Meta-Research: The need for more research into reproductive health and disease
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Canada
Figures
Figure 1
Number of articles published every year on seven reproductive organs and seven non-reproductive organs.
(A) The number of articles published on most of the non-reproductive organs (including the brain, heart, lung and liver) has increased more rapidly than the number of articles published on the reproductive organs. (B) Removing articles that contain the keyword cancer has relatively little effect on the number of articles for non-reproductive organs (with the exception of the lung), but has a significant impact on the number of articles for the two reproductive organs with the most articles: the breast and prostate. Data extracted from PubMed using organ-specific keyword searches for the period 1966–2021.
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Figure 1—source data 1
Articles per year for reproductive and non-reproductive organs, with and without the keyword cancer.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/75061/elife-75061-fig1-data1-v3.xlsx
Figure 2
Comparing research related to disease and research not related to disease for reproductive and non-reproductive organs.
For each organ (colored circles) the vertical axis shows the number of publications for the period 1966–2021 related to disease, and the horizontal axis shows the number not related to disease: the area of the circle is proportional to the total number of publications. The straight blue line corresponds to equal numbers of disease-related and non-disease-related publications, so organs to the right of this line (notably non-reproductive organs such as the brain, heart and liver) tend to be the subject of more basic or non-disease-related research, whereas organs to the left of this line (notably reproductive organs such as the breast and prostate) tend to be the subject of disease-related research. The lung is the only non-reproductive organ in our sample to the left of the blue line.
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Figure 2—source data 1
Total number of articles on research related to disease and research not related to disease for reproductive and non-reproductive organs.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/75061/elife-75061-fig2-data1-v3.csv
Tables
Table 1
Total number of matching articles from PubMed for seven non-reproductive keywords and seven reproductive keywords for the period 1966–2021.
| Keyword | Total matching articles |
|---|---|
| Non-reproductive keywords | |
| Brain | 1,058,995 |
| Heart | 851,955 |
| Liver | 834,006 |
| Lung | 652,797 |
| Kidney | 451,177 |
| Intestine | 120,034 |
| Pancreas | 99,772 |
| Reproductive keywords | |
| Breast | 464,629 |
| Prostate | 197,736 |
| Ovary | 83,971 |
| Placenta | 57,076 |
| Uterus | 55,971 |
| Testes | 32,344 |
| Penis | 15,019 |
Table 2
Total number of projects funded and average grant (in Canadian or US dollars) for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (columns 2 and 3) and the US National Institutes of Health (columns 4 and 5) for the years 2013–2018 for seven non-reproductive keywords and seven reproductive keywords (column 1).
| Keyword | Number of projects (CIHR) | Average grant funded (CAD) | Number of projects(NIH) | Average grant funded(USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-reproductive keywords | ||||
| Brain | 1686 | $391,023 | 81666 | $441,149 |
| Heart | 1214 | $369,665 | 43833 | $491,993 |
| Liver | 1597 | $314,473 | 22072 | $454,276 |
| Lung | 526 | $371,154 | 34492 | $525,631 |
| Kidney | 347 | $424,360 | 21176 | $508,853 |
| Intestine | 128 | $444,490 | 5800 | $371,727 |
| Pancreas | 96 | $491,274 | 8649 | $482,901 |
| Reproductive keywords | ||||
| Breast | 459 | $336,734 | 19132 | $525,134 |
| Prostate | 143 | $299,034 | 8960 | $514,638 |
| Ovary | 42 | $379,349 | 4814 | $520,804 |
| Placenta | 105 | $369,825 | 2169 | $526,147 |
| Uterus | 45 | $324,690 | 1356 | $509,250 |
| Testes | 10 | $372,110 | 340 | $500,160 |
| Penis | 1 | $304,676 | 323 | $369,434 |
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Table 2—source data 1
Source data for Table 2.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/75061/elife-75061-table2-data1-v3.xlsx
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Meta-Research: The need for more research into reproductive health and disease
eLife 11:e75061.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75061
