[Spanish production of research articles on diagnostic imaging in cardiology and radiology (1994-1998)].

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.