Tracking Australian health and medical research expenditure with a PubMed bibliometric method

Objective: To assess Australian health and medical research (HMR) investment returns by measuring the trends in HMR expenditure and PubMed publications by Australian authors. Methods: Bibliometric analysis collating Australian HMR expenditure reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Australian HMR publications indexed in PubMed. Similar methods were applied to data from the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Results: From financial year 2000/01 through 2011/12, HMR investment increased by 232% from $1.49 to $4.94 billion (current prices adjusted for inflation), while PubMed publications increased by 123% from 10,696 to 23,818. The average HMR investment required for a single PubMed publication rose by 49% from $139,304 in 2000/01 to $207,364 in 2011/12. Quality analyses showed an increase in systematic reviews, cohort studies and clinical trials, and a decrease in publications in PubMed's core clinical journal collection. Comparisons with New Zealand and the United Kingdom showed that Australia has had the greatest overall percentage increase in gross publication numbers and publications per capita. Conclusions: Our analyses confirm that increased HMR expenditure is associated with an increase in HMR publications in PubMed. Implications: Tracking HMR investment outcomes using this method could be useful for future policy and funding decisions at a federal and specific institution level