To investigate trends of the research designs and statistical methods in the Annals of Rehabilitation Medicine (ARM) published from 2005 to 2015 through a comparison of articles with the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (APMR).

The authors reviewed all articles published in ARM and APMR for the years 2005 and 2015 in order to determine their research designs as well as their statistical methods used in each article.

In ARM, randomized controlled trials increased from 4.5% in 2005 to 6.5% in 2015. In APMR, randomized controlled trials increased from 8.1% in 2005 to 14.0% in 2015, meta-analyses increased to 5.3%, and systematic reviews increased to 6%. The number of studies using statistical methods increased in ARM from 1.9 to 2.6 per article and in APMR, from 2.7 to 3.1. Use of advanced methods in ARM also showed an increase from 2005 to 2015.

This study concludes that there is a trend of increased awareness and attempts to use varied research approaches in ARM articles. There should also be more in-depth discussions and opportunities for researchers to share their experiences regarding statistical methods in the clinical field.

To analyze publication rate, time to publication and the characteristics of the abstracts presented at the annual Korean Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine (KARM) meetings.

A total of 1,027 abstracts presented at the 2008 and 2009 annual KARM meetings were enrolled in the database and searched for their subsequent citation in PubMed, KoreaMed, and Google Scholar.

The data analysis revealed that 317 (30.87%) abstracts, were published as full-length journal articles and publication rates by subject were not significantly different. The mean time to publication was 17.17±10.48 months, and the journals written in English (20.39±10.20) required a longer duration than those written in Korean (11.94±8.44) with statistical significance (p<0.001). There was no statistical difference (p=0.284) in the duration between domestic (17.61±10.37) and foreign (16.48±10.51) of the 220 domestic journal articles, 190 (86.76%) were published in the Annals of Rehabilitation Medicine and the 97 articles published in foreign journals were scattered over 60 different journals.

The publication rate of abstracts presented at the 2008 and 2009 annual KARM meetings was 30.87% and the mean time to publication was 17.17±10.48 months.