Readers' opinion about English original articles in Ugeskrift for Laeger.
BACKGROUND
The Danish Medical Association (DMA) performed a survey together with TNS Gallup Denmark among the readers of Ugeskrift for Laeger (Journal of the Danish Medical Association). The main motivation for the questionnaire was to evaluate the acceptability of changing the publication language in original articles from Danish into English.


METHODS
The study was conducted as an on-line questionnaire among the members of the DMA. A systematic sample was drawn from the DMA's member database. The sample comprised a total of 1,970 e-mail addresses. Among these, 1,952 were valid, and 1,952 physicians were invited to participate by e-mail.


RESULTS
The response rate (1,046/1,952) was 54%. Among the participants 43% were specialists, 36% were junior doctors and 20% general practitioners. Overall, 45% of the respondents published scientific articles, and particularly specialists and junior doctors did not object to the shift from Danish to English language.


CONCLUSIONS
Our survey showed that the readers and authors were willing to accept a shift from Danish into English publication language for original research papers.
Herlev Hospital, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Denmark. jannielsen.stud.ku@dadlnet.dk
Jan
J
Nielsen
Hanne Mohr
HM
Rosberg
Jacob
J
Rosenberg
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003718:Denmark; D058005:General Practitioners; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012106:Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires