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Background: A relevant increase in the spanish biomedical production has occurred in the last few years. The magnitude, evolution and characteristics of the Spanish scientific production in Rheumatology is here analyzed through the published papers in foreign specialty journals., Methods: Location in spanish documents published from 1990 to 1996 in nine foreign rheumatology journals of great visibility in MEDLINE. Classification of documents according to type of publication, specialty of authors and type of design. Estimation of bibliometric and collaboration indicators. Analysis of their evolution and comparison with data published for 1987., Results: The number of Spanish documents from 1990 to 1996 doubled and from 1987 to 1996 tripled, with a 54% increase for the four journals with more visibility. In 1996, the spanish documents reached 5% of the total of published documents in several journals. From 1990 to 1996 original papers increased almost four times more than letters, the analytical studies increased almost eight times more than descriptive studies, and the mean expected impact factor of the originals multiplied by 1.6. The published documents by spanish rheumatologists had a more favorable profile--higher ratios for originals: letters, analytical studies: descriptive studies--than publications performed by other specialists in this area. The number of authors by document (median) increased from 5 to 6 during the analyzed period. Seventy-two percent of documents was signed by more than one department and 75% by only one institution., Conclusions: A relevant increase has occurred in the number and quality spanish documents published in the rheumatology area during the last ten years. To note a lack of collaboration between different institutions and few analytical studies of great complexity: cohort studies and controlled clinical trials.

Introduction: Some studies have shown a lower female participation in scientific publications. The objective of this study is to analyse the gender inequalities in the main Spanish journals of medical publications., Material and Method: Cross-sectional study of the main Spanish medical journals classified by SCImago Journal & Country Ranking (n=24) and their publications (n=3.375), during the year 2017. Women/men ratio in authorship was calculated for all journals and types of papers. Bivariate analyses were developed with the type of article as the dependent variable, and gender, institution, and country of the first and last authors as the independent variables. Logistic regression models were performed to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of the types of papers according to authorship gender, institution, and country. The statistical program used was R., Results: The total number of authors was 16,252 (44.2% women, 53.9% men, and 1.9% non-identified gender). Women represented 46% of the first authors and 33.5% of the last ones. Women were the first authors of Editorials less often than men (aOR 0.39; 95% CI 0.30-0.51), but more often in Originals (aOR 1.55; 95% CI 1.33-1.80). Women were the last authors with less frequency in all types of papers, especially in Editorials (aOR 0.50; 95% CI 0.35-0.70). The women/men ratio in authorship was less than 0.80 in 10 of 26 journals analysed (41.7%)., Conclusions: These results show the gender inequalities in the authorship of the main Spanish medical journals in 2017, especially as first authors and Editorials., (Copyright © 2020. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U.)

The Emerging Sources Citation Index and the internationalization of Spanish scientific journals, with special reference to Psychology journals., Background: Spain is among the countries that have added more scientific journals into the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), a new product from the Central Collection of Web of Science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the implications of this and quantify the effects on Impact Factors., Method: The Spanish presence was quantified using the Master Journal List, converted to a spreadsheet for data processing. The implications were determined by analyzing the criteria "Journal Selection Process". The effect on impact factors was analyzed through a case study of Spanish JCR journals of Psychology., Results: Until 2015, Spain represented 1.13% of the Central Collection. With the 568 journals included in the ESCI, that presence has increased to 3.37%. The areas benefitting most were Social Sciences and Humanities. As a general effect, citation in Psychology journals has increased by an average of 13.18%., Conclusions: The situation fostered by the ESCI will significantly improve the number and position of Spanish journals with impact factors in the short and medium term. Currently, their citations have already significantly influenced an increase of the impact of Spanish journals included in the Journal Citation Reports.

Revista ROL de Enfermería was the first journal of nurses and adressed to nursing published with the birth of Spanish democracy, indexed soon Medline/PubMed. This paper analyzes the changes in the structure and function of the magazine. Highlights two facts. The journal ROL expresses the transformation of the new universitary nursing, and how was adapting to scientific standards: although not increased the number of original articles, was normalizing their structure, bibliography or citations pattern, and also the scientific writing style.

Objective: This article aims to provide a quantitative and qualitative description of the publications on Nuclear Medicine (NM) in journals from other disciplines, between 2000 and 2009., Material and Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was carried out including the years 2000-2009 in three internal medicine journals (IM) and in three related specialty journals (RS). The criteria used are that some of the authors were located professionally in a Service, Unit or Central MN and/or that the title of the article or at least its content made a reference to some specific aspect of NM. Date of publication, the magazine section, thematic, data of the authors, province and referral hospital were collected., Results: A total of 186 articles were found, 81 in IM journals and 105 in RS. The IM journal articles came from 43 different hospitals. Vall d'Hebron (Barcelona, Spain) was the hospital with the largest volume. Twenty-four provinces were identified, Barcelona and Madrid standing out among them with 20 and 17 articles, respectively. In the RS journals, 59 hospitals/centers had participated, Vall d'Hebron standing out with 51 articles. There were 9 foreign articles. The articles were distributed into 19 provinces, Barcelona and Madrid standing out with 32 papers and 20 papers, respectively., Conclusions: There are at least twice as many articles in the RS Journals than in the IM ones. «Original» articles are the most frequent. The Clinical and Translational Oncology journal in RS and Medicina Clínica in IM stand out with the highest number of articles. No specific topic prevailed., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and SEMNIM. All rights reserved.)

