Emergency Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

The Increase in the Number of Publications in the Field of Emergency Medicine: A 9-Year Analysis

Nitai Levi, Vered Nir, Francis B Mimouni and AdiKlein-Kremer

Background: The medical literature is ever-expanding, in terms of yearly number of published articles and in terms of number of medical journals. The current study tested the hypothesis that the number of publications in the field of Emergency Medicine increases over time in a linear fashion, and to verify whether the various types of medical manuscripts, as categorized by PubMed, follow the same pattern during 2003-2011.

Methods: Medline articles registered from 1/1/2003 until 12/31/2011 were incorporated, focusing on the fields of Emergency Medicine. The search was limited to the keywords "Emergency Medicine" or "Resuscitation" in the English language. Recorded were the number of all meta-analyses, clinical trials (CTs), randomized controlled trials (RCTs), editorials, letters to the Editor, practice guidelines, or reviews.

Results: During the evaluation period, PubMed reported 47,478 publications in Emergency Medicine. There was a significant linear increase in the total number of publications per year over the study period (R2=0.981, p<0.001). When we considered the various categories of publications, there was a steady increase over time in meta-analyses (R2 = 0.808, p < 0.001), reviews (R2=0.62, p=0.011), clinical trials (R2=0.887, p<0.001), RCTs (R2=0.827, p<0.001), editorials (R2=0.862, p<0.001), letters to the Editor (R2=0.855, p<0.001), case reports (R2=0.921, p<0.001), and practice guidelines (R2=0.249, p<0.001).

Conclusion: There is a linear increase over time in the number of publications in the field of Emergency Medicine. Future computerized resources are to enable practitioners to better perform the task of improving and updating their knowledge, while still being able to perform their clinical duties.