Trends in the UK contribution to the otolaryngological literature

Ten leading otolaryngological journals were reviewed with a view to detecti ng the UK contribution to the ENT literature from 1985 to 1994. From a tota l number of 12293 publications studied 2414 (19.6%) papers were found to or iginate from British and Northern Irish otolaryngological departments, with the proportion of UK papers remaining at around 20% throughout the whole 1 0-year period. These papers were fully reviewed and the number of authors, paper type, names of authors and originating department recorded. Eleven de partments were responsible for 50.2% of the total number of publications wi th the most prolific author being responsible for 2.5% (n = 60) of the tota l number of UK papers. Over the 10-year period, there has been a significan t change towards the publication of more clinical research at the expense o f pure laboratory research in these 10 journals (chi(2) P < 0.001). There h as also been a move towards multiple authorship (three or more co-authors) over the same period with fewer single-author papers (P < 0.001).