Are top journals biased against eating disorders topics?
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated whether there is a bias against eating disorders research among the leading psychiatric, psychological, and medical journals.


METHODS
The authors performed a comparison between the number of empirical articles published about anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia nervosa and the number of articles published about panic disorder and/or agoraphobia (i.e., disorders of comparable disease burden) in 29 high-impact journals over a 5-year period (1996-2001).


RESULTS
There were almost twice as many published empirical articles about panic disorder and/or agoraphobia (N=365) as there were about anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia nervosa (N=169).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate a possible bias against eating disorders research among some leading psychiatric journals. Alternative explanations and implications are discussed.
Frost
Susie
S
Eating Disorders Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London, UK.
Murphy
Rebecca
R
Webster
Peter
P
Schmidt
Ulrike
U
D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000453:epidemiology; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa; D002032:Bulimia; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017594:Publication Bias; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years