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Brief Report
Revised

Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals

[version 3; peer review: 3 approved]
PUBLISHED 20 Feb 2020
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This article is included in the Research on Research, Policy & Culture gateway.

Abstract

Academic degrees following author names are often included in medical research papers. However, it remains unclear how many journals choose to include academic degrees and whether this is more common in certain types of journals. We examined the 100 highest impact medical journals and found that only 24 medical journals reported academic degrees. Moreover, this was substantially more common in journals based in North America compared with Europe. Further research is required to explore the implications of listing academic degrees on the readers’ attitude towards research quality.

Keywords

Academic, degree, impact factor, journals, publication, high-impact

Revised Amendments from Version 2

First, to the Methods section, we have added that the 100 highest impact medical journals constituted 4% of the total medical journals identified in the Journal Citation Reports.
Second, we added that information was collected on fellowship designations and job titles to the Methods section. Moreover, these results are presented in the Results section.
Third, we added additional perspectives on avenues for future research to the Discussion section. These include research on trends in reporting academic degrees and trends in academic degree characteristics. Relevant references were added.

See the authors' detailed response to the review by Christopher C. Winchester
See the authors' detailed response to the review by Saif Aldeen Alryalat
See the authors' detailed response to the review by Ana Marusic

Introduction

During submission of research papers to medical journals, authors are often asked to include academic degrees and/or affiliations. However, journals differ in how they present this information to readers. While some journals include academic degrees following author names, others choose not to list this information on the title page. To our knowledge, no evidence is available on how many journals choose to include academic degrees and whether this is more common in certain types of journals. Among the most influential medical journals, we examined journal factors associated with the inclusion of academic degrees on the title page.

Methods

We identified the 100 highest impact medical journals based on impact factor reported in the Journal Citation Reports1 published in 2018. These journals constituted 4% of the total number of medical journals identified in Journal Citation Reports. Characteristics of each journal in regard to specialty, impact factor, primary journal focus, continent, and open access policy were obtained. Journals were categorized as “general” or “specific” based on subject area designation in Scopus2, i.e. whether content was primarily related to one specialty (e.g. cardiology) or multiple specialties. Data were collected on the presence of academic degrees following author names in the title page by assessment of multiple original research articles from each journal. The presence of academic degrees was defined as the inclusion of academic degree abbreviations following author names (e.g. MD, PhD, RN, MPH etc.). Similarly, we collected data on fellowship designations and job titles following author names. Multiple articles published throughout July 2018 and August 2019 were assessed for each journal. No discrepancy of reporting academic degrees throughout the time period was identified. If there was any discrepancy between the print and the online version, the print version was used. Open access was identified based on open access designation in Scopus. Scopus registers open access as follows: “In Scopus, journals are registered as being OA journals only if they are registered as Gold OA or Subsidized OA at one or both of the following sources: Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources (ROAD)3.

Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the journals. Categorical data were compared with the Fisher’s Exact Test and continuous data were compared with the Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test. The association between journal characteristics and the reporting of academic degrees were estimated using multivariable logistic regression.

Statistical analyses were performed in SAS (version 9.4). A two-tailed p < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results

Of the 100 highest impact medical journals, 24 journals reported academic degrees on the title page (Table 1). We found that 52% of journals were published in Europe and 48% were published in North America. Only 8% of European journals reported academic degrees while 42% of North American journals reported academic degrees. The median impact factor of journals reporting and not reporting academic degrees was 12 (IQR 10 – 19) and 15 (IQR 11 – 20), respectfully. Moreover, six journals reported fellowship designations and one journal reported job titles (online only), all of which included academic degrees.

Table 1. The presence of academic degree(s) according to journal factors in the top 100 high-impact medical journals.

Presence of academic degreeMultivariable model
Yes (n = 24)No (n = 76)OR95%CI
Primary journal focusClinical17 (71%)26 (34%)Ref.-
Basic science and/or experimental0 (0%)21 (28%)NAaNAa
Combined7 (29%)28 (37%)0.190.05 - 0.80
SpecialtyGeneral4 (17%)9 (12%)Ref.-
Specific20 (83%)67 (88%)1.770.27 - 11.54
Open accessYes1 (4%)6 (8%)Ref.-
No23 (96%)70 (92%)4.940.41 - 59.36
ContinentEurope4 (17%)48 (63%)Ref.-
North America20 (83%)28 (37%)19.954.71 - 84.44
Journal impactImpact factorb12 (10 – 19)15 (11 – 20)1.001.00 - 1.00

aNot able to be estimated as no journal in this category reported academic degrees

bMedian with quartiles

Multivariable analysis showed that North America and a clinical journal focus was associated with increased odds of reporting academic degrees (Table 1). No association was found for the other journal characteristics.

