Data from: National citation patterns of NEJM, The Lancet, JAMA and The BMJ in the lay press: a quantitative content analysis

Objectives: To analyse the total number of newspaper articles citing the four leading general medical journals and to describe national citation patterns. Design: Quantitative content analysis Setting/sample: Full text of 22 general newspapers in 14 countries over the period 2008-2015, collected from LexisNexis. The 14 countries have been categorized into four regions: US, UK, Western World (EU countries other than UK, and Australia, New Zealand and Canada) and Rest of the World (other countries). Main outcome measure: Press citations of four medical journals (two American: NEJM and JAMA; and two British: The Lancet and The BMJ) in 22 newspapers. Results: British and American newspapers cited some of the four analysed medical journals about three times a week in 2008-2015 (weekly mean 3.2 and 2.7 citations respectively); the newspapers from other Western countries did so about once a week (weekly mean 1.1), and those from the Rest of the World cited them about once a month (monthly mean 1.1). The New York Times cited above all other newspapers (weekly mean 4.7). The analysis showed the existence of three national citation patterns in the daily press: American newspapers cited mostly American journals (70.0% of citations), British newspapers cited mostly British journals (86.5%), and the rest of the analysed press cited more British journals than American ones. The Lancet was the most cited journal in the press of almost all Western countries outside the US and the UK. Multivariate correspondence analysis confirmed the national patterns and showed that over 85% of the citation data variability is retained in just one single new variable: the national dimension. Conclusion: British and American newspapers are the ones that cite the four analysed medical journals more often, showing a domestic preference for their respective national journals; non-British and non-American newspapers show a common international citation pattern.研究目标：分析引用四大顶尖综合医学期刊的报纸文章总数量，并刻画各国的引用模式。 研究设计：定量内容分析法 研究场景与样本：2008年至2015年间，采集自LexisNexis（律商联讯）数据库的14个国家共22份综合报纸的全文内容。本研究将14个国家划分为四大区域：美国、英国、西方世界（除英国外的欧盟成员国，以及澳大利亚、新西兰与加拿大）以及世界其他地区（其余所有国家）。 主要结局指标：22家报纸对四大医学期刊的媒体引用情况，四大期刊涵盖2份美国期刊——《新英格兰医学杂志（NEJM）》与《美国医学会杂志（JAMA）》，以及2份英国期刊——《柳叶刀（The Lancet）》与《英国医学期刊（BMJ）》。 研究结果：2008至2015年间，英美两国报纸每周约引用上述四大医学期刊3次（周均引用量分别为3.2与2.7）；其他西方国家报纸周均引用约1次（周均1.1）；世界其他地区的报纸月均引用约1次（月均1.1）。《纽约时报》的引用量位居所有报纸之首（周均4.7）。分析结果显示，日报报业中存在三类国家级引用模式：美国报纸主要引用本国期刊（占总引用量的70.0%），英国报纸主要引用本国期刊（占比86.5%），其余受访报纸对英国期刊的引用量高于美国期刊。除英美两国外的几乎所有西方国家报业中，《柳叶刀》是被引用频次最高的期刊。多元对应分析验证了上述国家级引用模式，并证实超过85%的引用数据变异可通过单一新增变量——国家维度——予以保留。 研究结论：英美两国报纸对四大受访医学期刊的引用频次更高，且表现出对本国期刊的本土偏好；非英美国家报纸则呈现出统一的国际化引用模式。