Otorhinolaryngology publication from Chinese authors: a 11-year survey of the literature

Objective: Scientific publication is the reflection of the capability of not only an individual scholar, but also a group, even a country. Over the past few decades, Chinese researchers have made great progress in medical scientific field. However, the status about the quantity and quality of the publications in otorhinolaryngology have not been reported. The aim of this study was to compare the output by Chinese authors from three regions of China: Mainland China (MC), Taiwan (TW) and Hong Kong (HK). Methods: Literature was retrieved from the 43 otorhinolaryngology journals based on the subject category 'otorhinolaryngology' of the Science Citation Index Expanded (2015) from Web of Science Core Collection. The first authors of these articles were limited in three regions of China: MC, TW and HK from 2006 to 2016 by using the data mining software Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA). Evaluation criteria are based on total number of articles, impact factors (IFs), citations, articles published in high-impact journals and funding support. Result: A total of 59,832 articles were published worldwide in 43 otorhinolaryngology related journals from 2006 to 2016. Publications from MC was rapidly increasing and the total number contributed the most articles of the China (1931/3362, 57.44%), followed by TW (1220/3362, 36.29%) and HK (211/3362, 6.28%). The quantity of annual publications from MC has exceeded that of TW since 2010. MC was in the first place for cumulative IFs, but the last place for average IF. For total and average citations, MC was in the same situation of IF. Acta Otolaryngol was the most popular journal to choose in MC, and for TW and HK was Head & Neck. Conclusions: The total number of otorhinolaryngology articles in China increased markedly from 2006 to 2016, especially for MC. Despite the rapid growth in the number of articles from MC, the quality was not that satisfactory.