Content analysis of a stratified random selection of JVME articles: 1974-2004

A content analysis was performed on a random sample (N = 168) of 25% of the articles published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education (JVME) per year from 1974 through 2004. Over time, there were increased numbers of authors per paper, more cross-institutional collaborations, greater prevalence of references or endnotes, and lengthier articles, which could indicate a trend toward publications describing more complex or complete work. The number of first authors that could be identified as female was greatest for the most recent time period studied (2000-2004). Two different categorization schemes were created to assess the content of the publications. The first categorization scheme identified the most frequently published topics as admissions, descriptions of courses, the effect of changing teaching methods, issues facing the profession, and examples of uses of technology. The second categorization scheme identified the subset of articles that described medical education research on the basis of the purpose of the research, which represented only 14% of the sample articles (24 of 168). Of that group, only three of 24, or 12%, represented studies based on a firm conceptual framework that could be confirmed or refuted by the study's results. The results indicate that JVME is meeting its broadly based mission and that publications in the veterinary medical education literature have features common to publications in medicine and medical education.