International circulation of the articles published in Spanish biomedical journals. Cuantitative study of the period 1980-1986

Abstract

A circulation index (ID) has been formulated as the quotient between the number of research papera covered in a given period t by N indexing and abstracting services and the number of papers published in the same period N times. O < ID < l. This index has been applied to the analysis of international circulation of Spanish biomedical research journals and subject fields through MEDLARS, EMBASE, BIOSIS and SCISEARCH in the 1980-1986 period. From a total of 48,747 papera published, 36,286 han been covered by one or more of the services analyzed. That leads to an overall ID of 0.19 in the period . ID has diminished from 0.23 in 1980 to 0.18 in 1986. So, on the average, only the fifth part of research papers published by Sanish biomedical journals have reached some international circulation through the servicea analyzed. These figures don't apply to all journals nor research areas studied. Eight publicationa have ID > 0.60 and four of them ID > 0.70, Physiology and Pharmacology /Toxicology being the most circulating research fields. Ten journals have no circulation at all in the period. The appearance of a title in the list of publication covered by abstracting and indexing services doesn't guarantee the circulation of papera published. Influence of idiomatic factors and appearance of new journals in a research field remain as subjects for further analysis.