PRESS RELEASES OF SCIENCE JOURNAL ARTICLES AND SUBSEQUENT NEWSPAPER STORIES ON THE SAME TOPIC

Context.-Scientific journals issue press releases to disseminate scien tific news about articles they publish. Objective.-To assess whether p ress releases about journal articles were associated with publication of subsequent newspaper stories. Design.-Retrospective content analysi s of newspaper stories, journal press releases, and journal tables of contents. From December 1, 1996, to February 28, 1997, press releases and tables of contents were collected from BMJ, Nature, Science, and T he Lancet, along with newspaper stories on scientific research publish ed in The New York Times (United States), Le Figaro and Le Monde (Fran ce), El Pais and La Vanguardia (Spain), La Repubblica (Italy), and the International Herald Tribune. Main Outcome Measurements.-Number of ne wspaper stories that contained reference to articles appearing in the 4 scientific journals, number of newspaper stories that referred to jo urnal articles described in press releases, and the order in which jou rnal articles were mentioned in press releases. Results.-Of the 1060 n ewspaper stories analyzed, 142 referred to journal articles; of these, 119 (84%) referred to articles mentioned in press releases and 23 (16 %) referred to journal articles not mentioned in press releases (compa rison of proportions, P = .03), Articles described first or second wer e referenced in more newspapers than articles described later in the p ress release (P = .01 by chi(2) analysis). Conclusions.-Journal articl es described in press releases, in particular those described first or second in the press release, are associated with the subsequent publi cation of newspaper stories on the same topic.