Peer-reviewed publication output from South African dental schools 1990-2005.
BACKGROUND
A study published in 1996 suggested that a limit had been reached for peer-reviewed publication output from South African dental schools.


OBJECTIVE
This study was to examine recent trends in publication output from five South African dental schools to compare with the earlier study.


METHODS
A PubMed on-line search coupled with a manual search was done for peer-reviewed publications appearing in 1995-2005 from the five dental schools.


RESULTS
The literature search identified 610 listings--595 actual publications six of which were listed for two dental schools. Overall there was a slight reduction in number of articles as well as an increase in articles published in South African journals. Within the schools there was also a decline in output. Disciplines producing the publications varied within the schools with dental materials being the most common, There was little difference in the quality of articles indicated by mean CJM scores between the schools.


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that research output has declined beyond the limit speculated in 1996.
Dental Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. peter.cleaton-jones@wits.ac.za
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Cleaton-Jones
D015706:Bibliometrics; D018865:Dental Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007598:Journalism, Dental; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012575:Schools, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013019:South Africa