title: Scientific publications in nephrology and urology journals from Chinese authors in East Asia: a 10-year survey of the literature.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diseases of the kidneys and genitourinary tract are common health problems that affect people of all ages and demographic backgrounds. In this study, we compared the quantity and quality of nephrological and urological articles published in international journals from the three major regions of China: the mainland (ML), Hong Kong (HK), and Taiwan (TW).
  
  
  METHODS
  Nephrological and urological articles originating from ML, TW, and HK that were published in 61 journals from 1999-2008 were retrieved from the PubMed database. We recorded the numbers of total articles, clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, case reports, impact factors (IF), citations, and articles published in the leading general-medicine journals. We used these data to compare the quantity and quality of publication output from the three regions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total number of articles increased significantly from 1999 to 2008 in the three regions. The number of articles from ML has exceeded that from HK since 2004, and surpassed that from TW in 2008. Publications from TW had the highest accumulated IF, total citations of articles, and the most articles published in leading general-medicine journals. However, HK publications had the highest average IF. Although ML produced the largest quantity of articles, it exhibited the lowest quality among the three regions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The number of nephrological and urological publications originating from the three major regions of China increased significantly from 1999 to 2008. The annual number of publications by ML researchers exceeded those from TW and HK. However, the quality of articles from TW and HK was higher than that from ML.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Zhi-Guo
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Liang-Hao
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Chao-Yang
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Cheng-Gang
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.forename: Li-Jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Dong-Ping
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yu-Xian
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Yi-Xiang
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yu-Qiang
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xue-Zhi
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Chang-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Mei
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D003625:Data Collection; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D009398:Nephrology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012106:Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014572:Urology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*