Developmental Trends in Academic Emergency Medicine Journals, 2000 to 2019

Abstract

Abstract Background We investigated academic developmental trends in emergency medicine (EM) by analyzing the performance of EM journals. Methods This was a literature review study. We collected data from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database for EM category journals, including journal titles, language, numbers, and impact factors (IFs) from 2000 to 2019. The aggregate IFs of EM and 11 other categories (cardiac and cardiovascular systems, clinical neurology, critical care medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology, infectious diseases, general and internal medicine, pediatrics, respiratory system, surgery, toxicology, and urology and nephrology) were collected from 2003 to 2019. The slope of the linear regression was used to evaluate the trend in EM journal IFs and the aggregate IFs of all categories. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between EM journals’ IF in 2000 and their IF trend from 2000 to 2019. Results The EM journal number increased from 8 (all in English) in 2000 to 31 (26 in English) in 2019. In total, 28 EM journals had a positive IF trend since their initial enrollment into the JCR database, and the trend was significant for 18 journals. The correlation of the EM journals’ IF in 2000 and IF trends from 2000 to 2019 was 0.75. The increasing trend of aggregate IF for the EM category was significant and ranked 8th of 12 categories. Conclusions The increased number, language diversity, and IF trend for EM journals indicates that the development of academic EM is a continuous international trend. In the past 20 years, the IF trend increased faster for EM journals with a higher initial IF. The overall performance of EM journals was non-inferior to other medical specialties.