J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis 1992;2:157-160 © 1992 National Stroke Association

Journals Publishing Research Relevant to Stroke Rehabilitation 1,2Richard W. Bohannon, Ed.D., 'Terry Puharic, and 3Dave Roberts,

B.A.

The purpose of this brief article is to provide a list of core journals relevant to stroke rehabilitation and to indicate the adequacy of five bibliographic indexing services in covering them . Citation analysis yielded a list of 30 core journals. No indexing service's data base included all of the 28 journals used in evaluating comprehensiveness. All services except the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health, however, included over 71% of the journals, To be completely comprehensive in journal coverage, any pair of indexes had to include AMED/ CATS. The all too common reliance on Index Medicus/Medline will result in a relatively thorough but clearly incomplete search. KeyWords: Stroke-Rehabilitation-Information science-Citation analysis .

Both the maintenance "of current clinical practice and the initiation of new research require a knowledge of completed research. Since journals are the primary archives for completed research studies, a comprehensive assessment of relevant research is possible only if journals publishing the research are known. To date, no systematic identification of journals publishing research relevant to stroke rehabilitation has been published. Although core journals relevant to closely related topics have been identified (1-5), those journals may not be most relevant to stroke rehabilitation (per se) . The purpose of this brief report, therefore, is to provide a list of journals publishing information relevant to stroke rehabilitation and to indicate the adequacy of different bibliographic data bases in covering them. From the ISchool of Allied Health, University of Connecticut, Storrs, and the 2Department of Rehabilitation, Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, US.A., and 3Medical Information Service, British Library, Document Supply Center, West Yorkshire, UK Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. R. W. Bohannon at School of Allied Health, University of Connecticut, U-I01, Storrs, CT 06269, US.A.

Method Citation analysis, a limited but well-established method in information science (6), was used to identify journals publishing information relevant to stroke rehabilitation. Briefly, the method first involved the selection of nine citing journals. The journals were selected for their focus on stroke (Stroke and ]oumal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases) or rehabilitation

(American [ournal ofPhysical MedicineandRehabilitation, Archives ofPhysical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Clinical Rehabilitation, lnternaiional Disability Studies, International loumal of Rehabilitation Research, iournal of Neurologic Rehabilitation, and Scandinavian [ournal of Rehabilitation Medicine). The contents of the most recent complete available volume of each journal were reviewed for research articles relevant to stroke and rehabilitation. The volume used for most journals was for 1991, but the volume for four journals was from earlier years Neuro Rehab, 1989; Stroke, lilt Disabil Studies, Scand ] Rehabil Med, 1990). To be considered relevant, the article had to focus on impairment, disability, or handicap after stroke. The citations (references) at the end of each relevant article were tallied by journal. Journals cited in three or

a

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R W. BOHANNON ET AL.

more journals and cited two or more times in at least one journal were operationally defined as core. The coverage of the core journals by five bibliographic indexing services was determined by consulting the "journals indexed" list of each service. The indexing services were AMEO/CATS (Current Awareness Topic Services) of the Medical Information Service of the British Library, the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL), Excerpta Medica/ EMBASE (EM), the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Index Medicus/Medline, and Science Citation Index (SCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information.

Results A total of 206 different journals were cited by the authors of the relevant research published in the nine citing journals. Specific citing journals cited from 21 to 89 different journals (Table 1). The list of 30 core journals derived from the citation analysis is presented in Table 2. Two of the journals were not included when judgments were made about the comprehensiveness of coverage by the five indexing services. The MarylandState Medical [oumal (Md State Med J) was excluded because all citations of that journal were of a single article published in 1965 (7). Rheumatologyand Rehabilitation was omitted because it is no longer published. It has become the British [ournal of Rheumatology. The coverage of the remaining 28 core journals by. the five bibliographic indexing services is reported in Table 3. Although four of the indexing services were reasonably thorough in their coverage of the core journals, no indexing service was completely comprehensive in its coverage of the core journals. The

Table :1. Citation counts from articles relevant to stroke rehabilitation published in nine citingjournals Number of journals cited

158

Citing journal

Total

> 2 times

Alii J Phys Med Rellabil Arch P/lYs Med Rehabil Clill Rehabil lilt Disabil Studies lilt J Rehabil Res J Neuro Rehab J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis Scalld J Rehabil Med Stroke

21 66 48 51 28 33 31 31 89

9 25 27 17 9 14 12 11 40

J STROKECEREBROVASCDIS, VOL.2, NO.3, 1992

Table 2. Core joumals of stroke rehabilitation identified by citation analysisof nine citingjoumals Journals cited in >3 journals and cited >2 times in at least 1 journal

Total number of citations in all 9 citing journals/ number of journals citing

Stroke Arch Phys MedRe1labil J NellTOI Neurosurg Psychiatry Scand J RehabilMed Arch Neurol NellTOlogy lilt Disabil Studies Phys Tiler Br Med J cu« Rehabil Braill Age Ageillg Lancet MD State Med J AIlIl Neurol Rheumatol Rehabil Br J Occup Tiler PhysiotherCall Acta NellTOI Scand Am J OCCllp Tiler Med J Austr Physiotherapy J cu« Epidemiol Am J Phys Med Rehabil Tohokll J Exp Med Neuropsvchologia N EllgI J Med lilt J RehabilRes J Neuro Rehab Top Geriatr Rehab

130/9 113/9 63/9 53/8 41/5 39/5 30/6 30/9 28/7 28/5 25/6 21/5 20/7 17/6 15/5 13/5 12/3

10/4 9/5 9/7 8/6 8/3 7/5 6/3 6/3 5/3 5/3 5/4 4/3 4/3

percentage coverage ranged from 21.4% (CINAHL) to 89.3% (Excerpta Medica). Every core journal was covered by some indexing service, although two of the journals (Clinical Rehabilitation and Journal of Neurologic Rehabilitation) were covered only by AMEO/CATS. The combined data bases of AMEO/ CATS and either Excerpta Medica, the National library of Medicine, or Science Citation Index resulted in a 100% coverage of core journals (Table 4).

