Medical research in New South Wales 1993-1996 assessed by Medline publication capture

Objectives: To assess medical research publication output in New South Wale s (NSW). Design: Analysis of publication information from the Medline indexing datab ase, 1993-1906 inclusive. Setting: Teaching hospitals and affiliated universities and medical researc h institutes within NSW, the major sites for NSW medical science publicatio ns. Major outcome measures: Cumulative number and location of Medline-identifie d publications; journal citation indices (impact factor and immediacy index ). Results: 8860 published articles were captured for the analysis period. Uni versities and hospitals accounted for most of the publications (n= 7755). A mean of 73.1% (range, 36%-100%) of all articles were published in overseas journals, and the rest in Australian journals. This average trend applied to most universities and teaching hospitals, whereas research institutes pu blished almost exclusively in overseas journals. Average publication impact factor values for most universities and teaching hospitals were around the average value for all NSW publications (2.203). The range for teaching hos pital publications was 1.000-2.823, but for the overseas-publishing medical research institutes it tended to be higher (2.480-5.423). Immediacy index data yielded similar findings. Conclusions: The universities and teaching hospitals account for most of th e medical publications arising from NSW, and also those appearing in Austra lian journals. Thus, these sites provide the bulk of Australian medical pra ctice end-user information. In contrast, the medical institutes concentrate on publishing in overseas journals with higher and quicker citation rates (higher impact factor and immediacy index).