Joyce J, Rabe-Hesketh S, Wessely S "Reviewing the reviews - The example of chronic fatigue syndrome" JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 280 (3): 264-266 JUL 15 1998

[Eugene Garfield]

Simon Wessely : e-mail: sphascw at iop.bpmf.ac.uk

TITLE        Reviewing the reviews - The example of chronic fatigue syndrome
AUTHOR       Joyce J, Rabe-Hesketh S, Wessely S
JOURNAL      JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
             280 (3): 264-266 JUL 15 1998

 Document type: Article  Language: English
Cited References: 13    Times Cited: 14


Abstract:
Objective;-To test the hypothesis that the selection of literature in review
articles is unsystematic and is influenced by the authors' discipline and
country of residence.

Data Sources.-Reviews in English published between 1980 and March 1996 in
MEDLINE, EMBASE (BIDS), PSYCHLIT, and Current Contents were searched.

Study Selection.-Reviews of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) were selected.
Articles explicitly concerned with a specialty aspect of CFS and
unattributed,
unreferenced, or insufficiently referenced articles were discarded.

Data Extraction.-Record of data sources in each review was noted as was the
departmental specialty of the first author and his or her country of
residence. The
references cited in each index paper were tabulated by assigning them to 6
specialty categories, by article title, and by assigning them to 8
categories, by country of
journal publication.

Data Synthesis.-Of 89 reviews, 3 (3.4%) reported on literature search and
described search method. Authors from laboratory-based disciplines
preferentially cited
laboratory references, while psychiatry-based disciplines preferentially
cited psychiatric literature (P =.01). A total of 71.6% of references cited
by US authors were
from US journals, while 54.9% of references cited by United Kingdom authors
were published in United Kingdom journals (P =.001).

Conclusion.-Citation of the literature is influenced by review authors'
discipline and nationality.

KeyWords Plus:
PUBLICATION, TRIALS, BIAS

Addresses:
Wessely S, Univ London Kings Coll Hosp, Dept Psychol Med, Denmark Hill,
London SE5 9RS, England
Univ London Kings Coll Hosp, Dept Psychol Med, London SE5 9RS, England
Univ London Kings Coll, Sch Med, Inst Psychiat, London SE5 9PJ, England
Maudsley Hosp, London SE5 8AZ, England

Publisher:
AMER MEDICAL ASSOC, CHICAGO

IDS Number:
ZZ204

ISSN:
0098-7484


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