Trends in the ophthalmic literature, 1949-1989

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Bibliometrics
• Scientific Publishing

Background:

• The Archives of Ophthalmology has published research for decades.
• Understanding trends in scientific literature is crucial for tracking research evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze trends in ophthalmic literature over five decades.
• To identify changes in authorship, institutional collaboration, and funding.

Main Methods:

• Review of original articles from Archives of Ophthalmology.
• Data collection from publications in 1949, 1959, 1969, 1979, and 1989.
• Analysis of mean authors per article, mean institutions per article, and authors with Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees.

Main Results:

• Mean authors per article increased from 1.24 (1949) to 3.50 (1989).
• Mean institutions per article rose from 1.04 (1949) to 1.30 (1989).
• Proportion of articles with financial support increased from 13.5% (1949) to 62.6% (1989).

Conclusions:

• Ophthalmic literature demonstrates increasing collaboration among researchers.
• There is a growing trend of involving basic scientists (Ph.D. holders) in ophthalmic research.
• Grant funding has become a substantially larger component of ophthalmic research support.