Abstract Details

Researchers in neurology have many options in selecting where to publish peer-reviewed articles.  A significant portion of neurology literature is published in GM journals.  Despite this, the precise publication patterns of neurology articles in these journals has yet be examined.  We therefore assessed the publication patterns of neurology articles in GM journals over a 10-year period using a bibliometric approach. 

To examine the publication patterns of neurology articles in general medicine (GM) journals.

The top 5 general medicine journals were identified using the 2017 Journal Citations Report (JCR) by Clarivate Analytics.   We selected 4 other medical subspecialties for comparison of publication patterns with neurology: immunology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, and respirology.  Using Ovid MEDLINE, we searched the 5 journals for articles published between April 2009 and April 2019 that were indexed with the following MeSH terms: nervous system diseases, immune system diseases, endocrine system diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, and respiratory tract diseases.

The GM journals with the 5 highest impact factors were: New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) (79.3), Lancet (53.3), Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (47.7), British Medical Journal (BMJ) (23.6), and Public Library of Science Medicine (PLOS Medicine) (11.7).  Our bibliometric search yielded 3719 publications, of which 1098 were in neurology.  Of these 1098 neurology publications, 317 were published in NEJM, 205 in the Lancet, 284 in JAMA, 214 in BMJ, and 78 in PLOS Medicine. Randomized controlled trials were the most frequent neurology study type in GM journals. The number of publications in each of the other specialties was: immunology (817), endocrinology (633), gastroenterology (353), and respirology (818).

Our results provide some guidance to authors regarding where they may wish to consider submitting their neurology research.   Neurology-based articles are published more frequently in GM journals than other specialties.