A decade of evolution in Indonesian orthopedic publication: A bibliographic report

Abstract

During the past decade, there was an increasing interest in orthopedic research in Indonesia. Therefore we aimed to investigate the profile of Indonesian orthopedic trend publication from 2010 to 2019. Systematic research was conducted to identify all orthopedic articles authored by Indonesian orthopedic surgeons. Article details (number of authors, authors’ affiliation, publishing journal), type of author’s affiliation, affiliate collaboration, study field, type, and level of evidence (LOE) were recorded and evaluated. Publishing journal metric and author h-index were also recorded. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data.

Two hundred and twenty articles were included in our study. Clinical studies were the most common article type, followed by case reports and basic science. Among clinical articles, therapeutic studies were found significantly more frequent. On the other hand, economic studies were not found in this study period. The most popular field was oncology, followed by knee and spine. The average number of authors per article was 5.23 with a total of 205 individuals who had contributed during this decade. University hospital was the most common affiliation found and single-center study was the most common affiliate collaboration. The most common level of evidence was level V (case reports). Eighty-seven specific publishing journals were identified. More than 42% of the articles were published in journals with SJR between 0.25 and 0.50. The average author h-index was 3.56 (0–7). Although there was an increasing trend and quantity of publications among Indonesian authors, most articles had level 5 evidence (case reports) and the quality of publishing journals was mostly Q3 with a low-moderate SJR. Improvement of the article’s quality and institutional collaboration will be needed for future contribution in global orthopedic society.

Introduction

Publishing in medical journal is one of various ways to communicate new research to clinicians, medical scientists, and other healthcare workers. Communications that facilitate the widest global dissemination of such information are advantageous to the public. Their ability to prevent disease and improve health quality would be aided by improved access to reliable medical information.¹

The current analysis of publication trends examines changes in research methodology within the modern era amongst leading medical journals. A paradigm shift in the publication has occurred from small single-centre studies to large multicentre RCTs. Moreover, there has been an increase in multi-authored papers and an increase in the mean number of co-authors on papers recently published.^2,3 Additionally, there has been an increase in collaboration between authors of different countries over the past 10 years, which further contributes to the globalization of academic medicine.^3,4 This pattern demonstrates a positive step towards clarity in disclosure and conduct amongst clinical studies.⁵ The increased interests in publication has also occurred in the orthopedic field. Previous studies provided country rankings of orthopedic publications in major orthopedic journals. However, not every orthopedic article were included, since not every orthopedic article were published in orthopedic-specific journals.6, 7, 8

In Indonesia, there are also increasing interest to publication among Orthopedic surgeon especially in recent years, which is influenced by many factors. University or private hospital affiliated surgeon has some obligations to publish their works regularly. There are also increasing availability of government or private publication grants that can be obtained by the researchers. However, for the most part, the importance of scientific publication has been acknowledged by the Indonesian orthopedic society. The aim of this article is to systematically review the literature published by Indonesian orthopedic authors from 2010 to 2019 and evaluate the publication profile (article details and publishing journal metrics) which will show the contribution of Indonesian authors to orthopedic research.