Discussion

Among the 100 highest impact medical journals, only 24 journals reported academic degrees following author names on the title page. Reporting of academic degrees was substantially more common in journals based in North America compared with Europe.

Listing author academic degrees is an editorial policy decision but there is little guidance from the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) or the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style. Specifically, the ICMJE states “Each author's highest academic degrees should be listed, although some journals do not publish these4.” and the AMA Manual of Style writes “Journals should establish their own policies on the inclusion of authors' degrees.5. Neither provides a rationale for providing academic degrees and it remains unclear why some journals do and others do not. The marked difference between journals published in North America compared with Europe cannot be explained by the current study but may be a reflection of cultural differences in attitude towards degrees and titles. To our knowledge, no studies exist on the impact of reporting academic degrees in medical journals. Further research is needed to explore 1) trends in reporting academic degrees, 2) the implications of listing academic degrees on the readers’ attitude towards research quality, and 3) trends in academic degree characteristics considering that specific journals have seen an increase in authors with bachelor’s and multiple academic degrees68.

Limitations of the current study include that we only evaluated high-impact medical journals. Furthermore, we only assessed some journal characteristics. We evaluated only recent issues of these journals and are therefore unable to comment on trends in the use of author academic degrees.

In conclusion, we found that academic degrees are reported in about one fourth of medical journals and that this practice is more common in North America.

Data availability

Underlying data

Harvard Dataverse: Replication Data for: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KTWS6C9

This project contains the following underlying data:

  • - CSV file with the titles of the medical journals investigated

Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication).

The Journal Citation Report from Clarivate Analytics can only be accessed through an individual or institutional account.

Notes

1https://jcr.clarivate.com/JCRLandingPageAction.action Accessed September 7th 2019

2https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri Accessed Dec. 5th 2019

3https://blog.scopus.com/posts/scopus-to-launch-open-access-indicator-for-journals-on-july-29 Assessed December 5th 2019

4http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/preparing-for-submission.html#a Accessed September 7th 2019

5https://www.amamanualofstyle.com/view/10.1093/jama/9780195176339.001.0001/med-9780195176339-div2-10 Accessed September 7th 2019

6Haws BE, Khechen B, Movassaghi K, et al. Authorship Trends in Spine Publications From 2000 to 2015. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2018;43(17):1225–1230

7Schrock JB, Kraeutler MJ, McCarty EC. Trends in Authorship Characteristics in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 1994 to 2014. Am J Sports Med. 2016;44(7):1857–1860

8Gu A, Almeida N, Cohen JS, Peck KM, Merrell GA. Progression of Authorship of Scientific Articles in The Journal of Hand Surgery, 1985–2015. J Hand Surg Am. 2017;42(4):291 e291–291 e296.

9Stankovic, Nikola, 2019, "Replication Data for: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KTWS6C, Harvard Dataverse, V1

