Reporting of academic degrees in high-impact medical journals

Introduction

During submission of research papers to medical journals, authors are often asked to include academic degrees, affiliations, and/or job titles. 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. It is unclear 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 hundred highest impact medical journals based on impact factor reported in the Journal Citation Reports¹ published in 2018. Characteristics of each journal in regard to specialty, impact factor, primary journal focus, continent, and open access policy were obtained. 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. Approximately ten articles published in July 2018 and August 2019 were assessed for each journal. If there was any discrepancy between the print and the online version, the print version was used. There were no discrepancies within journals for the two time periods.

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 49% of journals were published in Europe and 51% were published in North America. Only 8% of European journals reported academic degrees while 39% of North American journals reported academic degrees. The median impact factor of journals reporting and not reporting academic degrees was 12 (IQR 11-20) and 15 (IQR 10 – 19), respectfully.

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 these².” and the AMA Manual of Style writes “Journals should establish their own policies on the inclusion of authors' degrees.”³. 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. Further research is needed to explore the implications of listing academic degrees on the readers’ attitude towards research quality.

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