title: Japan's contribution to nuclear medical research.
abstract: We investigated the degree of Japan's contribution to the nuclear medical research in the last decade. Articles published in 1991-2000 in highly reputed nuclear medical journals were accessed through the MEDLINE database. The number of articles having affiliation with a Japanese institution was counted along with publication year. In addition, shares of top-ranking countries were determined along with their trends over time. Of the total number of articles (7,788), Japan's share of articles in selected nuclear medical journals was 11.4% (889 articles) and ranked 2nd in the world after the USA (2,645 articles). The recent increase in the share was statistically significant for Japan (p = 0.02, test for trend). Japan's share in nuclear medical research output is much higher than that in other biomedical fields.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiological and Clinical Research Information Management, Kyoto University Graduate School of Public Health, Japan. rahman@pbh.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Mahbubur
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Tsuguya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukui
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research; D004526:Efficiency; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007564:Japan; D016239:MEDLINE; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*