STROBE Citation Analysis

STROBE Citation Analysis


Bruno da Costa, BScPT, MScInstitute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)

University of Bern, Switzerland

www.ispm.ch


Background

> STROBE first published in October 2007

> Checklist and E&E simultaneously published— 7 checklists

— 3 E&E

> To date there are around 16 publications in 12 journals

> STROBE is endorsed by ICMJE and over 100 journals


Objectives

> To examine the absolute frequency of STROBE citations and possible determinants

> To examine in which circumstances and context the STROBE was cited (when, where, and why)

> To illustrate some instances of citations with text examples


Methods

> Literature search: 2-stage process— Stage 1: Search for STROBE publications

— Stage 2: Search for studies which cited STROBE


Methods

> Stage 1: literature search for STROBE publications— Web of Science

o August 12th 2010o No time or language restriction STROBE

WoS


STEP# SEARCH STRATEGY*

1 Title=(Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) AND Author=(von Elm)

2 Title=(Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) AND Author=(Vandenbroucke)

3 #1 OR #2

4 Title=(STREGA)

5 #3 NOT #4

*Web of Science was searched through the ISI Web of Knowledge platform (isiknowledge.com). The search was conducted on 12 August 2010.


Methods> Stage 2: literature search for studies

which cited STROBE— Web of Scienceo List of studies identified in first stage

o Web of Science function: “Create citation report”

o Random sample of 100 studies

WoS

STROBE

STROBEcitation

STROBEcitation

STROBEcitation


Methods

> Data extraction— Pilot of DEF with 40 studies conducted in duplicate

— Final items in DEFo Verbatim of citationo Reason for citationo STROBE article cited (e.g. Ann Intern Med

E&E)o Type of article which made citation (e.g.

Systematic review)


IDEN

TIFI

CATI

ON

SCRE

ENIN

GIN

CLU

DED

potentially eligible reportsn=18

reports excludedn=2

reports includedn=16

(12 checklist, 4 E&E)

Results: Stage 1Results: Stage 1

reports screenedn=18


Language Record Count % Bar Chart

English 11 68.75

Spanish 3 18.75German 2 12.5



STROBE publications per year



> Number of articles citing STROBE

n = 640

> Number citations per year (Oct 2007-Aug 2010)

219


9

148

269214

STROBE citations per year


STROBE publication n IF Lang.

Lancet 110 30.8 English

Ann Intern Med 99 16.2 English

Ann Intern Med (E&E) 97 16.2 English

BMJ 69 13.7 English

Plos Med (E&E) 62 13.1 English

J Clin Epidemiol http://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=strobe-publications

51 3.0 English

Plos Med 43 13.1 English

Epidemiology (E&E) 42 5.5 English

Epidemiology 21 5.5 English

Prev Med 15 3.2 English

Bull World Health Organ 14 5.3 English

Gaceta Sanitaria 7 1.2 Spanish

Internist 4 0.3 German

Gaceta Sanitaria (E&E) 3 1.2 Spanish

Rev Esp Salud Publica 3 - Spanish

Notfall & Rettungsmedizin 0 0.6 German

http://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=strobe-publications


Reason for citation Original research

Systematic review,

Meta analysis

Comment, editorial, letter

Methodological article Other

Guide Reporting 24 0 0 0 0 24

Guide Design & Conduct 1 0 0 0 0 1

Assessment Reporting Quality 0 2 0 0 0 2

Assessment Meth. Quality 0 6 0 0 0 6

Stressed the importance of reporting guidelines 0 1 5 4 13 23

Cited as an example of reporting guideline 0 0 1 2 2 5

Other 6 8 9 2 9 34

Unclear 1 2 0 0 2 5

Total 33 19 15 8 26 100

Results from random sample (n=100)




Systematic review,

Meta analysis









Other 6 8 9 2 9 34

Unclear 1 2 0 0 2 5

Total 33 19 15 8 26 100




Systematic review,

Meta analysis









Other 6 8 9 2 9 34

Unclear 1 2 0 0 2 5

Total 33 19 15 8 26 100

50% with ≥1 author(s) with Epidemiological

or PH affiliation


Objective of STROBE

“Our aim is to ensure clear presentation of what was planned, done, and found in an observational study. We stress that the recommendations are not prescriptions for setting up or conducting studies, nor do they dictate methodology or mandate a uniform presentation”

Vandenbroucke 2007

Results: Context of STROBE citation


“The reporting of this study conforms to the STROBE statement (*)”

Mariette 2010, Ann Rheum Dis

“The STROBE guidelines were used to ensure the reporting of this observational study (*)”

Wakkee 2009, Acta Derm Venereol

“We followed STROBE guidelines for the preparation of this manuscript within the constraints of the word count limit(*)”

Siassakos 2009, Medical Education



“This prospective study was designed following recommendation of the STROBE statement (*)”

Onofrj 2010, Neurology

“The analysis followed the principles of the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology initiative (*)”Gratwohl 2009, Cancer



“We conducted a systematic search of MEDLINE (2005 to January 2009) and the National Institutes of Health clinical trial databases (up to January 2009) for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational case series with at least 3-month follow-up, both prospective and retrospective, which met the STROBE criteria”

Jyothi 2010, Eye



“The quality of selected studies was assessed using a modified version of the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement (*). The STROBE is a quality assessment checklist for observational studies that consists of 22 items. The STROBE was modified by adding questions about the serologic method used to confirm dengue diagnosis, use of viral isolation, and whether the study was based on a single dengue outbreak or transmission season. Use of viral isolation increased the score whereas single outbreak studies received no additional points. The quality score was the number of items from the STROBE checklist addressed as a percentage of the total number of items applicable (minimum of 23 and maximum of 25). Studies with a quality assessment below 50% were excluded”

Potts 2008, Trop Med Int Health



Summary

> Citations to STROBE has been steeply increasing since its first publication

> STROBE publications in journals with higher IF are usually cited more frequently

> Among studies that cited STROBE, 24% used it according to original purpose

> 7% of studies that cited STROBE used it inappropriately


050

100

150

0 10 20 30im pact fac to r

95% C I F it ted va lues

c itat ions

Scatter plot showing association between number of citations and impact factor


Source | SS df MS Number of obs = 15-------------+------------------------------ F( 1, 13) = 55.82 Model | 16233.2001 1 16233.2001 Prob > F = 0.0000Prob > F = 0.0000 Residual | 3780.53324 13 290.810249 R-squared = 0.8111-------------+------------------------------ Adj R-squared = 0.7966 Total | 20013.7333 14 1429.55238 Root MSE = 17.053 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ citations | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval]-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------- IF | 4.0132054.013205 .5371482 7.47 0.000 2.852767 5.173643 _cons | 7.979858 6.379171 1.25 0.233 -5.801503 21.76122------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linear regression output of the association between number of citations and impact factor


> Flowchart according to STROBE recommendations (n=1)

> Design and report adhere to STROBE (n=1)

> Methodological comment (n=2)

> “Quality” assessment but unclear whether methodological or reporting (n=2)

> Guideline to conduct statistical analysis (n=1)

> Eligibility screening in systematic review (n=3)

> Followed STROBE guidelines, but unclear how (n=1)> Other (n=23)

“In spite of the widespread use of metaanalyses to synthesize intervention studies, there has been relatively little discussion on the strengths and weakness of these techniques for summarizing frequency measures such as incidence and prevalence estimates”

Category “Other”

STROBE Citation Analysis

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