How Team Science Is Documented and Described in Published Family Medicine Research

Increasingly emphasized by leaders in family medicine and primary care research, team science is an approach to research that requires clear documentation for replicability. Here, we report the approach to documenting team science in 2 US family medicine research journals.

Our interdisciplinary team, composed of MDs and PhDs from family medicine and other disciplines, established a definition of the "team science" construct, which included the utilization of interdisciplinary partnerships and/or collaboration with community-based organizations. Two team members reviewed every original research article published in 2023 in the Annals of Family Medicine (AFM) and the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (JABFM). Data extraction identified the use of the term "team science" or the presence of elements of the construct as defined by the team, as well as the funding source(s).

Of the 107 articles reviewed, none explicitly mentioned the term "team science." However, 19 (17.8%) described interdisciplinary partnerships. Seventeen (15.9%) described the disciplines of the contributors, and 5 (4.7%) described community collaborators. Most articles (80.4%) were funded studies, with 70.9% supported by national governmental or nongovernmental entities.

In this sample of articles, team science was either not reported at all or it was described in a limited way. The authors recommend that editors encourage discussions of interdisciplinarity and team science research practices in manuscripts, including descriptions of the strengths each disciplinary representative brings to the team.