ACTA MEDICO-BIOTECHNICA 2009; 2:7-9 7 Uvodnik / Editorial Prispevek Slovenije na področju medicinskih raziskav Prispevek Slovenije k raziskavam v medicini po svetu do sedaj {e ni bil raziskan. Samo ugiba- nja, da slovenski zdravniki pomembno prispeva- jo k raziskavam v svetovni medicini, niso dovolj. Kaj je realnost? Kak{en je resni~en prispevek? Z analizo objavljenih slovenskih ~lankov v medna- rodno priznanih revijah od leta 1991 do 2009, zaje- tih v bazi podatkov In{tituta za znanstvene informa- cije (ISI) v marcu 2009, smo želeli prikazati delež Slovenije na podro~ju medicinskih raziskav v svetu po njeni neodvisnosti v zadnjih 18 letih. V analizo smo vklju~ili vseh 41 razli~nih podro~ij, ki jih ISI vodi v kategoriji »medicina«. ISI zajema 2.114 revij z dejavniki vpliva, v katerih so objavljali avtorji s slovenskih institucij. Slovenija z 2. milijonoma prebivalcev predstavlja le 0,03 % celotnega svetovnega prebivalstva. Tako bi pri~akovali podoben slovenski prispevek tudi na podro~ju raziskav. V ~asu od osamosvojitve leta 1991 do leta 2009 je bilo po svetu objavljenih 7.333.462 ~lankov v 2.114 mednarodno priznanih revijah na 41 medicinskih podro~jih; od tega je bilo 6.520 ~lan- kov iz Slovenije. Številko ~lankov iz Slovenije pred- stavlja 0,09 % vseh svetovnih objav. Podatki so pokazali, da nekatera podro~ja v sve- tovnem merilu pomembno izstopajo. Na na{e presene~enje je imela vodilno vlogo pri tem medi- cinska informatika (0,48 %), sledijo sodna medicina (0,26 %), andrologija (0,22 %), fiziologija (0,198 %), urgentna medicina (0,16 %), porodni{tvo in ginekologija (0,15 %), anatomija (0,14 %) in on- kologija (0,14 %). Na zadnjem mestu je tropska me- dicina (0,009 %), sledita ji geriatrija (0,016 %) in gastroenterologija (0,029 %). Slovenia’s contribution to world medical research Until now, despite anecdotal evidence that Slove- nian doctors contribute significantly to the world’s medical research, the size, breadth and importance of our contribution has not been formally investi- gated. We decided to evaluate Slovenia’s medical research output from the time of its independence (1991-2009). We used an online database from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) to access journal ar- ticles belong to the ISI category “medicine” and published between January 1991 and February 2009. The number of articles with authors listing an affili- ation with a Slovenian institution was determined for the articles as a whole and separately for each specific medical field and for each journal. We cov- ered 41 different medical fields and 2.114 journals. The impact factors of the journals ranged from 0.02 to 69.03. The goal was to evaluate Slovenia’s relative contri- bution, quantitatively and qualitatively. Slovenia, with 2 million inhabitants, represents only 0.03% of the world’s population, and we expected that the size of Slovenia’s contribution would correlate with this. 7.333.462 articles were identified of which 6520 (0.09%) were from Slovenia. In some fields, Slove- nia’s contribution was very high. The largest contri- bution was to medical informatics (0.48%), followed by legal medicine (0.26%), andrology (0.22%), phys- iology (0.198%), emergency medicine (0.16), ob- stetrics and gynaecology (0.15%), anatomy (0.14%) and oncology (0.14%). %). The lowest contribution was to tropical medicine (0.009%) followed by geri- atrics (0.016%) and gastroenterology (0.029%). 8 ACTA MEDICO-BIOTECHNICA 2009; 2:7-9 V ~asu samostojnosti so Slovenci objavili 6.529 medicinskih ~lankov. Na prvem mestu je podro~je onkologije s 662 ~lanki (10,2 %), sledita klini~na nevrologija s 445 ~lanki (6,8 %) in kirurgija s 400 ~lanki (6,1 %). Na zadnjem mestu je ponovno trop- ska medicina s 3 ~lanki. Zanimalo nas je, v katerih revijah so bile objave najpogostej{e in koliko je bilo teh objav po posame- znih revijah. Pri pregledu vseh 2.114 v analizo zajetih revij smo ugotovili, da sta le dve reviji objavili ve~ kot 100 ~lankov (183 in 177 ~lankov). Obe izhajata v nem{kem jeziku, ena zajema podro~je splo{ne me- dicine in druga podro~je fiziologije. V petih revijah, te so s podro~ja nevrologije, hema- tologije, porodni{tva in ginekologije, onkologije in splo{ne medicine, je bilo v obravnavanem obdobju objavljenih ve~ kot 50 ~lankov (68, 66, 60, 55 in 52 ~lankov). Tri revije so izhajale v angle{kem, po ena pa v nem{kem in hrva{kem jeziku. Ve~ kot de- setina vseh slovenskih prispevkov (656 ~lankov od 6.529 ali 10,06 % ) je bila objavljena v revijah s faktorjem vpliva, ve~jim od 5. Raziskave v medi- cini niso zanimive le za raziskovalce, ampak tudi za vlado, posebej Ministrstvo za visoko {olstvo, znanost in tehnologijo ter Ministrstvo za zdravje. Prispevek Slovenije v svetovnem merilu, vrednoten s {tevilom objavljenih ~lankov v razli~nih medicin- skih revijah, je bil razli~en − od 0,009 % pri tropski medicini do 0,48 % na podro~ju medicinske infor- matike. Zavedamo se, da na{ pregled ne zajema celotnega pri- spevka Slovenije na podro~ju