Discussion and Conclusions As defined herein, information relevant to stroke rehabilitation was shown by citation analysis to be abundant. Citation analysis also revealed, probably conservatively, the extent to which the information is dispersed throughout a large number of different journals. The list of core journals generated by this

STROKEREHABILITATIONLITERATURE

Table 3.

Core jOIlTllal coverage by fivebibliographic indexing seroicess

Journal

AMED/CATS

CINAHL

y

N

y

y

y

Y Y Y y

Y

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y y

N

N

N

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y

N

N N

N N

Y Y Y

Y Y

N

N

Y Y Y

Y y y y

Stroke Arc11PllYs MedRehabll JNeurol Neurosurg Psychialry Scand JRehabil Med Arch Nel/TOI Nel/rology 1111 Disabil SII/dies Phys Ther Br Med J cu« Rehabil Brain Age Ageillg Lancet Md Slate Med Jb Alln Neurol Rheumatol Re1labil b Br JOccup71,er Physiotller Can Acta Neurol Scalld Am JOCCllp 71,er Med JAlIslr Physiotherapy

Y Y Y y

Y

N N N

N N N N N N N N

Y Y

Y Y

N

N

Y

y

N

N

Y

N Y Y

Y

Y

N

N

Y

Y

N

Y Y Y

N N N N N N

75.0

21.4

Jcu« Epldemiol Am J Phys Med Rehabil Tohoku J Exp Med Nel/ropsyc1lOlogia N Engl JMed lnt JRehabil Res JNeuro Rehab Top Geriair Rehab

Y y

Comprehensiveness (%)

N N N N N

EM

Y Y Y Y Y y Y Y Y Y y

NLM

Y Y Y

SCI

Y

N Y Y

N Y Y

y

Y

Y

N N

N N N

89.3

82.1

71.4

N

"Abbreviations are defined in the text. bCon; journals, the coverage of which was not considered in judgments about the comprehensiveness of bibli ographic indexing se rvices.

study provides a basic and limited guide for those clinicians and researchers who are curious ab out the most likely depositories of research articles on stroke rehabilitation. Clearly, no indexing service was completely comprehensive in its coverage of core journals. The 10th m ost frequently cited journal, Clinical Table 4. Percentage of 28 core journals covered by 10

differellt bibliographic indexing service pairs'

CINAH L EM NLM SCI

AMED/CATS

CINAHL

EM

NLM

75.0 100 100 100

92.9 89.3 82.1

89.3 89.3

78.6

"Abbreviations are defined in the text.

Rehabilitation , was covered by on ly one service. The use of multiple indexes improved the comprehensiveness of coverage of the core journals. Thus, if individuals seeking information relevant to stroke rehabilitation hope to conduct a thorough search, they will need to us e more than one indexing service data base as has been suggested by John (8). Pairs of indexing services that include AMED/CATS tend to be th e most comprehensive. Therefore, it would seem prudent to include AMED/CATS among the services used when collecting information on stroke rehabilitation. The all too common reliance on the National Library of Medicine's Index Medicus or Medline will result in a relatively thorough but clearly incomplete search (9), probably far more incomplete than suggested by this citation analysis. By adding just a few core journals to their data bases, each of the indexing

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R W. BOHANNON ET AL

services examined herein could markedly increase the comprehensiveness of its coverage. Given the number of people affected by stroke and the functional implications of the pathology, a more thorough coverage of the stroke rehabilitation literature could be of value to clinicians, researchers, and the clients they serve. Addresses for information on the bibliographic indexing services discussed herein are listed below.

AMED/CATS: Medical Information Service, British Library Document Supply Center, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ, UX CINAHLInformation Systems: 1509 Willow Terrace, P.O. Box 871, Glendale, CA 91209-0871, U.S.A. Excerpta Medica/EMBASE: Elsevier Science Publishers, 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Index Medicus/Medline: National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894, U.S.A. Science Citation Index: Institute for Scientific Information, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A.

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References 1. Roberts O. Coverage by four information services of the core journals of rehabilitation and related topics. Scalld / Rehab Med 1992 (in press). 2. Bohannon RW. Core journals of physical therapy. Physiather Pract1987;3:126-8 . 3. Bohannon RW, Tiberio O. Physiotherapy literature in medical indexes: how comprehensive is index coverage of journals cited frequently by five physiotherapy journals? Physiather Pract 1989 ;5:201-5. 4. Bohannon RW, Roberts O. Core journals of rehabilitation: identification through index analysis. Int J Rehabil Res 1991;14 :333-6. 5. Bohannon RW. Finding current journal literature relevant to physical therapy and stroke. Neural Rep 1991;15:30-2. 6. Smith LC. Citation analysis. Library Trends 1981;30: 83-106. 7. Mahoney FI, Barthel OW. Functional evaluation: the Barthel index. Md State Med /1965;14:61-5. 8. John K. Medical information searches and how many bibliographic data bases are needed for sufficient retrieval in medical topics? Melli Ill! Med 1985;24: 163-5. 9. Roberts D. Information data bases. Lallcet 1991;335: 917.