Introduction
Orthopaedic sports medicine is among the most popular subspecialties. Understanding the trends in sports medicine research over time will help offer insight into progress and innovation within the field. The purpose of this study was to evaluate publishing characteristics of sports medicine articles in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American Volume) (JBJS-A) from 2007 to 2021.
Methods
Sports medicine articles in the JBJS-A from 2007-2021 were identified and organized by study type, number of authors, sex of the authors, academic degree(s) of the first and last authors, level of evidence, country of publication, citations, and use of patient-reported outcomes.
Results
A total of 784 articles from 2007 to 2021 were reviewed. The most common type of study published over time was clinical therapeutic (48.1%); however, there was an increase in clinical prognostic studies (17.5% to 25%, p =0.0369) (Fig. 1). Numbers of authors increased over time (4.8 to 6.3); however, only 15% of papers have a female author. There was no significant increase in female authorship over time, and only an average of 0.8 females per paper (range 0-8) compared to 4.6 males (1-14). In addition, first and last female authorship did not increase significantly. There was a significant increase in use of patient reported outcome measures over time (12.5% to 47.5%, p <0.001).
Conclusion
The publishing trends in JBJS-A suggest an increase in research quality. There has been an increase of women in the field of orthopaedic sports medicine, which was not reflected in publication authorship. There was an increase in clinical economic and prognostic studies, suggesting an expansion of research surrounding education and surgical skill development that parallels the diversifying technology and science of the field. Despite many areas of growth, this study suggests that there is room for improvement of authorship diversity in orthopaedic sports medicine research.