"De trop" meta-analyses and systematic reviews in cardiopulmonary resuscitation - A way to rapidly improve authors' citation index at a price of real science

Giulia Merigo; Ivan Silvestri; Aurora Magliocca; Francesca Fumagalli; Giuseppe Ristagno

doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109799

"De trop" meta-analyses and systematic reviews in cardiopulmonary resuscitation - A way to rapidly improve authors' citation index at a price of real science

Resuscitation. 2023 Jun:187:109799. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109799. Epub 2023 Apr 18.

Authors

Giulia Merigo¹, Ivan Silvestri², Aurora Magliocca³, Francesca Fumagalli⁴, Giuseppe Ristagno⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Emergency, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
² Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Emergency, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
³ Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
⁴ Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milan, Italy.
⁵ Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Emergency, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: gristag@gmail.com.

PMID: 37080335
DOI: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109799

Abstract

Meta-analyses and systematic reviews (MSR) have been conceived as tools to summarize evidence on a specific health question. However, in the last years, an exaggerated number of MSRs published by scientific journals has been observed, i.e. 286 MSRs in the field of Resuscitation Science over the last 3 years, i.e. approximately 95 per year. Thus, doubts on the real scientific need of such a high number of MSRs may arise, potentially being only a way to rapidly improve authors' citation index and fame and sometimes the journals' impact factor.

Keywords: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Citation; Meta-analyses; Systematic reviews.

Publication types

Letter

MeSH terms

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation*
Humans
Journal Impact Factor*