Age of Data in Contemporary Research Articles Published in Representative General Radiology Journals

To analyze and compare the age of data in contemporary research articles published in representative general radiology journals.

We searched for articles reporting original research studies analyzing patient data that were published in the print issues of the Korean Journal of Radiology (KJR), European Radiology (ER), and Radiology in 2017. Eligible articles were reviewed to extract data collection period (time from first patient recruitment to last patient follow-up) and age of data (time between data collection end and publication). The journals were compared in terms of the proportion of articles reporting the data collection period to the level of calendar month and regarding the age of data.

There were 50, 492, and 254 eligible articles in KJR, ER, and Radiology, respectively. Of these, 44 (88%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 75.8-94.8%), 359 (73%; 95% CI: 68.9-76.7%), and 211 (83.1%; 95% CI: 78-87.2%) articles, respectively, provided enough details of data collection period, revealing a significant difference between ER and Radiology (p = 0.002). The age of data was significantly greater in KJR (median age: 826 days; range: 299-2843 days) than in ER (median age: 570 days; range: 56-4742 days; p < 0.001) and Radiology (median age: 618; range: 75-4271 days; p < 0.001).

Korean Journal of Radiology did not fall behind ER or Radiology in reporting of data collection period, but showed a significantly greater age of data than ER and Radiology, suggesting that KJR should take measures to improve the timeliness of its data.