Objective: "Medicina Paliativa" is the official journal of the Spanish Society of Palliative Care ("Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos"; SECPAL) and it reflects the interests, also on bioethics, of the professionals caring terminal people. We want to know what the bioethical questions they discuss and their approaches are., Methods: From all the published articles in "Medicina Paliativa" from 1994 to 2013 we selected those referred to bioethics topics. We analysed: number of publications, author, subtype of article, year of publication, topic, philosophic approach, and the presence of answers and discussion. Qualitative topics were reviewed and agreed by at least two authors., Results: There were 60 (9%) publications with bioethics profile from a total of 672 analyzed articles. A majority were signed by only one author. 31 (51%) were published as letter. The most relevant topics were: euthanasia, dignity, proportionality of treatment and care, sedation, principles of bioethics, and information. The orientation of these papers was, in a majority, according to principles of palliative care. Most bioethics topics have been answered and even answered back., Conclusion: Bioethics is an interesting topic in palliative care. The arguments usually fit the principles of palliative care.

Objective: To analyse the institutionalisation of nutrition sciences in Spain in the second half of the twentieth century, and evaluate the activities of the journal Anales de Bromatología., Method: Descriptive bibliometric study of the original articles. Full names of the authors and the complete article title were recorded. Using key words, each article was assigned by consensus of the researchers to a single main subject in accordance with the thirteen subject areas addressed by the Spanish Society of Bromatology in its meetings. An analysis was conducted of the distribution and trends of general productivity indicators and their characteristics., Results: A total of 917 original articles were published, with a mean of 20.8 papers/year. The subjects for which the highest percentage of articles was recorded were foreign substances in foods, foods of plant origin and nutrition. A total of 874 authors contributed, with a collaboration rate of 2.43 and a transience rate of 70.1%. Distribution of the number of authors per article was close to that indicated by Lotka's law of scientific productivity. The top twelve producers, predominantly women, participated in 49.9% of the articles published., Conclusion: The journal showed low productivity and was of an endogamous nature, with a predominance of authors related to the School of Bromatology in the Faculty of Pharmacy, at the Complutense University. The subjects addressed reflected the demands of the nutrition transition in Spain.

In this paper we review articles concerning the limits of therapeutic effort that have been published in the past decade in journals directed at health professionals. Most of these articles are opinion pieces in which the influence of principlism is clear, even going so far as to justify the right to terminate life based on patient autonomy. It is time for personalistic bioethics to transmit its approaches in medical journals that are not specialized in bioethics.

Background: Deficiencies detected in biomedical studies publication different Guidelines to improve. The objective of the study is to assess the communication of observational studies of Cardiovascular and Metabolism therapeutic area (CVM) published in 6 Spanish journals in 2009 using the STROBE statement., Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of articles related to CVM therapeutic area, published during 2009 in 6 Spanish journals applying the 34 items of the STROBE statement. Descriptive analysis of the results for qualitative variables was performed using a frequency analysis. Quantitative variables were analyzed by sample estimates and dispersion. A comparative analysis of journals was performed using ANOVA with a statistical significance of p<0.05., Results: Throughout 2009, 74 CVM observational studies were published in the evaluated journals. The most frequent design were cohorts 45 (60.8%) and cross-sectional 28 (37.8%). The study main objective was on pathology 55 (74.3%), followed by drug and non-pharmacological interventions 15 (20.3%) and diagnosis 4 (5.4%). The mean of complied items was 20 on 34 (DE±3.7), with a maximum of 24 (DE±2) in Gaceta Sanitaria and a minimum of 19 (DE±2.8) in Hipertensión., Conclusions: Evaluated papers comply with slightly more than a half items (58%) of the STROBE recommendations. The Methods and Results sections showed more deficiencies.

Aim: This study analyzes the productivity and visibility of Spanish publications in the area of clinical neurology in the period 2000-2009 and compared with those for Italy, France and Germany., Materials and Methods: We used the database Web of Science. The analysis (annual and in five-year) was restricted to the citable documents (original articles, reviews and proceedings papers). Bibliometric indicators used were the number of publications, citations received by publications and Hirsch's h-index. We also assessed the slope of the annual growth rate (b), the number of publications by language and the international collaboration., Results: In the period 2000-2009 there were 46,114 publications in neurology clinic of which 6,998 were Spanish publications (h = 75), 11,629 in Italy (h = 101), French 9,745 (h = 102) and 20,143 in Germany (h = 124). The rate of increase in the total number of publications in Spain (b = 15) was lower than that observed in Italy (b = 65), Germany (b = 61) or France (b = 34). In the case of publications in English, the growth rate was higher for Spain (b = 37) than for France (b = 36) but lower than for Germany (b = 54) and Italy (b = 65)., Conclusions: Although the total number of publications and the observed increase are lower in Spain compared to Italy, France or Germany, the Spanish publications in Clinical Neurology shows good trend indicators with regard to publications in English and international collaboration. This improvement was associated with greater visibility as showed by the five-year analysis of citations received by Spanish publications.

The main objective of the present study was to classify doctoral programs with Quality Mention in Psychology based on their scientific productivity. For this purpose, articles in the Web of Science published by professors teaching in these doctoral programs were analyzed. In addition, we analyzed scientific journals in which these professors tend to publish more papers and the evolution in the number of papers published until 2009. Results showed that the most productive doctoral program was the Neurosciences program at the University of Oviedo. This program showed a ratio of 40 articles--published in journals included in Journal Citation Reports--by each professor. In contrast, other programs did not reach a ratio of 10 articles per professor. Regarding journals, results showed that 9 out of the 20 most popular journals are Hispanic and a gradual increase in the number of published papers was also observed. Lastly, results and implications for quality assessment are discussed.

