Decline of dermatological publications in the UK: truth or myth?

BACKGROUND: For some time, there has been a suspicion that the number of articles published by UK-based authors in dermatology has declined. This probably reflects a reduction in the publication output of dermatology departments generally.

METHODS: We identified articles with British authorship in the British Journal of Dermatology between 1970 and the present date, and compared the journal with the three most commonly cited dermatological journals: Archives of Dermatology, Journal of Investigative Dermatology and Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Later, we expanded this search to include a further 33 dermatological journals.

RESULTS:   Despite an increase in the total number of published papers by the British Journal of Dermatology, there was a decline in the number of British-authored papers, from 97 (57%) in 1970 to 80 (22%) in 2005. The trend was also seen in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, with 16 papers (5%) in 1989 and 7 (2%) in 2005. In Journal of Investigative Dermatology, British papers increased from 10 papers in 1975 to 17 in 2005, with a percentage decrease from 7% to 4%. Overall, despite an increase in the total number of publications in dermatological journals from 2745 in 1985-5034 in 2005, British publications increased from 271 in 1989 to only 289 in 2005, which represents a percentage decrease from 10% to 6%.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite a three-fold increase in dermatology consultants and registrars in UK, a three-fold increase in dermatological journals and a four-fold increase in dermatological papers published, the overall number of British papers has remained static over the years.