Cardiovascular research in France: Evolution of scientific activities and production over the last decade

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of death worldwide, and fruitful research is needed for future advances in this field.

To analyse the scientific production and vitality of French cardiovascular clinical research, and its evolution over the last decade.

We first used Lab Times online data obtained through the Web of Science (Thomson-Reuters, Toronto, ON, Canada), then the PubMed database (National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI], Bethesda, MD, USA), for studies published between 2005 and 2015 in the multidisciplinary and cardiology journals with the highest impact factors. French abstracts submitted and accepted at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress were provided directly by the ESC. The number of cardiovascular projects was analysed through the http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov database and the French site for government-funded projects, over the decade from 2008 to 2017.

Overall, France was ranked fifth in Europe and eighth worldwide for CVD publications. During the 10-year period from 2005 to 2015, French publications accounted for 0.2-0.3% of articles in top multidisciplinary journals and 2% of articles in top cardiology journals. We observed a steady decrease in French abstract submissions at the ESC congress (from 5% to 3.5% in 10 years), and in 2017, France was ranked eighth in Europe. Across European countries, France has been ranked first for declared cardiovascular research on http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov over the last 3 years, for both interventional and observational studies. Regarding the Hospital Programme of Clinical Research, heart ranked second after neurosciences.

France is very well represented in terms of new CVD projects, but actual French scientific production scores poorly. Investing in CVD research is a priority to increase the level of publication and to compete with other leading countries.