Introduction: Authorships of scientific papers are a significant milestone for researchers. Quantification of authors' contribution in research papers makes it possible to investigate patterns of research collaboration and interactions in scientific community. The objective of this paper is to analyse scientific collaboration and to identify research groups and research areas of ANALES DE PEDIATRÍA., Material and Methods: Papers published in ANALES DE PEDIATRÍA between 2003 and 2009 period were selected from Medline. An author name normalization process was carried out. Productivity and scientific collaboration indexes have been determined. Research groups have been identified through co-authorships networks analysis. Thematic areas of research and major domains of research groups have been characterised by means of quantification of Medical Subject Headings terms assigned to documents., Results: An analysis was made of 1,828 documents published by 4,695 authors. The collaboration index (articles) was 5.3 ± 2.3. A total of 97 research groups consisting of between 2 and 80 researchers, which add up 415 researchers have been identified. The main diseases and medical signs studied were asthma (n = 35), multiple abnormalities (n = 28), premature diseases (n = 25), sepsis (n = 24), congenital heart defects (n = 23), respiratory insufficiency (n = 22), HIV infections (n = 21), streptococcal infections (n = 20) and gastroenteritis (n = 20)., Conclusions: ANALES DE PEDIATRÍA is one of the most productive Spanish medical journals. Author's collaboration was similar to those observed in other Spanish clinical journals included in Journal Citation Reports. A remarkable number of paediatric research groups publishing on many topics have been identified., (Copyright © 2010 Asociación Española de Pediatría. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

The Editors of the Rev Clin Esp inform herein on their editorial activity in the last year (November 2009 to October 2010) according to three different sections: (a) Objectives and achievements during 2010, (b) editorial activity, and (c) objectives for 2011. During 2010, we have updated the editorial algorithm (manuscript time lag). We have developed the "E-case reports" section and we have linked the abstracts of the Annual Congress of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI) to a journal supplement (electronically available). Since 2010, the subscribers have been able to receive all of the contents of the Rev Clin Esp on-line and to perform self-evaluations in order to obtain 1.7 credits per each journal issue (continuing education). In 2010 we handled 402 manuscripts (7.2% more than in 2009), 35% of which were accepted for publication. We asked 186 reviewers for their expert opinion, 75% of whom sent their reports in less than two weeks. The mean time needed to reach an editorial decision concerning original manuscripts ("accepted / rejected") was 44.5 days and for papers not sent to external reviewers 19.5 days. Collaboration with the work groups produced good results (2.4 published manuscripts per issue), but this could be improved if all the groups collaborated in all the journal sections. Our objectives for 2011 are to complete the renewal of the Rev Clin Esp scientific committee, in accordance with the SEMI Council, and to continue to proceed with the actions initiated to increase the journal impact factor. Rev Clim Esp is an open forum for all internal medicine specialists. Responsibility falls on all of us to collaborate in order to make our journal a little better day by day., (Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Espana.)

Background: Scientific journals have been recognized to have the authority to register both the ownership of ideas and the validity of published knowledge. This paper explores the extent to which the editorial policies of journals contribute to ensure the accuracy of scientific authorship., Methods: Cross-sectional study of scientific authorship criteria used by 23 Spanish medical journals included in Journal Citation Reports 2008 and evaluation of their fulfilment to the uniformity requirements URM of ICMJE. Criteria have been structured in observational items and six levels of fulfilment have been established in order to quantify its adjustment to URM., Results: 52% of journals do not make a reference to URM, 39% only provides some information on the conditions to be respected by the signatories of an article and only 26% (6 magazines) comply with URM. 61% of the journals declare information regarding the responsibility contracted by authors. 35% of the journals give some type guidelines as to the number of authors but no one mentions signature order. As for acknowledgments and corresponding address instructions, 61% declare it but 30,4% only properly formulate their aims., Conclusions: Only 48% of the journals include one or some instructions related with scientific authorship. Results coincide with those of other studies. Despite the existence of an international standard such as URM, authorship criteria provided by journals are scarce and uneven. The assertion that URM is universally well-known by medical journals is questioned.

Introduction: Scientific cooperation is essential for the advance of biomedical research. Scientists set up informal groups to work together on common issues, who are the main units in the research funding system. Bibliometric and Social Network Analysis methods allow informal groups in scientific papers to be identified and characterised. The objective of the study is to identify research groups in Archivos de Bronconeumología between 2003 and 2007 period with the aim of characterizing their scientific collaboration patterns and research areas., Methods: Co-authorships, institutional collaboration relationships and the main research areas of papers published in Archivos de Bronconeumología have been identified. Co-authorship networks and institutional collaboration networks have been constructed by using Pajek software tool., Results: A total of 41 research groups involving 171 investigators have been identified. The Collaboration Index for articles was 5.59 and the Transcience Index was 73.11%. There was institutional collaboration in 60.33% of papers. The collaboration between institutions of the same region prevails (41.03%), followed by collaborations between departments, services or units of the same institution (39.74%), inter-regional collaboration (14,97%) and international collaboration (6.83%). A total of 83.03% of articles were cited. The main research areas covered by groups were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, lung neoplasm, bronchogenic carcinoma, smoking and pulmonary embolism., Conclusions: The scientific production of a large number of Respiratory System Spanish research groups is published in Archivos de Bronconeumología. A notable collaboration and citation rate has been observed. Nevertheless, it is still essential to encourage inter-regional and international collaboration., (Copyright 2009 SEPAR. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

