Journal publications in radiologic education: A review of the literature, 1987-1997

Rationale and Objectives. This study was designed to analyze articles on ra diologic education quantitatively and qualitatively, comparing those publis hed in 1987-1997 with those published in 1966-1986. Materials and Methods. An initial literature search used four major databas es to identify and retrieve articles related to radiologic education. Addit ional articles were identified through manual cross-checking of references from the original articles. All articles were reviewed by two radiologists as to type of article (editorial, expository, survey. correlational, or exp erimental, including preexperimental, quasi-experimental, or true experimen tal), statistics used (inferential or descriptive), educational emphasis (m edical student, resident, postgraduate, or other), and topic of article (ph ilosophical or political, technology, program evaluation, program descripti on, examinations, or career decisions). Interrater agreement was estimated by means of the kappa statistic. A chi (2) test for independence was used t o assess whether the relative distribution of articles was similar for the two periods. Results. More articles per year were published in 1987-1997 (n = 12.6, P < .01) compared with 1966-1986 (n = 9.2), Articles pertinent to radiologic re sident education predominated (50.7% vs 29.9% in the prior study, P < .01). In both periods, most articles were expository (37.7% vs 19.5%), and the m ost common topic was program description (34% vs 35%). Editorials decreased from 35.5% to 18.1%. Experimental studies accounted for 12.3%, increased f rom 8.7%. The fastest-growing topic of study was technology (30.4% vs 17.5% , P < .01). Conclusion. The increased number of articles addressing radiologic educatio n is encouraging. Although the percentage of experimental studies increased slightly in this period, there is still little empirical research in radio logic education.