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VERSION 3 PUBLISHED 05 Nov 2019
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Stankovic N, Nolan JP and Andersen LW. Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals [version 3; peer review: 3 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 8:1852 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.21096.3)
NOTE: If applicable, it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
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Current Reviewer Status: ?
Key to Reviewer Statuses VIEW
ApprovedThe paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested
Approved with reservations A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.
Not approvedFundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions
Version 3
VERSION 3
PUBLISHED 20 Feb 2020
Revised
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10
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Reviewer Report 21 Feb 2020
Ana Marusic, Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, School of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia 
Approved
VIEWS 10
The authors have addressed ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Marusic A. Reviewer Report For: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals [version 3; peer review: 3 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 8:1852 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.24841.r60328)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
Version 2
VERSION 2
PUBLISHED 12 Dec 2019
Revised
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16
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Reviewer Report 11 Feb 2020
Christopher C. Winchester, Oxford PharmaGenesis Ltd, Oxford, UK 
Approved
VIEWS 16
Thank you for the opportunity to review the work of Stankovic and colleagues on the prevalence of reporting of academic degrees on the title pages of 100 leading medical journals selected based on journal impact factor. The resulting brief communication ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Winchester CC. Reviewer Report For: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals [version 3; peer review: 3 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 8:1852 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.23852.r58696)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
  • Author Response 20 Feb 2020
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    20 Feb 2020
    Author Response
    Thank you for raising some important questions along with adding insights into patient and public involvement in research through your suggested articles. Overall, our manuscript adds insights to the reporting ... Continue reading
COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT
  • Author Response 20 Feb 2020
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    20 Feb 2020
    Author Response
    Thank you for raising some important questions along with adding insights into patient and public involvement in research through your suggested articles. Overall, our manuscript adds insights to the reporting ... Continue reading
Views
21
Cite
Reviewer Report 16 Dec 2019
Ana Marusic, Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, School of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia 
Approved with Reservations
VIEWS 21
The authors addressed most of my comments and concerns, but I am still not sure that it is appropriate not to present references that studied academic degrees and authorship. While there is no overview of the practices in different journals, ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Marusic A. Reviewer Report For: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals [version 3; peer review: 3 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 8:1852 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.23852.r57744)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
  • Author Response 18 Dec 2019
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    18 Dec 2019
    Author Response
    Overall, the suggested articles deals with trends in authorship and academic degree characteristics in specific medical journals. Specifically, studies 1-3 found an increase in authors per article and changes in ... Continue reading
COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT
  • Author Response 18 Dec 2019
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    18 Dec 2019
    Author Response
    Overall, the suggested articles deals with trends in authorship and academic degree characteristics in specific medical journals. Specifically, studies 1-3 found an increase in authors per article and changes in ... Continue reading
Views
14
Cite
Reviewer Report 13 Dec 2019
Saif Aldeen Alryalat, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Jordan Hospital, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan 
Approved
VIEWS 14
I would like to applaud the authors' efforts in thoroughly reviewing their article. Again, this study raised a good insight into the importance of considering reporting academic degrees of authors as part of their affiliation in medical journals. I also agree that future studies ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Alryalat SA. Reviewer Report For: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals [version 3; peer review: 3 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 8:1852 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.23852.r57745)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
Version 1
VERSION 1
PUBLISHED 05 Nov 2019
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31
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Reviewer Report 18 Nov 2019
Ana Marusic, Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, School of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia 
Not Approved
VIEWS 31
This article addresses an interesting and intriguing question in publishing - why author's academic degrees are published in journals. Editorial guidelines mention this, but do not provide actual guidance.
This research showed that journals from North America and from ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Marusic A. Reviewer Report For: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals [version 3; peer review: 3 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 8:1852 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.23217.r56491)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
  • Author Response 12 Dec 2019
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    12 Dec 2019
    Author Response
    Comment 1:
    • “There is no literature overview on this problem (or a statement that there is no evidence on this issue in literature).”
     
    Response 1: ... Continue reading
COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT
  • Author Response 12 Dec 2019
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    12 Dec 2019
    Author Response
    Comment 1:
    • “There is no literature overview on this problem (or a statement that there is no evidence on this issue in literature).”
     
    Response 1: ... Continue reading
Views
21
Cite
Reviewer Report 08 Nov 2019
Saif Aldeen Alryalat, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Jordan Hospital, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan 
Approved with Reservations
VIEWS 21
Stankovic et al assessed the factors associated with mentioning academic degrees on the journal’s title page. The current study is interesting and sheds a light on an important topic, although the authors chose a restricted sample to analyze (i.e. high impact ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Alryalat SA. Reviewer Report For: Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals [version 3; peer review: 3 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 8:1852 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.23217.r56195)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
  • Author Response 12 Dec 2019
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    12 Dec 2019
    Author Response
    Comment 1:
    • In the methods section, the authors did not define “academic degrees”. In the data associated with this study, they included columns on “Academic degrees”, “job
    ... Continue reading
COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT
  • Author Response 12 Dec 2019
    Lars Andersen, Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
    12 Dec 2019
    Author Response
    Comment 1:
    • In the methods section, the authors did not define “academic degrees”. In the data associated with this study, they included columns on “Academic degrees”, “job
    ... Continue reading

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Version 3
VERSION 3 PUBLISHED 05 Nov 2019
Comment
Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:
Approved - the paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested
Approved with reservations - A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.
Not approved - fundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions
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