ArticleCommunications medicine2023
A bibliometric analysis of geographic disparities in the authorship of leading medical journals.
Article in Communications medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Global research trends in the epidemiology of allergic disorders: a bibliometric and evidence-mapping review.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Cultural bias in large language models' ability to follow neuroradiology guidelines.European radiology · 2026Article
- Determinants of an academic career and barriers to research among young otolaryngologists in Europe.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2026Article
- Lidocaine Versus Lignocaine: A Scoping Review of Terminological Usage in Dental Local Anesthesia Literature.Cureus · 2026Review
- Large Language Models in Ophthalmology: A Bibliographic Analysis.Turkish journal of ophthalmology · 2026Article
- Observational
- Prediction of transformative breakthroughs in biomedical research.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Mapping the bioinformatics resource landscape: an analysis of LibGuides across Canadian universities.The journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association · 2025Article
- Female authorship trends in a high-impact Canadian medical journal: a 10-year cross-sectional series, 2013-2023.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Long-term trends of publications in journal of neuro-oncology: a bibliographic study of a core journal in the field of neuro-oncology.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2025Review
- A bibliometric analysis of the gender gap in the authorship of leading medical journals.Communications medicine · 2023Article
- Bibliometric analysis of randomized controlled trials in oral submucous fibrosis.Journal of oral and maxillofacial pathology : JOMFPReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt has previously been reported that authors from developing countries are underrepresented in medical journals. Here, we aimed to build a comprehensive landscape of the geographical representation in medical research publications.
methodsWe collected bibliometric data of original research articles (n = 10,558) published between 2010 and 2019 in five leading medical journals and geolocated these by the institute of the corresponding authors. We introduced two simple metrics, the International Research Impact and the Domestic Self-Citation Index, to assess publishing and citing patterns by cities and countries.
resultsWe show that only 32 countries published more than 10 publications in 10 years equaling 98.9% of all publications. English-speaking countries USA (48.2%), UK (15.9%), Canada (5.3%), and Australia (3.2%) are most represented, but with a declining trend in recent years. When normalized to citation count, 9/32 countries published ≥ 10% more than expected. In total, 85.7% of the publication excess originate from the USA and UK. We demonstrate similar geographical bias at the municipal level. Finally, we discover that journals more commonly publish studies from the country in which the journal is based and authors are more likely to cite work from their own country.
conclusionsThe study reveals Anglocentric dominance, domestic preference, but increased geographical representation in recent years in medical publishing. Similar audits could mitigate possible national and regional disparities in any academic field.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.