Vijftig jaar bovensteluchtweginfecties vóór en dóór huisartsen

Background: In an earlier article we showed that H&W has dealt with many aspects of upper respiratory tract infections over the past 50 years. The aim of this follow-up article is to explore whether GPs, medical specialists or other disciplines were the first authors throughout the years and what types of research questions included in the theses have been published in Huisarts en Wetenschap (H&W). Method: Manual screening of all volumes of H&W, with broadly defined search terms, was followed by a definitive selection. The disciplines of the first authors were retrieved by examining the publications and by consulting H&W and the authors in question. The research questions contained in the twelve theses on upper respiratory tract infections in general practice - articles published in H&W - were divided into six categories: 'incidence/prevalence', 'aetiology', 'diagnostic', 'intervention', 'prognostic' and 'other'. Subsequently we examined the extent to which the different research questions were published in H&W. Results: With 70% of articles, GPs have been by far the largest group of first authors, followed by graduate medical students and GP trainees. In the early years, as well as in the last decade, most research questions contained in the theses have been published in H&W. Conclusion: The boom in publications by graduate medical students and GP trainees might be the result of the renewed medical curricula stressing student involvement in research. Furthermore the editorial policy of H&W might contribute to the spread of new insights by the active publication of reviews and the duplicate publication of theses.