SELECTIVE PUBLICATION OF ADVANCED RESEARCH FROM EASTERN EUROPE
IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS

Vasiliy Vlassov
Saratov State Medical University, PO Box 1528, Saratov, 410601, Russia

Objective: To find whether results of advanced research from Eastern European countries are selectively published in USA/UK-based journals.

Design: MEDLINE search for human-related studies in years 1988, 1990, and 1995 originated from Eastern European countries: USSR/Russia, Poland, and Hungary. Australia and India were controls as countries with Western-style medicine and no language barrier. France was a control for non-English-language countries. For control countries the publications were located using address field of MEDLINE, and for Eastern European countries, national languages were used. All types of advanced design research were located using key words in MeSH: randomized controlled trials, controlled clinical trials, double blind, cohort, prospective, longitudinal. Frequency of advanced research in domestic journals' was compared for every country with frequency of advanced research in USA/UK journals.

Results: In all countries, publication frequency of advanced research increased during the years 1988-1995. In Indian journals in 3 years were published 8.1%±2.4% of all Indian-based advanced research reports vs 58.5%±4.4% for reports published in the USA/UK-based journals. Frequency of advanced research in Indian journals was 3.2%±1.0% vs 5.1%±0.6% of Indian articles published in USA/UK-based journals. In Australian journals there were published 20.3%±2.2% of Australian origin advanced research vs 68.9%±2.6% in USA/UK journals. Frequency of an advanced research in Australian journals was 6.2%±0.7% vs 4.5±0.3% of Australian articles published in US/UK journals (P <0.0l). Both Australia and India demonstrated a tendency to increase frequency of publication of advanced research in domestic journals. In journals of the Eastern European countries there were published 92.8%±0.04% of all articles originating from these countries and 73.8%±3.6% of advanced research. While only 2.9%±0.09% of articles originating from these countries were published in USA/UK journals, 14.8%±2.9% of advanced research was published in these journals. Frequency of advanced research in Eastern European publications in USA/UK journals was 2.2%±0.4% vs 0.35%±0.03% in domestic journals (P<.001 in 3 years). In 1995 the difference between international and domestic publications by Eastern European scientists increased: 4.25%±1.2% in USA/UK journals vs 0.84%±0.2% in domestic journals (P<.01). French origin publications demonstrated the same trend to publish advanced research in USA/UK journals. While in 1990 and in 1995 frequency of advanced research in domestic publications of French scientists was stable (10.7%±1.2%), the frequency of advanced research in publications of French scientists in USA/UK journals increased from 13.5%±0.6 to 18.9%±0.7%.

Conclusions: An increasing tendency among authors from Eastern European countries to publish advanced research results in USA/UK-based journals is a reasonable selection of the international journals for publication of the best research. For Eastern European countries, where international journals are not affordable, such practice means a growing segregation of Eastern European medicine from not only international medical research, but also from the best domestic studies.

Return to Session Information