Twenty years of Spanish psychological research in Psicothema (1989-2008). Scientific collaboration and gender equality are two spheres of great interest for the organizations responsible for instigating scientific policies. We have identified the research groups and women's contribution to one of the most outstanding Spanish psychology journals. We have selected papers published during the 1989-2008 period in Psicothema. A bibliometric and network analysis was carried out using the Pajek Software tool. We have analysed 1,718 papers, written by 2,423 authors, 53.45% men and 47.54% women. We have identified 86 research groups made up of 293 researchers. We have observed a high increase of productivity and collaboration in the 1999-2008 period, as well as the consolidation, growth, and evolution of many incipient groups identified in the 1989-1998 period, benefiting from the increased interest and prestige of the journal. Despite the increase in the number of women, rising from 35.71% in 1989 to 48.48 in 2008, we have observed an imbalance with regard to productivity and the order of signatures, where women are relegated to intermediate positions.

Background: There is growing concern for promoting equality between sexes and full integration of women in research activities. The purpose of this study is to identify the bibliometric characteristics of articles published during the 2001-2005 period in Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica (EIMC) from the perspective of gender., Method: EIMC records for 2001-2005 were obtained from the Science Citation Index database and differences according to sex were calculated for the following indicators: year of publication, type of document, number and order of author signatures, number of collaborators, and the signature/article index at the institutional and geographical level., Results: A total of 2,163 authors were identified, 1,220 (56.4%) men and 943 (43.6%) women. The greatest of contribution from women was in original articles (42.32% of signatures). Excluding the Centro Nacional de Microbiología (Spanish National Center for Microbiology), the participation of women was lower than men in the most productive institutions. There were significant differences regarding the number of papers published and the number of collaborators; with greater productivity for men and a higher rate of collaboration for women., Discussion: Studies on scientific activity according to gender provide essential information to establish the basis for a policy of equality in this regard. A yearly increase of almost 1% was seen in the number of female authors contributing articles to the EIMC, which, if the trend continues, will result in parity in coming years. Nevertheless, the presence of women in positions of high productivity remains low. The causes of this difference should be identified and corrected.

Introduction: Anatomical eponyms are terms that have been proscribed in anatomical terminology, but are widely used in medicine and neurology. Their persistence is due to the fact that they are used in textbooks and scientific papers., Aims: To determine which neuroanatomical eponyms are used in neurology in Spanish, and how often they are utilised., Materials and Methods: We conducted a descriptive, longitudinal, retrospective study of the neuroanatomical eponyms that appeared in papers published in the online version of Revista de Neurología between 1998 and 2006., Results: In all, 46 papers with 193 eponyms were reviewed. The main eponyms used were the following: vein of Galen (14%), circle or polygon of Willis (11.9%) and cerebral or Sylvian aqueduct (11.4%). Other eponyms that do not appear in the Anatomical terminology were: Broca's area (15.5%) and Wernicke's area (7.2%). Most of the eponyms were found in clinical notes (43.4%) and reviews (28.2%), and there was an increase in the number of eponyms published in more recent years, that is, 2003-2006., Conclusions: No studies on the frequency of eponym usage were found and the first data on the subject are those included here. In order to prevent the dissemination of eponyms, they should not appear in the title or the keywords used in articles. Eponyms referring to blood vessels and the ventricular system of the brain were the most commonly used and were found in the clinical notes or reviews dealing with magnetic resonance, computed tomography and ultrasound imaging of the vascular system of the brain.

Introduction and Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the patterns of investigator and institutional collaboration in papers published in the Revista Española de Cardiología., Methods: Details of coauthorship and institutional collaboration involved in articles published in the Revista Española de Cardiología in the period 2000-2005 were recorded and a collaboration index was derived. Collaboration networks were identified using the TextToPajek and PAJEK software tools., Results: Of the 980 papers analyzed, 95.1% had been authored by two or more individuals and 51.43% involved institutional collaboration. The overall collaboration index was 6.23 (standard deviation [SD] 3.1). There was a significant statistical relationship (P< .02) between the collaboration index and the journal section in which the article was published: the Original Articles and Special Reports sections had the highest collaboration indices (mean 7.87 [2.88]; and mean 6.59 [5.02], respectively). The 44 authors who had the highest publication rates were identified. In addition, 25 coauthorship networks involving 112 investigators were observed., Conclusions: An analysis of collaboration networks led to the identification of a number of author networks in cardiovascular medicine in Spain, and highlighted the interrelationships between them in terms of both scientific research and scientific publications. The most significant aspect of institutional collaboration was the predominance of collaboration within institutions and within Spanish autonomous regions (i.e., 80.57% of collaborations). Possible topics for future study include an analysis of the scientific productivity of the networks identified and of changes in the pattern of collaboration over time.

Introduction: Bibliometric studies belong to the so-called 'social studies of science', and science policy constitutes one of its main applied fields, providing objective and useful tools for evaluating the results of scientific activity. Neurological sciences are very important in the bibliometric map of Spain about biomedicine and health sciences, from a quantitative (second thematic area in productivity, only after biology-biochemical) and a qualitative (high health costs and morbimortality) point of view., Development: In Spain we can found about 360 biomedical journals, 18 of them related to the area of neurological sciences. In 2005, only 17 biomedical Spanish journals were in the Science Citation Index database, three of them in the field of neurosciences: Neurologia (impact factor = 0.57), Revista de Neurologia (0.39) and Neurocirugia (0.23), and these journals have also very good Latindex criteria about formal aspects. But it is important to mention that the impact factor specifically measures visibility and diffusion of the works published by these journals rather than their scientific quality. We search the answer to some questions about the present and future of biomedical journals in general and neurological journals in particular: paper or electronic publication?, free access or open access?, scientific journal or scientific article?, English or Spanish publication?, Conclusions: The Acuerdo de Buenos Aires is an initiative to promote scientific neurological papers of high quality in Spanish. The current status of neurological journals in the bibliometric context of our country is good and open to the advantages of electronic and free access.

