Reporting of study design in titles and abstracts of articles published in clinically oriented dermatology journals

Case-control studies in diabetes. Do they really use a case-control design?

AIMS

Studies defined as case-control do not always use this design. We aimed to estimate the frequency of mislabelled case-control studies in published articles in the area of diabetes and to identify the predictors of incorrect labelling.

METHODS

We searched Medline and Web of Science for articles with "diabetes" and "case control" in title and filtered for language (English/Romance) and period (January 2010-December 2014). Inclusion criteria were: (1) statement to use a case-control design in title, (2) to be a final full-length publication and (3) to have original data in the area of diabetes. Three independent reviewers went through titles, looked for full texts and reviewed them. Discrepancies were settled with a fourth reviewer. Expert epidemiologist advice was requested in case of doubt.

OUTCOME VARIABLE

case-control mislabelling; addressed predictors: publication year, journal impact factor and journal subject.

STATISTICS

proportion of mislabelled CC articles and assessment of predictors by multivariate logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

We retrieved 362 articles, 251 of them fulfilling inclusion criteria. The proportion of mislabelled CC studies was 43.8% (confidence interval 95% 37.7-50.0%). Most mislabelled studies had a cross-sectional design (82.7%). Predictors of mislabelling were publication year, journal impact factor and journal area.

CONCLUSIONS

A relevant subset of studies defined as case-control in the area of diabetes correspond to mislabelled cross-sectional studies. Incorrect labelling misleads readers regarding the interpretation of results and the cause-effect hypothesis. Researchers, reviewers and editors should be aware of and commit to settle this issue.

Description of research design of articles published in four Brazilian physical therapy journals

Background

While the research design of articles published in medical journals and in some physical therapy journals has already been evaluated, this has not been investigated in Brazilian physical therapy journals.

Objective

To describe the research design used in all articles published in Brazilian scientific journals that are freely available, have high Qualis rankings, and are relevant to physical therapy over a 7-year period.

Method

We extracted the bibliometric data, research design, research type (human or animal), and clinical area for all articles published. The articles were grouped into their level of evidence, and descriptive analyses were performed. We calculated the frequency, proportions of articles, and 95% confidence interval of these proportions with each research design in each journal. We cross-tabulated the clinical areas with research designs (expressed as number and percentages).

Results

A total of 1,458 articles from four Brazilian journals were found: Revista Brasileira de Fisioterapia, Revista Fisioterapia em Movimento, Revista Fisioterapia e Pesquisa, and Revista Acta Fisiátrica. The majority of articles were classified as level II of evidence (60%), followed by level III (29%) and level I (10%). The most prevalent research designs were cross-sectional studies (38%), single-case or case-series studies, and narrative reviews. Most articles reported human research and were in the musculoskeletal, neurologic, and cardiothoracic areas.

Conclusions

Most of the research published in Brazilian physical therapy journals used levels II and III of evidence. Increasing the publication rate of systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials would provide more high-quality evidence to guide evidence-based physical therapy practice.

A review assessing the quality of reporting of risk factor research in implant dentistry using smoking, diabetes and periodontitis and implant loss as an outcome: critical aspects in design and outcome assessment

AIM

To assess, using a structured review, the quality of reporting (design and outcome assessment) of risk factor research using the STROBE statements. The outcome was implant loss, and the risk factors assessed were smoking, diabetes and periodontitis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Literature search was performed individually for each of the risk factors and the outcome using three sets of database: (a) MEDLINE, (b) references derived from relevant reviews and (c) references derived from identified manuscripts. Only case-control and cohort studies were included and assessed using the STROBE statements.

RESULTS

A total of 104 papers were retrieved, three of which were found to be cohort studies (one in the diabetes and two in the periodontitis review) and none was a case-control study. A total of 101 of 104 papers were case series or cross-sectional study.

CONCLUSIONS

Risk factor research in implant dentistry is mostly comprised of case series studies. These are used to generate hypotheses, but are the wrong tool to test these hypotheses. In the near future, well-designed observational studies are needed and should be reported according to the proposed checklist.

Reporting characteristics of cancer pain: a systematic review and quantitative analysis of research publications in palliative care journals

Objective:

A common disorder requiring symptom palliation in palliative and end-of-life care is cancer. Cancer pain is recognized as a global health burden. This paper sought to systematically examine the extent to which there is an adequate scientific research base on cancer pain and its reporting characteristics in the palliative care journal literature.

Materials and Methods:

Search conducted in MEDLINE and CINAHL sought to locate all studies published in 19 palliative/ hospice/ supportive/ end-of-life care journals from 2009 to 2010. The journals included were: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, BMC Palliative Care, Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care, End of Life Care Journal, European Journal of Palliative Care, Hospice Management Advisor, Indian Journal of Palliative Care, International Journal of Palliative Nursing, Internet Journal of Pain Symptom Control and Palliative Care, Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy, Journal of Palliative Care, Journal of Palliative Medicine, Journal of Social Work in End-of-life and Palliative Care, Journal of Supportive Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Palliative and Supportive Care, and Supportive Care in Cancer. Journal contents were searched to identify studies that included cancer pain in abstract.

Results:

During the years 2009 and 2010, of the selected 1,569 articles published in the journals reviewed, only 5.86% (92 articles) were on cancer pain.

Conclusion:

While researchers in the field of palliative care have studied cancer pain, the total percentage for studies is still a low 5.86%. To move the field of palliative care forward so that appropriate guidelines for cancer pain management can be developed, it is critical that more research be reported upon which to base cancer pain therapy in an evidence-based palliative care model.

The impact of article titles on citation hits: an analysis of general and specialist medical journals

OBJECTIVES

Most published articles are not cited and citation rates depend on many variables. We hypothesized that specific features of journal titles may be related to citation rates.

DESIGN

We reviewed the title characteristics of the 25 most cited articles and the 25 least cited articles published in 2005 in general and specialist medical journals including the Lancet, BMJ and Journal of Clinical Pathology. The title length and construction were correlated to the number of times the papers have been cited to May 2009.

SETTING

Retrospective review of a scientific database.

PARTICIPANTS

None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Citation rate.

RESULTS

The number of citations was positively correlated with the length of the title, the presence of a colon in the title and the presence of an acronym. Factors that predicted poor citation included reference to a specific country in the title.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest that the construction of an article title has a significant impact on frequently the paper is cited. We hypothesize that this may be related to the way electronic searches of the literature are undertaken.