What American surgeons read: a survey of a thousand Fellows of the American College of Surgeons

• Published in: Current surgery Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 252 - 258
• Main Authors: Schein, Moshe, Paladugu, Ramesh, Sutija, Vesna G., Wise, Leslie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-05-2000
• Subjects: CME; impact factor; surgical education; surgical journals; surgical literature; surgical literature; CME; surgical education; impact factor; surgical journals
• ISSN: 0149-7944; 1879-0321
• DOI: 10.1016/S0149-7944(00)00177-X

PURPOSE: The modern American surgeon is immersed in an ever-deepening sea of printed and electronic information. Although publishers know how many books and journals they sell, and journals can quote their calculated impact factor, no information exists whatsoever about what surgeons read. Which surgical journals are “popular,” and how does it compare with their impact factor (IF)? Our objective was to assess the sources of information and reading habits of American surgeons and to compare the “popularity” of journals with their IFs.
A questionnaire was mailed to 1000 American surgeons, randomly selected from a list provided by the American College of Surgeons.
A total of 418 surgeons responded, and 371 responses could be analyzed (37%). The leading sources of medical information were medical literature (93%), professional meetings (88%), and CME courses (69%). The average time per surgeon/month dedicated to medical literature was 14 hours (range, 1 to 120). Peer-reviewed journals were read by 95%, textbooks by 68%, and update series by 60% of the respondents. The three most popular surgical journals were
Annals of Surgery (IF, 5.40), selected by 60%;
Journal of the American College of Surgery (IF, 1.87), selected by 48%; and
Archives of Surgery (IF, 2.53), selected by 36%. The most popular subspecialty journals were
Cancer (IF, 3.66), selected by 31%;
Critical Care Medicine (IF, 3.74), selected by 17%; and
Gastroenterology (IF, 10.33), selected by 12%. The
New England Journal of Medicine (IF, 28.66), selected by 67%, and the
Journal of the American Medical Association (IF, 9.55), selected by 66%, were the most popular general medical journals, followed by
Mayo Clinic Proceedings (IF, 1.98), selected by 16%. Among the “leaders” on the IF list for international, British medical and surgical journals were
Lancet (IF, 11.79), selected by 5%, and
British Journal of Surgery (IF, 2.38), selected by 0.5% of the respondents.
Those American surgeons responding consider published literature as their chief source of information, especially peer-reviewed journals. Overall, they ignore non–United States publications and select the journals they read without considering its IF.