Due to the strict selection process applied to its indexed journals, Medline is the most prestigious database in the Health and medicine field. The aim of this paper is both to analyze its selection criteria and translate into indicators that can be applied to Spanish medical journals willing to enter the Index Medicus. Analysis samples and methodology to apply obtained from the five groups of criteria considered by Medline (namely, Scope and coverage, Quality of contents, Quality of editorial work, Production quality and Audience) are proposed. A list of qualitative and quantitative indicators related to the five groups of criteria used by Medline is presented; namely, journal scientific output in the national and international context of the discipline, citation, analysis of the editorial committees, the editorial process and the peer-review system, indicators on compliance with the Vancouver guidelines, journal layout and informational quality, attractiveness, audience, journal visibility and interest as regards Medline goals.

Five obstacles are described that currently prevent Spanish researchers in the psychological sciences from publishing more frequently in journals of high impact factor. These are: a) a general lack of confidence in your ability; b) a tendency for your papers to be driven more by speculation rather than data; c) excessive length of submitted manuscripts; d) higher than expected rates of drop-out and non-participation in studies, and e) lack of independence from pharmaceutical companies. Although many of these problems will require long-term structural changes, others can be addressed immediately and yield improvement rapidly.

Objectives: to analyze scientific output from Spanish hospitals in relation to Helicobacter pylori infection., Methods: papers collected from the Medline database between January 1988 and December 2003 were selected. Our search strategy was: "Helicobacter pylori" [MeSH] AND ((Spain [AD] OR Espana [AD] OR Spanien [AD] OR Espagne [AD] OR Espanha [AD]) OR (Spanish [LA]) OR Spain). The following was analyzed: geographic area, Spanish or foreign publication, topic, and year of publication. Output and impact bibliometric markers were evaluated., Results: in all, 691 papers were identified, of which 241 were excluded. Number of papers went from 2 in 1988 to 47 in 2002 and 13 in 2003. There were more reports in Spanish versus foreign journals (58 vs. 42%). In the first 5 years the areas with greater output were associated with diagnosis and microbiology (33 and 20%), whereas therapy was the predominating subject during the last 5 years (27%). Original papers were most common among publications (69%). Hospitals with highest output included La Princesa (24%) and Ramón y Cajal (17.6%) in Madrid, and Parc Taulí in Barcelona (6.4%). Mean impact factor progressively increased from 1.826 in 1988 to 2.142 in 2002 and 2.493 in 2003., Conclusions: the production and impact of documents published by Spanish scientists regarding H. pylori infection considerably increased during the past two decades.

Aim: This paper is based on a study of Revista Trimestral Micrografica (Trabajos del Laboratorio de Investigaciones Biologicas) between its creation by Santiago Ramon y Cajal in 1896 and his death in 1934., Development: The journal Revista Trimestral Micrografica was the main way in which Santiago Ramon y Cajal and his school published their work since its creation. Ramon y Cajal created the journal for two main reasons: first, he needed a rapid system to publish his own work; second, the journal could serve to encourage his pupils. The journal published many important reports defending the neuronal theory which expanded the cellular one to include the nervous system.

Objective: The aim of this study were: to analyze the spanish production in diagnostic and therapeutics research area of respiratory system in international journals from 1990 to 2002., Material and Methods: Papers published in diagnostic and therapeutics area of respiratory system during this period of time were selected by the PUBMED system. We delimited the production with key words: respiratory system and the one that is used by the diagnostic and therapeutics research area., Results: We obtain a total of 67 document published in international journals by spanish authors. The scientific production in the diagnostic and therapeutics area have stabilized in this 12 years period. The distribution of articles by the institutional affiliation and province of authors also showed a wide dispersion: Barcelona and Clinic and Provincial Hospital of Barcelona were responsible for 43.1% and 23.8% of all the production. Bronchoalveolar lavage and the use of telescopic catheter were the type of diagnostic and therapeutic procedure more productive., Conclusions: The scientific production in the diagnostic and therapeutics area of respiratory system have stabilized in this 12 years period, this evidence contrast with the high growth detected in respiratory system in general.

The aim of this paper is to present the bibliometric indicators for Revista Española de Cardiologíathat were obtained from the "Potential impact factor of Spanish medical journals in 2001" study financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte. Citations to Revista Española de Cardiología, its national and international impact factor, and its immediacy index were calculated with methods similar to those used by the Institute for Scientific Information. National indicators were based only on citations from 87 Spanish journals considered source journals, whereas international indicators were calculated on the basis of citations from both national journals and foreign source journals in the Science Citation Index. Revista Española de Cardiologíaobtained a national impact factor of 0.719 and an international impact factor of 0.837, placing it at the head of the ranking of Spanish medical journals.

