| Objective In order to find out how pediatrics develop in China, this paper selected the earliest-published and most representative periodical in the medical field of pediatrics - Chinese Journal of Pediatrics, as its research subject. By bibliometric research of papers published from 1950 to 2009, this paper tried to make clear the achievements of scientific research in pediatrics, and to show how medical researchers, scholars and experts of this field improve their level, as well as how scientific research strength of institutions in different regions varies and how each branch of pediatrics in Chinese Medical Association came into being and evolves. This paper statistically analysed the articles, authors and citations in Chinese Journal of Pediatrics so as to show the changing characteristics of this periodical since its first issue 60 years ago, which in turn reflect the development of China's pediatrics, in this way this paper can serve as a reference to the development history of China's pediatrics.Method Bibliometric methods were used to analyze the published articles, cooperation, regional distribution, distribution of institutes, core authors, corresponding authors, highly-quantities institutes and projects funded by certain grants, and also to calculate the number of citations per paper, types of citations, language–based citation number, Price index, self-cited rate and the distribution of journals based on citations.Result Totally 5534 academic articles were published in Chinese Journal of Pediatrics during the 60 years, of which the number of articles written by more than one authors was 4669 (80.71%), with a degree of collaboration as 3.87, and a rate of collaboration as 84.37%. The number of articles by a single author was 865 (19.29%), and the number was 1996 (36.07%) by 5 or more co-authors. The trans - regional and trans - institutional co-operation showed a rising trend year by year. As for the regions the papers were submitted from, the top one was Beijing, which had 1495 articles published (27.01%), the second one is Shanghai, which had 986 (17.82%). And for the institutes, the number of papers from the hospital affiliated to medical schools was 2824 (52.43% of all), ranked the first. The top 15 institutes, which had published more than 50 papers each, had totally published 2254 articles (40.73% of all). As for the institutes articles submitted from, the Affiliated Children's Hospital of Capital University of Medical Sciences ranked the first, from which 405 (7.32% of all) papers were published. The articles, from research projects funded by certain grants published in this journal increased almost every year, from 1.83% of 1988 to 37.30% of 2008, the average rate was 12.96%. The quantity of the provincial or ministry level projects was 299 (41.70%), and the number of national projects was 345 (48.12%). The average citation rate was 84.15%, and the amount of citations was 48,854. The number of citations per paper was 10.06, the Price index and self - cited rate were 55.57% and 6.12%, respectively. The number of citations from foreign language literature was 35,781 (69.1%). The citation number of journals was 43,266 (84.5%), it is markedly higher than the citations of books and others. Journal of Pediatrics has been cited 1281 times by the papers published in this journal, which was the most cited foreign language journals. National Medical Journal of China has been cited 667 times, excluded from the self - cited, it was higher than any other Chinese journals. The various branches of Chinese Medical Association provide 162 papers, including minutes, diagnostic criteria and issues. The number of diagnostic criteria was 59, the citation frequency of these papers was 7247, and the average citation frequency was 123.Conclusion Chinese Journal of Pediatrics has quite a large number of authors, is widely received and is well-structured. It sticks to the standards of high-level authors with significant achievements. From individual research to trans-regional and trans-institutional collaboration and cooperation, China's scientific research strength in pediatrics has integrated into an interactive whole. This publication has the capacity to absorb and make use of scientific information, and its articles can objectively reflect how the research strength is located in China's different regions and how this discipline develops itself. The various branches of Chinese Medical Association provide important reference for many medical workers in writing their research papers by the literature of diagnostic criteria, making great contributions to the improvement of pediatrics. In the past half century, pediatrics has a sustained and healthy development in China, and will surely have a better tomorrow. |
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