INTRODUCTION: There seems to be no dedicated journals available for publication of editorial research in the biomedical sciences; that is research into editorial or publication process issues involving the scientific approach to writing, reviewing, editing and publishing. It is unknown where papers concerning these issues are typically published. We therefore set out to study the distribution of such papers in the biomedical literature.

METHODS: In this pilot study, we conducted a MEDLINE search for papers on editorial research published in the year 2012.

RESULTS: We found 445 articles published in 311 journals with a median of one article per journal (range: 1-17).

CONCLUSION: The publication of papers on editorial research seems to be dispersed. In order to increase the visibility of this research field, it may be reasonable to establish well-defined platforms such as dedicated journals or journal sections in which such research could preferably be published.