medicinskih publika- cij, saj zajema samo ISI podatkovno bazo, vendar pa nam omogo~a realno oceno glede objavljenih ~lan- kov v citiranih revijah, kakor tudi primerjavo v za- stopanosti med posameznimi medicinskimi podro~ji. Ker ISI podatkovna baza zajema ve~ino prispevkov, lahko zaklju~imo, da gre za prikaz dejanskega stanja. V bodo~e bo potrebna natan~na analiza po posame- znih medicinskih podro~ijh. Ugotoviti moramo, kaj je pomembno za nadaljnji razvoj in kak{na je bila Of the 6.529 Slovenian publications, the greatest number were in the field of oncology (662 articles, 10.2% of Slovenia’s output), followed by clinical neurology (445 articles, 6.8%) and surgery (400 ar- ticles, 6.1%), and the smallest number were in tropi- cal medicine (3 articles, 0.009%). Only 2 journals published more than 100 Slovenian research papers during this period, both in the Ger- man language. One journal covered general medicine (183 articles) and the other physiology (177 articles). Only 5 journals published more than 50 articles from Slovenia and these covered the fields of neurology (69 articles), haematology (66 articles), obstetrics and gynaecology (60 articles), oncology (55 articles) and general medicine (52 articles). These languages were English, German or Croatian. 656 of the 6.529 articles (10.06%) were published in journals with impact factors more than 5 considered the year 2007. Medical research is important to local researchers and to government, particularly the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health. Slovenia’s world contribution to basic medical sci- ence journals, journals from specific medical fields, and general medicine journals, as judged from the numbers of articles published in high-quality journals, different greatly depending on the area of medicine and ranged from as low as 0.009% (tropical medicine) to as high as 0.48% (medical informatics). We are aware that our analysis does not include the entire contribution of Slovenia to world medical re- search; nevertheless, it provides broad information about our role on the world stage and in which fields our contributions are greatest. This is the first time such information has been published. The number of publications in the ISI database provides only a gross estimation of the proportion of Slovenia’s research contribution. The absolute Uvodnik / Editorial ACTA MEDICO-BIOTECHNICA 2009; 2:7-9 9 dinamika v preteklih letih ter ali obstaja povezava med {tevilom publikacij in raziskovalnimi projekti, tako državnimi kot evropskimi. Odgovori na vsa ta vpra{anja so pomembni za nadaljnji razvoj medicin- skih raziskav na vseh podro~jih. Za kvalitetne raziskave na podro~ju medicine mo- rajo biti izpolnjeni dolo~eni pogoji; ti so zlasti biostatisti~na in finan~na podpora, primernost raz- iskave in metodologije ter zgodnje vklju~evanje {tu- dentov v raziskovalno delo. Vloga vlade in ustreznih ministrstev pri oblikovanju uspe{ne raziskovalne po- litike je izrednega pomena. Pomembnej{o vlogo pri oceni dejavnikov, ki vplivajo na raziskave, morajo prevzeti raz{irjeni strokovni kolegiji za posamezna podro~ja pri Ministrstvu za zdravje. Šele natan~na analiza vseh dejavnikov, ki vplivajo na medicin- ske raziskave, je osnova za ustrezno ukrepanje in izbolj{anje stanja. V zaklju~ku ugotavljamo, da je prispevek Slovenije na podro~ju medicinskih raziskav po na{i oceni ob- javljenih ~lankov ustrezen. Kljub temu so potrebne natan~ne analize, zlasti na podro~jih z manj objava- mi. Le tako lahko ugotovimo dejavnike, ki negativ- no vplivajo na raziskovalno dejavnost ter sku{amo stanje izbolj{ati. Du{ica Pahor Odgovorna urednica number of high-quality journals articles originating from Slovenia is certainly different from the present findings. Nevertheless, we have no reason to believe the figures do not broadly reflect Slovenia’s actual contribution. We did not look at trends in the contribution rates over time or look for connections between the number of publication and the number of research projects or whether the articles were generated by government-funded or European-founded research. It would be interesting to consider these aspects. High-quality medical research requires support, for example, with biostatistics expertise and sufficient funds. Research questions must be relevant and ap- propriate and ethically-acceptable methodologies must be used. It is the personal opinion of the au- thors that university students should be exposed to research early in their degrees and that government must foster a strong research culture and actively evaluated factors that impact, positively or nega- tively, on Slovenia’s medical research output and act accordingly. In conclusion, Slovenia’s contribution to the world body of medical research is satisfactory in terms of the number of publications. Further research is re- quired to ascertain why Slovenia’s research output in certain areas of medicine is less than in other areas. Du{ica Pahor Editor-in-chief Uvodnik / Editorial