Authors' affiliations and addresses in published articles - Lack of care penalizes French universities in international rankings

Objective To assess, through the example of the universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, whether the poor international visibility of French universities may be due in part to a lack of care by researchers in listing their affiliations and address on their scientific publications. Method Querying the heading address of Medline, Embase.com and Pascal Biomed for 2003 in searches for publications from Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Results In 300 bibliographic entries studied, we found 44 different forms of the university's name. Only 15% of the addresses were correct, and 44% did not mention the author's affiliation with the university. Discussion Authors' lack of care in listing their affiliations and address and the absence of a standardized official name for the university may explain the poor visibility of French universities. Recommendations about this topic might help to promote the reputation and work of French researchers internationally.