Background: Anesthesiology has advanced in China over the past decade. We compared the trends in publication of anesthesiology articles from China between 2005 and 2014 with the trends in 5 developed countries.
Methods: We included all journals listed in the ''Anesthesiology'' category of Journal Citation Reports. Anesthesiology-related publications from 2005 to 2014 were retrieved from the PubMed and Web of Knowledge online databases. The total number of articles, publication type categories, number of citations, and citation rate (number of citations/years since publication) were analyzed. The sample size was the n = 10 years for all confidence intervals and P values. We additionally evaluated the total number of articles published in the 10 top-ranking journals.
Results: From 2005 to 2014, 41,344 articles were published in anesthesiology journals. Of these, 3.07% were contributed by authors from Chinese institutions. Although this contribution was less than the Unites States, Great Britain, Germany, France, or Japan, publications from Chinese institutions grew at an annual rate of 13% (95% confidence interval: 3.08%-23.38%, P < 0.001, r = 0.903). Chinese institutions produced relatively more basic research reports than clinical investigations. China ranked before Great Britain (221 articles) and France (245 articles) in basic research, with 448 basic researches publications during the study period. The articles from China averaged 2.24 citations per year, comparable to the articles from the United States (2.71, P = 0.545), Great Britain (2.57, P = 0.999), Germany (2.35, P = 0.999), France (1.50, P = 0.520), and Japan (1.24, P = 0.065). In the 10 highest impact anesthesiology journals, China published 780 articles during the decade. The 3 journals with the most publications from Chinese institutions were Anesthesia & Analgesia, Anesthesiology, and Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica.
Conclusions: In the studied decade, anesthesiology research published by Chinese institutions lagged behind publications from developed countries. There was a steady increase in the number of articles every year, resulting in recent rates of publication similar to several developed countries. The citation rate of articles from Chinese institutions was similar to the citation rate of articles from developed countries, indicating that the quality of articles from China in these journals is comparable to the quality from developed countries.