The Journal of Family Practice 1974-1988. Window to an evolving academic discipline

This paper examines the spontaneous evolution of original work in family practice as published in The Journal of Family Practice over the 15-year period since it began publication in 1974. An analysis was carried out by principal content and type of paper for the last five years in a manner comparable to an earlier analysis of the journal's first ten years of publication. Trends that emerge from this reanalysis provide a window to observe the further development of family medicine as a scientific and academic discipline. The last five years have seen a marked increase in clinical content of papers (from approximately 60 to 80 percent of published papers) together with continued emphasis on health services subjects. There has been a concurrent sharp increase in research papers, continued strong representation of case studies, and some decrease in both reviews and methods papers. Descriptive research continues to predominate among research papers. Although experimental research still represents only 5 percent of published papers, this percentage has more than doubled over the last five years. The reanalysis also revealed a substantial decline in the proportion of educational papers, as other journals in the field have assumed the primary role for this content area. It appears that the manuscript supply represented by original work in the field is still limited and that there is at present adequate or even surplus journal capacity for publication of work carried out in family practice settings. The quality and type of work continue to mature consistent with the needs of family medicine as a scientific and academic discipline.