International publications of Academic Emergency Medicine Departments in Turkey: 15th year analysis

Abstract

Objective: Emergency medicine had been established as a specialty in Turkey fifteen years ago. Today every medical school in Turkey have an academic emergency department. International publications are one of the best predictors of academic maturation and productivity. This study aims to analyze publication output of the academic emergency medicine departments in Turkey.
Methods: Data in Index Medicus databases for published papers by the authors affiliated to the emergency medicine departments of university hospitals in Turkey between the period of January 1994 through September 2009 were searched. The articles were evaluated for the following criteria: types of research, subject, publication journal
and year, first author and whether indexed in Science Citation Index.
Results: 422 papers were retrived from the search between the study period. Two hundred twenty nine (54.2%) of these papers were original research articles. Second frequent articles were found to be case reports (n=169, 40.0%). One hundred fity six (68.1%) of the original articles (n=229) were clinical trials, 38 (16.6%) were animal
studies and 35 (15.3%) were survey researches. Sixty one (39.4%) of those clinical trials were designed as descriptive, 74 (47.7%) were cross-sectional, and 20 (12.9%) of them were designed as randomised prospective study. Most frequent subjects of those papers were about toxicology and envorimental emergencies (n=139, %32.9) and trauma-othopedics (n=67, %15.9). Three hundred fifty eight (84.4%) of the publications were cited by Science Citation Index - Expanded. The most frequent publications located in Science Citation Index Expanded were publicated in “American Journal of Emergency Medicine” (n=45, %10.6). The first author was an emergency physician in 377 (89.3%) of publications.
Conclusions: Publications produced by faculty members and staff of the emergency medicine departments, whose numbers are increasing, have a positive impact on departments’ academic background in Turkey. The increase in numbers of the publications after 2004 is remarkable. However, the future objective should be to publish more qualified research articles about specific issues which will directly effect daily emergency medicine practice.