2,000th publication from birth cohort data

The total number of published research findings using NCDS, BCS70 or MCS data has this month reached 2,000, with the appearance in the November edition of JCPPAD, of a BCS70-based article showing how risk factors from pregnancy to age 5 are quite strong predictors of conduct problems and crime:

MURRAY, J., IRVING, B., FARRINGTON, D.P., COLMAN, I. and BLOXSOM, C.A.J. (2010) Very early predictors of conduct problems and crime: results from a national cohort study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 51(11), 1198-1207

It is now almost exactly 50 years since the first-ever peer-reviewed NCDS publication by the study’s co-founder, Professor Neville Butler:

BUTLER, N.R. (1961) National survey of perinatal mortality: first results. British Medical Journal, 1(5235), 1313-1315

During that half-century of research, there have been:

• 1,442 publications based on NCDS;
• 516 based on BCS70; and
• 256 on MCS*

The sphere of medical research has been the most prolific, but the multi-disciplinary nature of all three longitudinal studies is reflected in the fact that a great many peer-reviewed articles have appeared in fields as diverse as lifelong learning, psychology, employment, housing, family formation, genetics, economics, demography, citizenship and values, and crime.

This vast wealth of research can be viewed by going to the CLS on-line bibliography, where all 2,000 citations are listed.  Following an extensive exercise to hyperlink as many historical documents as possible, the database now allows direct navigation to the abstracts (or in some cases the full article) of around 1,250 of these, some going right back as far as the 1960s.

The figure of 2,000 represents an under-estimate of the real number of publications, as we are reliant on researchers to inform us when their cohort-based outputs are published.   There are many we have located on-line using Google Scholar or other search mechanisms, but none of these methods are truly exhaustive.   We would request that all users of cohort data make a point of informing us when their findings are accepted by journals, using the CLS contact form.

* The three totals added together exceed 2,000, as some papers use results from more than one survey.