Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Nov 2004
Changes in authorship patterns in prestigious US medical journals.
To improve identification of contributors to manuscripts, editors of medical journals have developed authorship responsibility criteria. Some have specified an acceptable number of authors per manuscript. We wanted to examine changes in patterns of authorship in the context of the development of these specifications. ⋯ Group authorship was most prevalent in journals that limited the acceptable number of authors per manuscript. These findings suggest that the number of authors per manuscript continues to grow. The growth in the number of authors on bylines and the proportion of group-authored manuscripts is likely to reflect the increasing complexity of medical research.
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Social science & medicine · Nov 2004
Characteristics of online and offline health information seekers and factors that discriminate between them.
Increasing number of individuals are using the internet to meet their health information needs; however, little is known about the characteristics of online health information seekers and whether they differ from individuals who search for health information from offline sources. Researchers must examine the primary characteristics of online and offline health information seekers in order to better recognize their needs, highlight improvements that may be made in the arena of internet health information quality and availability, and understand factors that discriminate between those who seek online vs. offline health information. This study examines factors that differentiate between online and offline health information seekers in the United States. ⋯ This study is unique in that the results illustrate that there are several key factors (age, income, and education) that discriminate between US online and offline health information seekers; this suggests that general "digital divide" characteristics influence where health information is sought. In addition to traditional digital divide factors, those who are healthier and happier are less likely to look exclusively offline for health information. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the digital divide and the patient-provider relationship.