Is the Thematic Classification of a Clinical Journal Based on the Degree of Adherence to Quality Guidelines? Approach by a Multinomial Logistic Model

Publication standards and quality guidelines in Health Science journals are very helpful tools for improving the scientific level of articles published, and a failure to follow specific recommendations increases the likelihood of publishing unreliable or biased studies. Nevertheless, among the broad array of journals published nowadays, guidelines are not heeded to an equal extent. Besides, many journals publish only under the modality of Open Access, and the specialized fieldbof a given journal may be determinant. The aim of this paper was to analyze how the classification of a journal in a certain category may be influenced by adhesion to the norms for publication upheld by the ICMJE, the CONSORT statement and the Clinical Trials Register. Publication under an Open Access system was considered as an additional factor. The main methodological contribution of this work is to present a multinomial regression model whose response variable is the journal category and then apply it to the field of Dentistry based on the Journal Citation Reports list corresponding to the year 2022. It is concluded that the most influential variables were the adherence to the CONSORT guidelines and the Clinical Trials Registry, while fit to ICMJE standards and the Open Access system had no significant contribution to the model.