Introduction and Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the production of research papers by Spanish authors on diagnostic imaging published in the official journals of two Spanish scientific societies (Revista Española de Cardiología and Radiología) between 1994 and 1998, and to compare publication rates with those of research papers published in foreign cardiological and radiological journals included in Journal Citation Reports., Material and Method: Specific search profiles were devised to retrieve items from the Indice Médico Español (IME) and MEDLINE databases. The impact factor for non-Spanish journals devoted to different specialties was normalized for the number of papers published., Results: 967 articles were analyzed (301 on cardiac imaging, 666 on radiology). In the former specialty, 50.5% of the items were published in Revista Española de Cardiología, and in the latter, 55.1% were published in Radiología (no statistically significant difference). Impact factor was 2.46 for cardiology and 0.98 for radiology. The percentage of papers published in journals ranked in the top quartile according to impact factor was 38.6% (cardiology) and 17.2% (radiology); the difference was significant at P< .0001., Discussion: Although a tendency for radiologists to publish increasingly in foreign radiological journals has been observed, Spanish cardiologists and radiologists publish more than 50% of their research papers on diagnostic imaging in the official journals of their national societies. The differences in the percentage of articles by Spanish authors published in international specialty journals ranked in the first quartile (twice as great for cardiology as for radiology) suggests that Spanish radiologists are joining the scientific international community at a slower rate than Spanish cardiologists.

Objective: To describe the articles published in "Revista Española de Medicina Nuclear" (REMN) from 1991 through 2000., Material and Methods: Five hundred and forty-two articles (originals, reviews, editorials, letters, clinical notes and images of interest) published in REMN during the past 10 years (1991-2000) were gathered. The following variables were assessed: topic, procedure, type of article, number of authors, Spanish region affiliation, country, number of pages and number of references. The results for the five year periods 1991-1995 and 1996-2000 were also presented., Results: Excluding the editorial contributions, the most dealt with topic was the osteoarticular system (14.9%), followed by the heart (14.2%), endocrinology (12.1%), gastroenterology (11.3%) and neurology (10,3%). One hundred and thirty articles were linked to oncology. Madrid (23.7%), Catalonia (22.5%), Andalucia (10.6%) and Aragon (10.1%) were the Spanish regions that made the most contributions. Conventional planar scintigraphic studies were the most used procedure (49.1%), followed by SPECT (16.6%). The countries that were represented most were Spain and Cuba, with 410 and 36 works, respectively. The global trend underwent little change in the above variables in the decade. The pages/paper index was 6.1 +/- 1.7 for original papers and 6.5 +/- 4.3 for reviews. The authors/paper index was 6.3 +/- 2.3 for original papers and 2.7 +/- 2.1 for reviews. The references/paper index was 21.9 +/- 11.4 for original papers and 3+/- 1.1 39.6 for reviews. These three indexes increased in all sections between the periods 1991-1995 and 1996-2000., Conclusions: This survey shows subtle qualitative changes throughout the period analyzed. A quantitative increase in the scientific production in the REMN seems to exist. However, many factors must be considered in the final evaluation of these results and this remains beyond the scope of this descriptive work.

An analysis is effected of the production by authors publishing their papers in Nutrición Hospitalaria (Hospital Nutrition), as well as by the institutions at which these authors work. The productivity figures indicate a large group of sporadic authors, whereas the "regular contributors" exceed figure 1 in the indices established. In terms of collaboration, Nutrición Hospitalaria articles present between 3 and 5 signatories per paper, lower than in other journals in the same scientific field.

Background: To identify the Spanish scientific production amongst different areas of clinical knowledge, and to compare it with those of five other European Union countries., Method: Review of MEDLINE data base, for the period 1993-1997. Search limited to four journals, selected, for 10 different medical specialties (Cardiology, Endocrinology, Infectious Diseases, Gastroenterology-Hepatology, Haematology, Nephrology, Pneumology, Neurology, Oncology, Rheumatology). Articles published by authors from Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden and Spain. Journals included in the Internal Medicine subject classification were independently analysed. Data were also related with several econometric indexes., Results: A total of 1,763 original articles published by Spanish authors were identified in the journal's sample over the analysed period (2.08 articles per 100 all published articles). Spain contributes to the total achieved by the six European countries analysed with 9.07 articles per 100 published articles. Gastroenterology-Hepatology was the medical specially which has more articles published by Spanish authors (total: 338 articles; 4.15 articles/100 published articles); and Oncology the one with less articles published (1.26 articles/100 published articles). The mean IF value per journal by article is highest for Gastroenterology-Hepatology (4.86 FI/article) and lowest for Pneumology (2.42 FI/article). Spain is the last amongst all six European countries analyzed in Endocrinology, Oncology and Haematology, and second to last in all others except for Gastroenterology-Hepatology (4th place). Mean cost for each article produced by Spanish authors in the analyzed sample was 0.49 US $ according the health expenditures per capita, and 0.07 US $ according the R+D expenditures per capita. Data from the independent analysis of Internal Medicine journals also showed that Gastroenterology and Hepatology is the subspecialty with a higher number of papers published in those journals., Conclusions: All efforts devoted to improve the quality of Spanish biomedical research, specially in clinical research, had produced positive, but uneven, results, measured by the number and impact factor of original articles published in top ranked biomedical journals. The overall distribution of high impact factor scientific production by specialties is poor when compared to the European Union countries included in the analysis. Those results showed several improvement opportunities. Besides increasing the overall budget for R+D, its is likely that the time has come for backing the highest quality Spanish biomedical research, the one that offers greater and better chances for achieving scientifically valid results, and is published in high impact factor biomedical journals.

