Objective: To determine the methodologic quality of therapy articles about humans published in ISI surgical journals, and to explore the association between methodologic quality, origin, and subject matter.
Summary background data: It is supposed that ISI journals contain the best methodologic articles.
Methods: This is a bibliometric study. All journals listed in the 2002 ISI under the subject heading of "Surgery" were included. A simple randomized sampling was conducted for selected journals (Annals of Surgery, The American Surgeon, Archives of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery, European Journal of Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Surgery, and World Journal of Surgery). Published articles related to therapy on humans of the selected journals were reviewed and analyzed. All kinds of clinical designs were considered, excluding editorials, review articles, letters to the editor, and experimental studies. The variables considered were: place of origin, design, and the methodologic quality of articles, which was determined by applying a valid and reliable scale. The review was performed interchangeably and independently by 2 research teams. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used. Statistical significance was defined as P values less than 1%.
Results: A total of 653 articles were studied. Studies came predominantly from the United States and Europe (43.6% and 36.8%, respectively). The subject areas most frequently found were digestive and hepatobiliopancreatic surgery (29.1% and 24.5%, respectively). Average and median methodologic quality scores of the entire series were 11.6 +/- 4.9 points and 11 points, respectively. The association between methodologic quality and journals was determined. Also, the association between methodologic quality and origin was observed, but no association with subject area was verified.
Conclusions: The methodologic quality of therapy articles published in the journals analyzed is low; however, statistical significance was determined between them. Association was observed between methodologic quality and origin, but not with subject matter.