编辑因素对我国中文医学期刊学术质量影响的实证研究

【目的】验证与期刊编辑/编辑部相关的、中文医学期刊论文学术质量的影响因素,有针对性地提出控制我国中文医学期刊学术质量的策略。【方法】以田野调查、文献研究和专家访谈法募集中文医学期刊论文质量影响因子,分别设计针对作者/作者机构和医学期刊编辑/编辑部的问卷;以已有的论文质量评价指标对我国医学期刊近年发表的临床研究论文的学术质量进行抽样评价;通过问卷调查获取抽样论文的作者/作者机构与医学期刊编辑/编辑部的数据;采用假设检验法验证论文质量的影响因素。【结果】最终纳入质量抽样评价的我国中文医学期刊近年发表的临床研究论文有229篇,同时获得229篇论文的作者及所涉138种中文医学期刊编辑的问卷数据。数据统计学分析显示:在与作者/作者机构相关的23项可能因素中,仅伦理审查1项与论文综合质量相关(χ²=11.075,P=0.001);在与编辑/编辑部相关的18项可能因素中,编辑是否具有医学专业背景(χ²=21.533,P<0.001)、统计学掌握水平(t=2.221,P=0.028)、在版面形式上的耗费时间(t=-3.064,P=0.002)以及期刊是否为核心期刊(χ²=4.714,P=0.034)4个变量与论文综合质量显著相关。结果证实,编辑/编辑部相关因素与我国中文医学期刊论文学术质量存在关联。【结论】为控制我国中文医学期刊的学术质量,医学期刊编辑部应将具备医学学科背景作为科学编辑入职的必备条件;持续强化对医学编辑的临床研究方法学和统计学培训;按工作需要配备编辑人力并合理化分工,减少科学编辑在论文版面形式上的耗费时间。此外,编辑部在初审论文时须严格执行形式审查制度,对未经伦理审查的医学研究论文应予以“一票否决”。

Empirical study on the influence of factors related to editors on the academic quality of Chinese medical journals

Purposes] The objective of this study is to verify the factors related to editors/editorial departments that affect the academic quality of Chinese medical journal papers and to put forward strategies for ensuring the academic quality of Chinese medical journals.Methods] We collected factors impacting the quality of papers of Chinese medical journals by field investigation, literature research, and expert interview and designed questionnaires for authors/authors' affiliations and medical journal editors/editorial departments, respectively. We assessed the quality of sampled papers on clinical studies of Chinese medical journals published in recent years with corresponding indexes. Through questionnaire investigation, we obtained data on the authors/authors' affiliations of the sampled papers and the editors/editorial departments of medical journals, and verified the influencing factors of these papers' academic quality by hypothesis testing.Findings] A total of 229 clinical research papers are included for quality evaluation and data on authors of the 229 papers and the editors of 138 Chinese medical journals are collected. According to statistical analysis, among the 23 potential factors associated with authors/authors' affiliations, only ethical review is associated with the overall quality of the papers (χ²=11.075, P=0.001). Among the 18 possible factors related to editors/editorial departments, whether the editors are medical professionals (χ²=21.533, P<0.001), editors' statistics knowledge (t=2.221, P=0.028), time spending on layout form (t=-3.064, P=0.002), and whether the journal is a core journal (χ²=4.714, P=0.034) are related to the overall quality of the papers. The results of this study confirm that editor/editorial department-related factors are closely related to the academic quality of papers in Chinese medical journals in China.Conclusions] To ensure the academic quality of Chinese medical journals in China, editorial departments should include professional medical knowledge as a necessity for the candidate editors, strengthen the training of editors in clinical research methodology and statistics, enroll editors according to the development of journals, divide work according to the competence of editors, and reduce the time spent on layout of papers. In addition, the editorial board must strictly implement the formal review system during the preliminary examination of papers, and medical research papers that have not been ethically reviewed should be vetoed.