Objectives: To evaluate the validity of the information of bibliometric interest retrieved from MEDLINE and referred to the articles published by Atención Primaria journal from 1989 to 1995. To describe the presence of this journal and its evolution among the journals of its own thematic group (Family Practice) during the same period., Design: Retrospective descriptive study., Material: MEDLINE database on SilverPlatter, 1997 edition., Measurements: In a first step, all the documents published by the spanish journal during this period have been revised. Secondly, with a sample of 385 documents that comes from 24 issues selected at random, it has been analysed the indexing of the following fields: title in english (TI), original title (TO), authors (AU), bibliographic citation (SO), year of publication (PY), country of publication (CP) and type of publication (PT). The field institutional address of primary author (AD) will be studied exhaustively. The number of articles indexed coming from the different journals of the Family Practice group, and their evolution during the studied period were analysed, as the countries and languages of publication of these journals. The spanish journal has been compared with the rest of its thematic group in type of publications and type of studies (PT field)., Main Results: MEDLINE hasn't indexed 158 out of 1865 (8.47%) of the documents published by the journal from 1985 to 1995. This percentage becomes 4.04% when reply letters, that MEDLINE doesn't indexed, are not considered. MEDLINE offers the field AD for the papers published by the Spanish journal from 1990. From this moment on the field AD appears in 95% of the indexed documents. The 30% of the registers without the AD field, don't have institutional address in the original document. The institution or centre that MEDLINE cites firstly in the AD field, coincide with the one of the first author, in 99% of the cases. The number of authors is correct in all cases, even if in 3.37 +/- 1.8% there are typographical mistakes. TO, SO, PY and CP fields are always corrected. Nevertheless MEDLINE modifies in 66.7 +/- 4.7% of the documents the english title (TI field). The presence of the spanish journal in the Family Practice group has continuously increased in global terms from its inclusion in MEDLINE database, even if its relative contribution has stayed the same, around a 14%, in the course of the period analysed. There are differences between the spanish journal and the rest of the journals of its thematic group in type of publications and type of studies., Conclusions: The analysis of the 7 first years of the Atención Primaria indexing bring us to affirm that MEDLINE can be used to obtain valid information to describe some bibliometric aspects interesting for the scientific production, mainly coming from primary care spanish professionals, and published in this journal. Translations into english of the titles that appears in the english summary had to be improved. Institutional address had to be always and more clearly provided. The presence of the spanish journal among the journals of its thematic group is important (14%), even if its profile in type of publications and type of studies is significantly different.

Objective: To describe the original research articles published in Revista Española De Anestesiología y Reanimación (REAR) from 1987 through 1996, as well as to characterize the citations included in those articles., Material and Methods: The 299 articles published as original research in REAR over the past 10 years (1987 through 1996) were analyzed. The bibliographic aspects examined were coauthorship (authors/paper index), citations per article, isolation in function of language of publication of references, degree of obsolescence of articles based on year of references cited ("half-life"), self-citation and degree of dispersion of citations., Results: The authors/paper index was 5.16 +/- 1.62. No statistically significant difference was found in number of authors over the 10-year study period. Mean number of references cited per article was 24.05 +/- 12.02. We found statistically significant differences for 1993 and the period 1987 to 1988, and 1994 and the year 1987 (p < 0.001). The "half-life" of articles was 6 when analyzing on a year-by-year basis; this index ranged from 5.5 to 7, with no significant annual differences. REAR articles accounted for 4.02% of all citations. English was the most frequent language of cited publications, with 6,240 references (86.8%), followed by Spanish with 621 (8.64%), French with 223 (3.1%) and German with 74 (1.03%). Of the 7,191 references analyzed, 6,447 (89.65%) were of scientific journals. Books are the second most commonly cited type of document, with 623 (8.66%) citations. Analyzing journals cited 25 or more times, we found that 74.19% of the articles (4,783/6,447) had been published in 5.3% of the journals (36/678). Seven journals of anesthesia, which represented 1.03% of all journals (7/678) appeared in 52.81% of references of this type (3,405/6,447)., Conclusions: The number of authors of original research articles published in REAR in the last 10 years was high. Spanish authors in anesthesiology cite mainly literature in English; use up-to-date sources of information, mainly journals; and take a large proportion of information from a small number of journals, which are those of greatest international impact in our specialty.

Different aspects of Microbiología SEM editorial process over the years 1994-1997 are analyzed: number of originals received, the process leading to their publication, rates of accepted and refused papers, time needed for each step of the editorial process--which comprises scientific, language editing, if needed--, as well as some characteristics that can define the patterns of the articles, such as number of authors, institutions where the authors work and mean number of references. The contents of the different sections (editorial, research and review articles, perspectives, opinion, books review) are commented on, as well as the role played by some of them as forums for the discussion of topics of current scientific interest, especially the editorials focusing on the state-of-the-art of microbiological research in Latin American countries. Characteristics and frequency of monographic issues are also presented. The information is complemented with data about the circulation and distribution of the journal, its inclusion in international indexes and its current electronic publication on the world wide web.

Objectives: To contribute to improving the understanding of the information bases of Spanish scientific production in the primary care field; to aid international contacts and the diffusion of information among doctors in our country., Design: A bibliometric analysis of the bibliographic references of the studies published in the journal Atención Primaria during 1991. A data base, managed by dBASE IV, was created., Setting: The Unit of Documental Analysis and Bibliometry of the Institute of Documental and Historical Studies in Science (University of Valencia-CSIC)., Material: 2,615 bibliographic references in 205 studies contained in volume 8 of Atención Primaria., Main Results: References from journal articles (68%) and books (26%) predominated. There were a large number of references from Spanish publications (45%) as against Northamerican (27%) and British (15%). There were few references from other European countries or Latin America. Information was quickly out of date (4 year semiperiod; Price index 50%). High proportion of self-quotations from the journal., Conclusions: The major role of the journal Atención Primaria in communicating information in the primary care field was underlined. The small amount of information from Latin America and E.U. countries (except Great Britain) highlights the isolation of Spain from these countries, which can be explained by the limits of the primary care field itself. There was also little use of information to which access was more difficult for primary care doctors, such as doctoral theses, congress papers or reports. Moreover this is a field with a high percentage of recent literature and rapidly out-of-date information.

