Publication rate of DFG-supported research projects

Objective: Outstanding medical research is not possible without financial s upport. The success of supported research projects have been evaluated only rarely. The publication rate of research projects supported by the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG]) was assessed separ ately for internal medicine, surgery, and anesthesiology. Methods: Based on the "Figures and Facts" published by the DFG all supporte d projects of 1996 for all three specialities were included. In a Medline-b ased analysis all published papers dealing with the supported project and a ll papers published by the supported persons from 1996 to may 2000 were doc umented. Results: A total of 315 grants were analysed (internal medicine: 234; surge ry: 63; anesthesiology: 18). Projects with clinical topics were less often supported (n=80) than experimental projects (n=235). 162 (69.3%) of the gra nts in internal medicine, 41 (65.1) in surgery, and 14 (77.8%) of the grant s in anesthesiology were published. In anesthesiology all published project s were in English language (internal medicine: 98.2%; surgery: 95%). Indepe ndent of the topic of the grant, several supported persons in internal medi cine and surgery did not publish any papers between 1996 and may 2000, wher eas all supported anesthesiologists published papers in peer reviewed journ als in this time period. Conclusion: The publication rate of DFG supported projects is not sufficien t. Except for a final internal report after finishing the research project no quality control exists for DFG grants. Unfortunately, not all supported projects were published. A better feedback between the financial support by the DFG and the publication rate of DFG grants is desirable.