At the millennium: a slice of scholarship

Scholarly output is the standard by which academics are judged; in particular journal articles. This study aimed to examine the scholarly output of nursing academics over a two-year period, and to establish benchmark data for future longitudinal comparisons. Journal articles were used as the unit of analysis. The following characteristics of articles were examined: whether articles were refereed or non-refereed; the type of journal; content characteristics; scholarly focus; predominant methodology of research articles; and predominant focus of specialty areas. The characteristics of principal authors and their effect on articles were also examined. The study demonstrated that while there had been no substantial increase in scholarly output, there was a clear link between higher academic rank and type of scholarly output. An increasing predominance of research articles was demonstrated, with a striking trend towards increased use of qualitative methodology, and in the number of publications by groups of authors.