Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysis
Abstract Background We previously demonstrated that in a Japanese national university’s medical faculty, overall paper publication frequency increased between 1979–1980 and 2017–2018, while original paper publication did not increase. Further, publication language changed from predominantly Japanes...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40780-023-00302-0 |
| _version_ | 1797557659436580864 |
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| author | Theron Muller Miho Takano Nicole Gallagher |
| author_facet | Theron Muller Miho Takano Nicole Gallagher |
| author_sort | Theron Muller |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background We previously demonstrated that in a Japanese national university’s medical faculty, overall paper publication frequency increased between 1979–1980 and 2017–2018, while original paper publication did not increase. Further, publication language changed from predominantly Japanese to English. However, whether these trends are specific to medicine or representative of other faculties remains unclear. Methods We diachronically analyzed annual university library-produced publication reports for four pharmaceutical and three medical units between 1979–1980 and 2019–2020, elucidating how publication frequency, type, and language medium changed. Results All publication types increased for the pharmaceutical faculty, from 2.87 per faculty member per year to 10.77. Publication of original papers more than doubled, from 1.06 per faculty member per year to 2.37. This increase was exclusively in English publication, with no publication of Japanese original papers in 2019–2020. This contrasts with medicine, which, while it demonstrated similar increases in all publication types combined, from 4.92 papers per faculty member per year to 12.78, did not demonstrate as striking an increase in total original paper publication (English and Japanese), from 1.21 papers per faculty member per year to 1.30. However, these two faculties observed similar trends in that English largely replaced Japanese original paper publication. That both faculties’ Japanese original paper publication decreased suggests English language original paper publication comes at the expense of publishing in Japanese. Concerning both faculties together, the increase in publishing frequency for all publication types more than tripled from 4.01 to 12.38. This was largely driven by changes in conference paper publication for the pharmaceutical sciences faculty, where English publication increased 2,775% (0.06 to 1.7 papers per faculty member per year) and Japanese language publication 258% (1.33 to 4.77). While conference paper publication did increase for the medical sciences, its change in total publication frequency was largely driven by ‘other’ types of publication, which increased from 0.51 publications per faculty member per year in 1979–1980 to 5.41 in 2019–2020, largely driven by Japanese language publication. Conclusion In 2019–2020, pharmaceutical sciences faculty members largely published original papers in English, so postgraduate education should consider the future likelihood of graduates needing to publish in English. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:19:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e7efc44f41c54b6291306b8e5341e464 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2055-0294 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:19:44Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-e7efc44f41c54b6291306b8e5341e4642023-11-20T10:23:31ZengBMCJournal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences2055-02942023-11-01911510.1186/s40780-023-00302-0Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysisTheron Muller0Miho Takano1Nicole Gallagher2University of ToyamaUniversity of ToyamaToyo UniversityAbstract Background We previously demonstrated that in a Japanese national university’s medical faculty, overall paper publication frequency increased between 1979–1980 and 2017–2018, while original paper publication did not increase. Further, publication language changed from predominantly Japanese to English. However, whether these trends are specific to medicine or representative of other faculties remains unclear. Methods We diachronically analyzed annual university library-produced publication reports for four pharmaceutical and three medical units between 1979–1980 and 2019–2020, elucidating how publication frequency, type, and language medium changed. Results All publication types increased for the pharmaceutical faculty, from 2.87 per faculty member per year to 10.77. Publication of original papers more than doubled, from 1.06 per faculty member per year to 2.37. This increase was exclusively in English publication, with no publication of Japanese original papers in 2019–2020. This contrasts with medicine, which, while it demonstrated similar increases in all publication types combined, from 4.92 papers per faculty member per year to 12.78, did not demonstrate as striking an increase in total original paper publication (English and Japanese), from 1.21 papers per faculty member per year to 1.30. However, these two faculties observed similar trends in that English largely replaced Japanese original paper publication. That both faculties’ Japanese original paper publication decreased suggests English language original paper publication comes at the expense of publishing in Japanese. Concerning both faculties together, the increase in publishing frequency for all publication types more than tripled from 4.01 to 12.38. This was largely driven by changes in conference paper publication for the pharmaceutical sciences faculty, where English publication increased 2,775% (0.06 to 1.7 papers per faculty member per year) and Japanese language publication 258% (1.33 to 4.77). While conference paper publication did increase for the medical sciences, its change in total publication frequency was largely driven by ‘other’ types of publication, which increased from 0.51 publications per faculty member per year in 1979–1980 to 5.41 in 2019–2020, largely driven by Japanese language publication. Conclusion In 2019–2020, pharmaceutical sciences faculty members largely published original papers in English, so postgraduate education should consider the future likelihood of graduates needing to publish in English.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40780-023-00302-0Pharmaceutical faculty publicationDocument analysisLanguage of publicationType of publicationDiachronic analysis |
| spellingShingle | Theron Muller Miho Takano Nicole Gallagher Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysis Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences Pharmaceutical faculty publication Document analysis Language of publication Type of publication Diachronic analysis |
| title | Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysis |
| title_full | Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysis |
| title_fullStr | Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysis |
| title_short | Faculty publication trends in a Japanese national university: a diachronic document analysis |
| title_sort | faculty publication trends in a japanese national university a diachronic document analysis |
| topic | Pharmaceutical faculty publication Document analysis Language of publication Type of publication Diachronic analysis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40780-023-00302-0 |
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