ArticlePloS one2021
Microbiome research in general and business newspapers: How many microbiome articles are published and which study designs make the news the most?
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Biological adaptation to a germ-free environment should not be mistaken as a burden for animals.Laboratory animals · 2025Article
- Microbiome Literacy: Enhancing Public and Academic Understanding Through the 'Microbiome & Health' Online Course.Microbial biotechnology · 2025Article
- GutMicrobiotAware: an international exploratory survey on awareness and understanding of the gut microbiota.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Are popular books about diet and health written based on scientific evidence? A comparison of citations between the USA and Japan.Public health nutrition · 2023Article
- Bacterial Profiles of Brain in Downer Cattle with Unknown Etiology.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- Perspectives on Inequity and Health Disparities in Chile and Their Relationship to Microbial Ecology.mSystems · 2022Article
- Review of the Current State of Freely Accessible Web Tools for the Analysis of 16S rRNA Sequencing of the Gut Microbiome.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Article
- Estrogen Action and Gut Microbiome Metabolism in Dermal Health.Dermatology and therapy · 2022Review
- The Pre-Analytical CEN/TS Standard for Microbiome Diagnostics-How Can Research and Development Benefit?Nutrients · 2022Article
- The role of blogs and news sites in science communication during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in research metrics and analytics · 2022Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The microbiome is a matter of interest for science, consumers and business. Our objective is to quantify that interest in academic journals and newspapers, both quantitatively and by study design. We calculated the number of articles on the microbiome from the total number of biomedicine articles featured in both PubMed and Spanish science news agency SINC, from 2008 to 2018. We used the Factiva database to identify news stories on microbiome papers in three general newspapers (The New York Times, The Times and El País) and three business newspapers (The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Expansión), from 2007 to 2019. Then, we compared news stories with microbiome papers in PubMed, while also analyzing the frequencies of five study design types, both in the newspapers and in the papers themselves. Microbiome papers represented 0.8% of biomedicine papers in PubMed from 2008 to 2018 (increasing from 0.4% to 1.4%), while microbiome news published by SINC represented 1.6% of total biomedical news stories during the same period (increasing from 0.2% to 2.2%). The number of news stories on microbiome papers correlated with the number of microbiome papers (0.91, p < 0.001) featured in general newspapers, but not in business ones. News stories on microbiome papers represented 78.9% and 42.7% of all microbiome articles in general and business newspapers, respectively. Both media outlet types tended to over-report observational studies in humans while under-reporting environmental studies, while the representation of systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials, randomized controlled trials and animal/laboratory studies was similar when comparing newspapers and PubMed. The microbiome is receiving increasing attention in academic journals and newspapers. News stories on the microbiome in general and business newspapers are mostly based on research findings and are more interested in observational studies in humans and less in environmental studies compared to PubMed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.