Pediatric and adult otorhinolaryngological publications: Trends over 15 years (1993–2007)

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the trends in otorhinolaryngological (ORL) publications from 1993 to 2007.MethodsIn order to retrieve as many ORL-related articles as possible we used two strategies of literature analysis. Both were based upon ORL Medline articles from 1/1/1993 to 31/12/2007. In the first strategy, we attempted to retrieve as many ORL articles as possible from all Medline recorded journals (ORL-specific and non-ORL-specific journals indiscriminately); we thus used the key words: “otorhinolaryngology or ears or nose or throat”. In the second strategy, we attempted to retrieve ORL-related articles in ORL-specific journals only; we thus evaluated all Medline articles from 1/1/1993 to 31/12/2007 from all 83 ORL journals reviewed by Medline. In both strategies we limited the search to “all adults” (i.e. adult ORL) and “all children” (i.e. pediatric ORL). We repeated the search by each time using one limit according to publication types as classified by the Medline, and collected the total number of publications per year for the 15 years of the specified period. We used regression analysis to determine the effect of year of publication upon the number of publications of each type.ResultsUsing either strategy, there was a steady increase over time both in pediatric and adult ORL in total publications, with a sharper rise in the number of adult publications. Both strategies led to very similar findings, to a few exceptions. There might be a shift of ORL publications toward ORL-specific journals.ConclusionsNew medical information available to ORL specialists increases over time, increasing academic burden. The field of pediatric ORL has had a significant yearly increase of published studies but not to the same extent as the field of adult ORL.