title: An 'ethics gap' in writing about bioethics: a quantitative comparison of the medical and the surgical literature.
abstract: In order to determine whether there is a significant difference between the medical literature and the surgical literature in terms of their bioethics content, we conducted a computerized search of the MEDLINE database. The journals searched were selected from the 'Medicine' and 'Surgery' sections of the 'Brandon-Hill List', and the search was limited to 1992 issues of these journals. Three hundred and seven bioethics bibliographic records (out of a total of 11,239 articles indexed) were retrieved from the 15 medical journals searched, while 17 bioethics bibliographic records (out of a total of 2,645 articles indexed) were retrieved from the 12 surgical journals searched. We conclude that there is a statistically significant (p < 0.001) difference between the medical literature and the surgical literature with respect to their quantitative bioethics content.
authors.affiliation: Division of Internal Medicine, Nassau County Medical Center, East Meadow, New York, USA.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Paola
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Barten
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D001675:Bioethics; D013502:General Surgery; D007388:Internal Medicine; D026706:Paternalism; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*