Study of Feature Articles in Japanese Journals

MIYASHITA Makiko, TAKEYAMA Yuki, ABE Shinichi

doi:10.7142/igakutoshokan.53.126

Background: There are many feature articles in Japanese journals; these articles are frequently used by busy clinicians and trainee doctors. However, the characteristics of these feature articles have not been investigated.<br>Objective: To investigate the characteristics of evidence-based medicine of feature articles.<br>Method: Eight typical monthly journals of internal medicine issued by different publishers from July through September or October 2004 were investigated in terms of the references cited, the year of publication, reference errors, and the first author. These monthly journals were compared with one weekly journal. To determine the type of article, the PubMed publication type and the Ichushi-web article type were investigated. In particular, the PubMed publication type of clinical studies was investigated as evidence of evidence-based medicine. The first author's affiliation and position were examined with the up-to-date data.<br>Result: Seventy-five percent of articles cited were from foreign journals. Ninety-five percent of these articles were journal articles. Twenty percent of these journal articles were clinical studies, including randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses. Approximately 5.5% of all references contained errors. The official position of half of the authors could not be confirmed.<br>Conclusion: Feature articles do not necessarily contain a sufficient quantity of evidence, although they cite many articles from foreign journals and quote many current articles. We can suggest feature articles to clinicians, if they can't find good evidence with evidence-based medicine tools or they don't have enough time to read English articles.

Study of Feature Articles in Japanese Journals

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