| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
1
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical
School, MGH-NMR Center, Bldg. 149, 13th St., Mailcode 149(2301), Charlestown,
MA 02129-2060.
2
Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University, 09100,
Aydin, Turkiye.
Received April 17, 2001;
accepted after revision June 18, 2001.
Presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North
America, Chicago, November 2000.
Abstract
 Top Abstract IntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
|---|
MATERIALS AND METHODS. We determined the proportion of articles published in 18 randomly selected issues of the AJR and Radiology that required advanced imaging techniques and relied on the analysis of archived data. "Advanced technology" was defined as imaging techniques that serve a purpose other than simple anatomic imaging or that are not widely available because of the high cost of the technology, such as functional imaging and computer programming designed for an individual study or simulation studies. We analyzed the association of these features with the country of origin, the topic, and the methodology used.
RESULTS. Sixteen percent of the studies required advanced technology. MR imaging, CT, and sonography were the most frequently used modalities (31%, 27%, and 15% of studies, respectively). Archiving was used in 37% of the studies, and 67% of the original articles were prospective. The articles most commonly originated in North America (67%), Europe (20%), and Asia (12%).
CONCLUSION. Only a small percentage of published research studies required advanced technology and approximately one third of the studies used archiving. These results may suggest that other criteria, such as the design of the study, its relevance for daily clinical use, and the originality of the paper, have a major impact on the acceptance of papers in clinically oriented radiology journals.
|
TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
|---|
In an attempt to provide data for such investigators, we classified the leading features of the articles, such as using advanced radiologic techniques and archiving. Several additional features, including country of study, type of article and research, type of study design (whether retrospective or prospective), and the technical features of the modalities used in these articles, were also studied. Our results may help in designing studies and may enlighten the editorial policy of all journals. "Advanced technology" was defined as imaging techniques that serve a purpose other than simple anatomic imaging or that are not widely available because of the high cost of the technology. The list of the equipment defined as advanced technology is given in Materials and Methods.
|
TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
|---|
Type of Article
Types of articles included original articles, case reports, review articles
(including technical notes and pictorial essays), and editorials or
commentaries [6]. Original
articles investigated a well-defined hypothesis or objective and contained
methods and results sections
[2]. Case reports were defined
as reports describing the findings in a few cases without articulated methods
and results sections. Technical notes and review articles were defined as an
explanation of radiologic techniques or radiologic findings without reporting
original research. Editorials and commentaries were defined as articles that
were written as opinion or comments without describing the result of new
scientific investigations.
Type of Research
Six research categories were defined for original articles: clinical
research, combined basic and clinical research, basic research, social
questionnaire or financial investigation, computer programming or data
analysis, and physics.
Country of the First Author's Institution
Countries were grouped according to their geographic distributions as North
America (United States and Canada), South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia,
Australia—New Zealand, and Africa. In the case of a visiting researcher
who performed more than half the work in the host institution, the study was
credited to the host institution.
Radiologic Technique Used
Techniques included conventional radiography, sonography, CT, MR imaging,
angiography, mammography, interventional radiology, nuclear medicine,
radiotherapy, and others. CT and sonography were subdivided according to their
specific techniques. Sonography was classified as gray-scale sonography, color
Doppler sonography, and power Doppler sonography; CT was classified as
conventional CT, helical CT (including conventional and multidetector helical
CT), and electron beam CT. MR imaging studies were classified into seven
categories: conventional MR imaging, MR angiography or MR cholangiography,
diffusion or perfusion MR imaging, cardiac MR imaging, MR spectroscopy,
functional MR imaging, and others. If more than one modality was used, all
types of the techniques were counted. Interventional procedures were also
categorized as vascular interventions, biopsies, drainages, tissue ablations,
biliary interventions, and other.
Use of Advanced Technology
Original articles, case reports, reviews, and technical notes were
classified into two categories on the basis of whether advanced technology was
used or not used. For the purposes of this study, advanced technology included
special computer programming or simulation studies (such as custom-designed
image processing), multidetector CT, electron beam tomography, special
reconstruction techniques (such as virtual bronchoscopy or colonoscopy),
functional MR imaging studies that need echoplanar MR imaging capability and
special hardware or software to obtain diffusion and perfusion imaging, blood
oxygen level—dependent techniques, cardiac MR imaging performed with
other than conventional MR imaging techniques, MR spectroscopy, tissue
ablation techniques, studies requiring specially designed and commercially
unavailable interventional tools, and positron emission tomography.
Design of Original Articles
Original articles were classified into two categories, retrospective and
prospective. If the design of the study was not clearly stated, we defined the
study design by analyzing the Materials and Methods section. If some part of a
prospective study was based on archiving, the study was considered a
prospective study.
Archive Use
All the articles were judged, regardless of whether archiving was used.
"Archiving" was defined as systematic storing and retrieving of
patients' radiologic images and information over a long-term period. We
considered both a digital archive and a conventional film library to be an
archive. All retrospectively designed original articles and case reports that
discussed at least two cases were considered to be studies based on archiving.
