Research activity evaluation in French hospitals is based on the number of publications, author position (first, second, third, second-to-last, last, investigator list, and “Other”) and journal category (A being the highest category followed by B, C, D, E, and NC).

The profile of publications over the 2004–2014 period in terms of these indicators was evaluated. Hospitals were classified into six groups according to administrative status. Time trends were analysed by three models. One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's test was performed.

A total of 192886 publications were analysed. The increase in the number of publications ranged from 628% for for-profit private hospitals to 141% for public teaching hospitals. The most frequent category was B for cancer centres (25%), whereas this was E in public teaching (22%) and non-teaching hospitals (28%), in not-for-profit private hospitals (25%), in the military hospital (30%), and in for-profit private hospitals (24%). The first position was the most frequent for public teaching hospitals (38%) and the military hospital (44%), whereas the “Other” position was the most frequent in cancer centres (26%), in public non-teaching hospitals (28%), in not-for-profit private hospitals (27%), and in for-profit private hospitals (29%).

Different patterns were identified. The author position indicated that all types of hospital are involved in research projects. This study also found that public non-teaching hospitals, not-for-profit private hospitals, for-profit private hospitals, and cancer centres collaborated with other institutions which were often distinguished by publishing in high-category journals.