Purpose: The delay in time from entry in the PubMed database to indexing with medical subject heading (MeSH) terms for articles published in three major pharmacy practice journals was evaluated.
Methods: In April 2013, MEDLINE data were retrieved for articles published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP), the Annals of Pharmacotherapy, and Pharmacotherapy between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2011. Data collected for each article included the PubMed entry date, MeSH indexing date, and publication type. The PubMed entry date was defined as the Entrez date, the date the citation was added to the PubMed database. Medians and interquartile ranges (IQRs) were calculated for the time to indexing of articles and for the age of unindexed articles. The proportion of unindexed articles was also calculated.
Results: A total of 1626 publications were reviewed. Overall, the median time to indexing with MeSH terms was 114 days (IQR, 98-141 days): 107 days (IQR, 94-129 days) for AJHP, 131 days (IQR, 104-157 days) for Annals of Pharmacotherapy, and 114 days (IQR, 99-128 days) for Pharmacotherapy. The median age of unindexed articles was 807 days (IQR, 671-807 days).
Conclusion: An analysis of three major pharmacy practice journals showed that the median time to indexing articles published in 2010 and 2011 was 114 days. While all articles from AJHP and Pharmacotherapy were indexed, 40 articles from Annals of Pharmacotherapy remained unindexed.