Research funding in the four major emergency medicine journals

The objective of this survey was to determine the percentage of unfunded studies published in the four major emergency medicine journals and to examine the sources in funded studies. This study was a retrospective survey of all issues of the four general emergency medicine journals in 1994. Funding was categorized as public national, private, international, institutional, or unfunded. The total funding and sources were recorded for each of the four journals. Confidence intervals (CIs) were determined to compare the percent of funded versus unfunded articles. Overall, significantly more of the emergency medicine articles in the four journals were unfunded (63% unfunded [95% CI = 56.7–69.1]; 37% funded [95% CI = 30.9–43.3]). The sources of funding for each of the journals varied, with most being private (45%). In conclusion unfunded research remains a major source of emergency medicine literature in the four main emergency medicine journals.