Measure 8.2: Increased number of high-quality, peer reviewed, open access Australian dementia studies
Given the significant impact of dementia in Australia, it is important to have a wide body of published literature from dementia related research, and for this research to occur in Australia to inform Australian policy and programs.
Data are available from the PubMed search engine to track this measure, with a focus on peer-reviewed articles that have gone through a rigorous external review process before electronic publication (Epub). Data are presented for all dementia-related publications and for open access publications. Open access means that articles are freely available online, allowing more people to be informed of recent developments.
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Indicator
Number of open access Australian dementia publications.
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Baseline value
431 open access Australian dementia publications in 2024
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Latest value
Baseline value only
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Progress
To be provided in future updates
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Indicator
Number of all Australian dementia publications.
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Baseline value
561 Australian dementia publications in 2024
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Latest value
Baseline value only
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Progress
To be provided in future updates
Change over time
Future updates of this report will track changes over time for this indicator.
Historical change over time: 2020 to 2024
Between 2020 and 2024, the number of all Australian dementia publications was relatively consistent at about 540 each year (Figure 8.2), but the proportion of publications that were open access increased from 60% to 77%.
Figure 8.2: Number of open access dementia publications, by electronic publication year, 2020–2024
Stacked column chart shows an increase in the number of open access publications in 2024.
These data were sourced from publicly available information on PubMed.
PubMed is a free resource from the United States National Library of Medicine that supports the search and retrieval of biomedical and life sciences literature. It has over 30 million citations from journal articles selected for MEDLINE and PubMed Central. Listed publications were searched to identify the number of Australian dementia studies.
A search strategy was tested and refined following feedback from experts. A compromise was made between a comprehensive review to include all Australian dementia publications of interest, and a search that did not have a high level of false positives, and which could be automated for annual updates. For example, publication in peered-review journals is used as a proxy for “high-quality”, for the purpose of this indicator.
Note that the 2024 baseline value was revised to reflect Electronic publication dates as print publication dates are becoming less relevant for monitoring change for the Action Plan.
For more detailed data, see the Supplementary data tables.
For more information, see the Technical notes.