Journal publications in radiologic education: a review of the literature, 1987-1997

This study was designed to analyze articles on radiologic education quantitatively and qualitatively, comparing those published in 1987-1997 with those published in 1966-1986.

An initial literature search used four major databases to identify and retrieve articles related to radiologic education. Additional articles were identified through manual cross-checking of references from the original articles. All articles were reviewed by two radiologists as to type of article (editorial, expository, survey, correlational, or experimental, including preexperimental, quasi-experimental, or true experimental), statistics used (inferential or descriptive), educational emphasis (medical student, resident, postgraduate, or other), and topic of article (philosophical or political, technology, program evaluation, program description, examinations, or career decisions). Interrater agreement was estimated by means of the kappa statistic. A chi2 test for independence was used to assess whether the relative distribution of articles was similar for the two periods.

More articles per year were published in 1987-1997 (n = 12.6, P < .01) compared with 1966-1986 (n = 9.2). Articles pertinent to radiologic resident education predominated (50.7% vs 29.9% in the prior study, P < .01). In both periods, most articles were expository (37.7% vs 49.5%), and the most common topic was program description (34% vs 35%). Editorials decreased from 35.5% to 18.1%. Experimental studies accounted for 12.3%, increased from 8.7%. The fastest-growing topic of study was technology (30.4% vs 17.5%, P < .01).

The increased number of articles addressing radiologic education is encouraging. Although the percentage of experimental studies increased slightly in this period, there is still little empirical research in radiologic education.