International Representation in Psychiatric Literature: Has the Trend Changed? Review of 11 Leading Psychiatric Journals

Abstract

Aim: A survey of six of the highest impact psychiatric journal articles (2001), revealed the underrepresentation of non-Western countries. The current study looked at the new trends in the representation of psychiatric literature. We aimed to quantify the articles from High-Income Countries (HIC) and compare it with the rest of the world (RoW) in 11 high impact journals. Materials and Methods: A survey of the country of origin of research data and authors in published literature of 11 psychiatric journals: six of the same journals previously surveyed and five new journals from 2014 to 2016. Results: Out of the total of 5278 articles, the maximum number of 2093 (39.65 %) were from the other Euro-American countries (OEAC), followed by 1546 (29.29 %) from the United States of America (USA), and 727 (13.77 %) from the United Kingdom (UK), and 754 (14.28 %) were from rest of the world (RoW). The highest was in the Journal of Neurology, Neuro-Surgery and Psychiatry 131 (17.37 %), followed by the British Journal of Psychiatry, 85 (11.27 %) and Molecular Psychiatry; 65 (8.62 %). A comparison between the previous six journals and the current survey showed that RoW publications have increased from 6 % to 13.84 % over 15 years. Out of the additional five journals surveyed, a total of 327 papers were from RoW and the Journal of Neurology, Neuro-Surgery and Psychiatry had the highest representation of RoW literature: 131 (40 %). It was more than double of publications by the Lancet Psychiatry and Molecular Psychiatry. Biological Psychiatry had 46 (14.06 %) papers followed by the World Psychiatry which carried 25 (7.64 %). Conclusion: An overall increase in the number of articles from RoW is evident. It is a welcome trend; however, a significant underrepresentation is still evident.