[Collaborations in publications on pediatric anesthesiology in the D-A-CH countries]

Collaborations are an essential element of scientific activity and particularly important in fields such as pediatric anesthesiology, where the evidence base in general is relatively limited. A recent scientometric analysis revealed a geographic diversification of publication activity in pediatric anesthesiology within the last two decades, accompanied by a surge in international collaborations.

Given the hypothesis of a similar growth in the activity and dynamics of publications in pediatric anesthesiology, the objective of this scientometric study was to analyze the publication activity and collaboration habits in research in pediatric anesthesiology from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (D-A-CH).

This secondary analysis identified all publications on pediatric anesthesiology with an affiliation from the D‑A-CH countries between 2001 and 2020 from PubMed and Web of Science. The query parameters included the timeframe 2001-2020, authors' affiliations tied to anesthesiology departments (using various forms of the term "anesthesia"), and the mention of pediatric interest in titles or abstracts. The data underwent standardization to account for linguistic variations. The publications were assigned to a state, city and institution based on the correspondence address, to a year based on the publication date and to a source based on the journal. The primary endpoint was publication activity and dynamics, represented by the number of publications and the respective growth rates (calculated as the linear regression slope). Secondary endpoints included the share of collaborations within and outside the D‑A-CH region (at the country and institutional level), the distribution of publication activity and the most prominent sources of publications.

Between 2001 and 2020 a total of 3406 publications on pediatric anesthesiology involving authors from the D‑A-CH countries were identified. Of these 2807 (82.4%) had a correspondence address in D‑A-CH. The average annual growth rate of publications with a correspondence address was + 2.9% for the D‑A-CH countries and + 7.7% for publications with collaborations. The number of publications in which an institution from D‑A-CH was named as a coauthor from a correspondence address outside D‑A-CH also increased by an average of 7.4% per year during the study period. The majority of collaborations occurred between institutions within the D‑A-CH region, although Swiss institutions exhibited a much higher proportion of collaborations outside the region. Of all publications with a correspondence address 90% originated from 46 cities. The most prominent source was Die Anästhesiologie for publications from Germany, and Pediatric Anesthesia for publications from Austria and Switzerland.

The number of publications in pediatric anesthesiology from the D‑A-CH countries has increased over the past two decades, accompanied by a surge in collaborations. It is hoped that increased collaboration will contribute to a higher level of evidence in pediatric anesthesiology care.