Global knowledge of medicine: Experiences from Tuzla and Banjaluka, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

When English became lingua franca, a significant change in the language of scientific publication in Central and Eastern European countries occurred; many journals instead of the local language, and German, French or Russian used English. The shift occurred due to the intention of both the journal editors and contributors to achieve international recognition and inclusion of the journal in prestigious international medical databases. As a consequence, publications in English are cited on average six times more frequently than those in German, Japanese or French. In the Northern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), three medical journals are published in English. However, these journals are not yet included in the Medline indexing base. In unenviable socio-economic state such as B&H, one cannot expect enough quality submissions to recognized journals. Gross domestic product per capita in 2012 in B&H, neighboring Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia was 9,545; 21,314; 13,020 and 27,474 US$, respectively. Thus gross domestic expenditure on research and development in 2009 of about 0.02%, 0.85%, 0.923% and 1.86% in these states clearly shows incapability of B&H to support adequately recognized scientific research. Temporarily, the main goal for the majority of the medical professionals is to keep health of patients in modest circumstances, and reproduce new generations of qualified practitioners. For that reason, there is a long way to reach the noble point of "the internationally recognized evaluation criteria" for assessing scientific accomplishments.