Laboratory hematology in the history of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine

Abstract Background: For the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM), an historic overview of papers that the journal has published in the field of laboratory hematology (LH) is presented. Methods: All past volumes of CCLM were screened for papers on LH and these were categorized. Bibliographic data of these papers were also analyzed. Results: CCLM published in total 387 LH papers. The absolute number of LH papers published annually showed a significant increase over the years since 1985. Also the share of LH papers demonstrated a steady increase (overall mean 5%, but mean 8% over the past 4 years). The most frequent category was coagulation and fibrinolysis (23.5%). Authors from Germany contributed the most LH papers to the journal (22.7%), followed by the Netherlands and Italy (16.3 and 13.2%, respectively). Recent citation data indicated that other publications cited LH review papers much more frequently than other types of papers. Conclusions: The history of the journal reflects the emergence and development of laboratory hematology as a separate discipline of laboratory medicine.