Background: Journals that are not published solely in English have the titles of papers translated into English, the international language of medicine. The aim of this paper is to analyse the accuracy and quality of such translations in Medicina Clínica and to assess the influence of the morphology and syntax of Spanish on the English versions of the titles., Methods: Two professional medical translators, one Spanish and the other English, each with a knowledge of both languages, compared the original Spanish and the English translations of the titles of the 292 papers and communications published in the 20 issues of volume 100 of Medicina Clínica. The discrepancies or "errors" were classified in five groups of increasing seriousness., Results: Of the titles studied, 77% contained some sort of error (458 errors were detected). In 100 titles (34%) there were differences in meaning between the original Spanish and the English translations. Another 72 titles contained serious orthographical, lexical or grammatical mistakes, though the basic meaning was not distorted. Approximately a third of the lexical and grammatical errors were attributable to the direct influence of Spanish., Conclusions: The English translations of titles in Medicina Clínica contain numerous orthographical, lexical and gammatical mistakes. Serious errors of meaning in a number of translated titles could result in misinterpretation by readers who do not know Spanish. We recommend that the authors should play a part in the translation of the titles, as this should provide a simple and effective mean of improving the accuracy of the translations. Our comparison yielded much worse results than had been expected, which suggests that similar studies with other medical journals in Spanish and other languages would be justified.

Objective: To study the number of authors of papers published in Actas Urologicas Españolas, and to assess the consequences on multiple authorship of the restriction to 6 of the number of authors for paper, established in the instructions for authors since January 1995., Methods: The authors and papers appearing on sections "Originals". "Reviews" and "Case reports" from 1992 to 1995, were counted., Results: Five hundred and forty eight papers were reviewed. The mean (+/- standard deviation) number of authors (6.1 +/- 2; 95% IC = 5.9-6.3) didn't show a statistically significant change between the 4 studied years (ANOVA, F = 1.42; p = 0.23). Fifty percent of the Originals and Reviews and 36% of Case reports had more than 6 authors and these proportions didn't change significantly between years (chi 2 = 3.48; p = 0.32), even considering that more than one third of papers published in 1995 were accepted that year., Conclusions: A great number of authors should modify their habits of co-authorship on papers submitted to Actas Urologicas Españolas, in order to fulfill the new instructions for authors.

Objectives: To describe a systematic procedure for exhaustive retrieval of Spanish articles about evaluation or health information systems (1983-1992); to analyze the useful terms, the item contribution and the retrieval failures of the sources., Methods: As sources for identification of articles, data base Indice Médico Español (IME), contents of journals and references of the retrieved items have been used. As analysis variables, coincidence of terms in search profile, item's titles and key words; item contribution, specific contribution and overlap indexes; hindsight analysis of failures., Results: 94 items have been retrieved, 83 of them have, at least one term related with the subject. Referred to sources contribution, IME gives 74 items; journal contents 75 and references 33. Specific contribution of IME was 16 items, contents 12 and references 2. Overlap between sources was 25.5%., Conclusion: The three sources are complementary. Complete retrieval of the literature requires systematic use of the abstracts and references of the papers, where the perception of its contents are less dependent of the terms used in the titles.

The growing interest which the daily press in Spain has been showing in recent years on medical matters, health and public health in general is revealed when you study the number of articles which the daily newspaper El País has published on these subjects since its foundation in 1976 up until the end of 1990. During this time, the number of articles on this topic which have appeared have nearly quadrupled, rising from 1.8 in 1977 to 6.9 in 1990. The toxic syndrome and Aids seem to have been the main subjects which have fostered, at least quantitively, medical journalism and are topics on which El País has written several editorials. This study is in three sections: the first is a methodological introduction to the study of the "health" value via the daily press; the second classifies and quantifies the articles published en El País during the period in question; and the last studies, via the editorials, the position of this paper, which is in favour of individual freedoms as opposed to those of the state medical system.

A meta-analysis of the original papers on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) published in Spain was performed to better know the characteristics of HIV infection in Spain. Between 1985 and 1989, 67 investigations fulfilled the inclusion criteria. They were evaluated by means of a quantified questionnaire. The mean quality of the investigations was 44.65 +/- 1.5%. A bias in the selection was highly probable in 80% of the studies, whereas a bias in information and in confusion was less frequent (35.8% and 77.6%, respectively). The investigations of more quality were those carried out recently at the University in collaboration with other Institutions and with participation of sanitary personnel published in microbiologic journals.

To evaluate if Spanish medical publications contribute to medical communication between Spanish medical workers of if in the contrary, Spanish authors gather most information from foreign journals, the percentage of Spanish references in Spanish journals has been calculated. Four Spanish journals and four foreign journals corresponding to the year 1977 have been reviewed. It has been found that the number of persons authoring an article in Spanish journals excedes in one author those of foreign papers, that Spanish papers have a mean of six more references than their foreign counterparts, and that there is a low number of Spanish references, decreasing even further if autoreferences are excluded. The findings are discussed with special emphasis on the low percentage of Spanish references in Spanish papers.