Anästhesiologie-Publikationen aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 2011–2015

Background This study presents a count of publications and citations for all articles published by university Departments of Anaesthesiology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland between 2011 and 2015. The results were compared with former analyses of these countries from 2001-2010 as well as similar international studies. Methods We performed a PubMed search based on PERL-scripts for all publications originating from university Departments of Anaesthesiology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland between 2011 and 2015. According to their author's affiliation, articles were assigned to their affiliated university department. Publications were considered an original article if the category of publication was classified as original research in PubMed. Predatory journals were omitted by using PubMed-listed journals only. Data of citations was retrieved from Thomson Reuter's ISI Web of Knowledge. The following indicators were reported: the number of publications and original articles (counting each author and first authors only) and the share of original articles out of all publications. With regard to citations, we reported the overall number, the percentage of publications, which were cited at least once and the median of citations per publication and per original article as well as the calculated h-index. Results The 47 university Departments of Anaesthesiology published 4.697 articles between 2011 and 2015, which make up 89% of all anaesthesiology research originating from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (overall 5.284 publications). Of these, 1.037 (22%) were classified as original articles. Considering only articles with first authors, equalizing a change of PubMed's affiliation field policy in 2012 to compare the numbers with previous periods, 3.709 publications and 821 original articles were published. 90% of all publications and 96% of original articles, respectively, were cited at least once. Publications were cited six times, while original articles were cited nine times. The university department of Anaesthesiology in Zurich published most (n = 245), while most original articles were published in Vienna (n = 77). The highest share of original articles was achieved by Vienna (37%). Publications from Berlin - Benjamin Franklin and Jena (11 citations per publication) and original articles from Essen (23,5 citations per original article) achieved the highest citation rates. Discussion In contrast to the worldwide increasing trend, the number of publications of the university Departments of Anaesthesiology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland stagnated. The share of original articles out of all publications continues to decline in comparison to 2001-2010 (-6%). Despite this, original articles were cited more frequently and thus had a higher value for the scientific community. The reasons of the decrease in the number of original articles remain unclear and require further investigation to reverse this negative trend. Conclusion Strategies to foster academic work in anaesthesiology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are required.