for intermediate titles, and 1.5 papers for junior titles. Only 4.9% of the total literature was published in the field of nursing. Conclusion Over the 30 years since the resumption of the Medical Journal of Kiang Wu, with the hard work of a generation, the amount of editing, publishing and distribution work has become increasingly standardized, the amount of information published has increased, and the columns and contents set up have become increasingly mature, which also reflects the development level of various disciplines at Kiang Wu hospital. The core author group has been the backbone of the continuous development of the Medical Journal of Kiang Wu in the past 30 years. Overall, the future prospects of the journal are promising.