If a review article or a technical note discussed the archived radiologic
data, the article was considered to be dependent on archiving. Commentaries
and editorials were excluded if they were not based on archived materials.
Statistical Analysis
All descriptive statistics and nonparametric test analyses were performed
with a PC-based software package (SPSS for Windows; Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences, Chicago, IL). The chi-square contingency test was
performed to test the level of significance.
|
TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
|---|
|
In the analysis by originating geographic region, North America had the largest percentage of publications (Table 2). No significant difference was found between the two journals in the geographic distribution (p = 0.74). Among all articles, the United States represented most (64%) (Fig. 1). Editorials and commentaries originated mostly in the United States (88%), and 57% of original articles originated in the United States.
|
|
The original articles, case reports, and review articles were analyzed by modalities, and MR imaging was found to be the most widely used modality, used in 215 articles (30%). MR imaging was followed by CT (26%), sonography (14%), radiography (10%), mammography (5%), angiography (5%), and interventional procedures (3%) (Fig. 2). The main technical features of MR imaging, CT, and sonography that were used in these articles are summarized in Table 3.
|
|
The most commonly performed interventional procedures were vascular interventions (37%), followed by drainages (23%), biopsies (22%), tissue ablations (8%), and others (10%) such as cholangiographic procedures, nasolacrimal duct dilatations, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts, and esophageal and intestinal dilations.
Of 652 articles (excluding editorials and commentaries), 107 (16.4%) required advanced technology (Fig. 3). Most of the studies that required advanced technology originated from North America (53%), followed by Europe (28%) and Asia (11%). Advanced technology was mostly related to MR imaging (53%), followed by CT (27%) and interventional procedures (11%). In one article, the sonographic technique was categorized as advanced technology.
|
When the original articles were categorized as to whether they were retrospective or prospective, 341 (67%) of 510 original articles were found to be prospective. Ten percent of retrospective studies and 21% of prospective studies used advanced technology. A significant difference was found between retrospective and prospective studies in using advanced technology (p=0.002).
In 652 articles (original articles, case reports, and review articles), data archiving was essential for part of the study (Fig. 4). Among these articles, 243 (37%) were found to be dependent on data archiving, whereas 409 articles (63%) were not dependent on data archiving. The use of advanced technology was less common in articles based on archiving (8%) than in articles that did not rely on archiving (20%) (p=0.0003).
|
|
TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
|---|
Our data suggest that such fears are not founded in fact. We interpret the relatively low percentage of papers that use advanced technologies as indicating that researchers can generate and evaluate original hypotheses and use appropriate scientific methodology, thereby compensating for any disadvantage that might arise from limited access to advanced technology equipment. Our data also pointed out that most of the original articles were designed prospectively. However, these findings may represent not only the interests of investigators, but also the influence of editorial policy. Editors and reviewers who filter the submissions could play an important role in shaping the profile of published studies.
Our findings also suggest that image and data archiving is another important factor in many radiology publications. Our data showed that in approximately one third of published studies, some type of archiving supplied the research material. These results suggest archiving can not only benefit patient treatment and improve radiologic evaluation, but may also benefit research in radiology.
Another relevant finding is the ongoing internationalization of the AJR and Radiology. We found that articles originating in the United States still represent most of the articles in these journals. A study published in 1994 by Elster and Chen [6] found that 10% of original articles published between 1980 and 1982 in the AJR and Radiology originated in countries other than the United States. The same report also showed this ratio increased to 25% between 1990 and 1992. Our data suggest a further increase of this rate in 1998 and 1999 (Fig. 5). These findings indicate the increased acceptance rate of international articles in these journals.
|
A limitation of our study is the subjective determination by the authors of advanced technology. The definition of advanced technology may differ according to the economic status of the institution or the country. Even though subjective criteria were used to classify advanced technology, we believe that our study will provide to the researcher an overview of the imaging technique used.
We think that radiology investigators who may have limited access to advanced technology need not feel precluded from participating in research that would lead to a scientific publication in a major radiology journal. This finding may be of particular importance to individuals in small departments and hospitals with a small budget who may have only limited access to expensive advanced imaging techniques. However, limited equipment maintenance, time, mentoring, research assistance, and statistical help may cause difficulties in performing research. Further investigations are necessary to determine the impact of these factors on research performance. Our results seem to show that some type of systematic archiving of imaging data may be of particular assistance in performing research. We hope that the increasing rate of international publications in the main radiology journals will further encourage investigators in countries other than the United States to participate in medical research. Finally, we hope such efforts can improve the collective generation and use of medical technology by all nations and reduce morbidity and mortality worldwide.
Acknowledgments
We thank Elkan Helpern for statistical analyses and instructive
feedback.
|
TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
|---|
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  M. Y. Chen, C. B. Jenkins, and A. D. Elster Internationalization of the American Journal of Roentgenology: 1980-2002 Am. J. Roentgenol., October 1, 2003; 181(4): 907 - 912. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
