Publication of cardiac surgery research papers in top cardiovascular journals

Background and Aim To evaluate the publication rate of articles related to cardiac surgery in the four main cardiovascular journals over the last 5 years. Methods A bibliometric review of all full-length articles published between January 2014 and March 2020 in the top four cardiovascular journals (Circulation, European Heart Journal (EHJ), Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), and JAMA Cardiology) was conducted. For each eligible article in the four journals, the journal of publication, study design, area of interest, country of origin, and type of intervention tested (for cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology studies) were extracted. The affiliations of all editorial board members were identified from journal websites or from online searches and recorded as from cardiac surgery, cardiology, or another discipline. Correlations between variables were evaluated. Results A total of 4835 articles were reviewed. Cardiac surgery studies amounted to 6.2% (104) of total research publications in JACC, 4.4% (74) in Circulation, 3.6% (13) in JAMA Cardiology, and 2.0% (22) in EHJ (P < .001). The percentage of cardiac surgery publications was significantly less than interventional cardiology publications (P < .001). Conclusions Cardiac surgery studies represent only a small minority of the articles published in the top cardiovascular journals over the last 5 years, with significant differences between individual journals. Cardiac surgery studies were more often observational and this may constitute one important reason for their under-representation.