Rehabilitation research from a non-English speaking country published in peer-reviewed English journals--the Japanese experience.
OBJECTIVE
To study the status of contribution by non-English speaking countries to international rehabilitation literature taking Japan as an example, and to suggest recommendations to overcome the language barrier.


METHODS
Descriptive study using a systematic MEDLINE search with outcome measures of annual numbers and proportions of articles by Japanese physiatrists published in peer-reviewed English rehabilitation journals, and of categories and types of studies. A database containing 292 relevant articles were used for analysis.


RESULTS
The publications have steadily increased annually both in absolute number and in proportion. The number was the largest for Arch Phys Med Rehabil (16.8%), followed by Am J Phys Med Rehabil (12.3%), Prosthet Orthot Int (8.6%), Disabil Rehabil (5.1 %) and so on. The percentage by category was the highest for stroke (26.0%), followed by spinal cord injury (11.6%), neurophysiology (11.6%) and amputation (6.2%), 67.8% of the articles were related to evaluation, 6.5% to outcome studies and 25.7% to therapy. The majority were descriptive studies (45.5%), followed by case control studies (13.0%), before-and-after trials (12.3%), case reports (7.2%) and others.


CONCLUSIONS
The contribution from Japan to international rehabilitation literature is increasing. Measures were suggested to facilitate more scientific contribution by non-English speaking researchers.
Liu
Meigen
M
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. QZV11742@nifty.ne.jp
Hase
Kimitaka
K
Masakado
Yoshihisa
Y
Tsuji
Tetsuya
T
Otaka
Yohei
Y
Chino
Naoichi
N
D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007802:Language; D017712:Peer Review, Research / Q000639:trends*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012046:Rehabilitation; D012107:Research Design / Q000706:statistics & numerical data