{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T17:51:12Z","timestamp":1783619472289,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,15]],"date-time":"2020-12-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1607990400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Policy has been developed to promote the conduct of high-quality pediatric randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Whether these strategies have influenced publication trends in high-impact journals is unknown. We aim to evaluate characteristics, citation patterns, and publication trends of pediatric RCTs published in general medical journals (GMJs) compared with adult RCTs over a 13-year period. Studies were identified using Medline, and impact metrics were collected from Web of Science and Scopus. All RCTs published from 2005\u20132018 in 7 GMJs with the highest impact factors were identified for analysis. A random sample of matched pediatric and adult RCTs were assessed for publication characteristics, academic and non-academic citation. Citations were counted from publication until June 2019. Among 4146 RCTs, 2794 (67.3%) enrolled adults, 591 (14.2%) enrolled children, and 761 RCTs (18.3%) enrolled adult and pediatric patients. Adult RCTs published in GMJs grew by 5.1 publications per year (95% CI: 3.3\u20136.9), while the number of pediatric RCTs did not show significant change (\u22120.4 RCTs\/year, 95% CI: \u22121.4\u20130.6). Adult RCTs were cited more than pediatric RCTs (median(IQR): 29.9 (68.5\u2013462.8) citations\/year vs. 13.2 (6.8\u201324.9) citations\/year; p &lt; 0.001); however, social media attention was similar (median(IQR) Altmetric Attention Score: 37 (13.75\u2013133.8) vs. 26 (6.2\u2013107.5); p = 0.25). Despite policies which may facilitate conduct of pediatric RCTs, the publishing gap in high-impact GMJs is widening.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children7120293","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,15]],"date-time":"2020-12-15T09:12:57Z","timestamp":1608023577000},"page":"293","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":38,"title":["Publication Trends of Pediatric and Adult Randomized Controlled Trials in General Medical Journals, 2005\u20132018: A Citation Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5489-8811","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael L.","family":"Groff","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5C1, Canada"},{"name":"Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4402-5299","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martin","family":"Offringa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada"},{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada"},{"name":"Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada"},{"name":"Division of Neonatology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abby","family":"Emdin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada"},{"name":"Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Quenby","family":"Mahood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Hospital Library and Archives, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Patricia C.","family":"Parkin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada"},{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada"},{"name":"Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada"},{"name":"Division of Pediatric Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eyal","family":"Cohen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada"},{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada"},{"name":"Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada"},{"name":"Division of Pediatric Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada"},{"name":"Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1183","DOI":"10.1016\/S0895-4356(02)00525-5","article-title":"Evaluation of Interventions","volume":"55","author":"Fletcher","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. Clin. 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