Utility of the classification of journals in «Dermatology» category of Index Medicus and to detect publications of Spanish dermatologists (1987 and 2000)

Abstract

The objective is to compare the utility of the classifications of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) (category «Dermatology & Venereal Diseases» (D&VD)) and Index Medicus (IM) (category «Dermatology» («D»)) in order to locate the publications of Spanish dermatologists during the period 1987-2000 covered by MedLine database. We found 1,517 documents in dermatology journals, in which 1,130 (74.5%) the first author was a dermatologist, in 122 (8%) a dermatologist was not the first author, and in 265 (17.5%) there was no dermatologist as author. Those journals included in section «D&VD» of JCR and not included in section «D» of IM presented the majority of documents without dermatologist (91.5%). On the other hand, only 8.8% of documents published in journals included in section «D&VD» of JCR and «D» of IM were not signed by a dermatologist (p < 0.001). In documents non-signed by dermatologists, the first author belongs to Allergy in 122 documents (8%) followed byPathology in 78 cases. The 96.7% of 122 documents assigned to Allergy were published in the journal Contact Dermatitis. In conclusion, the classification used by IM grouping dermatological journals is a better option to locate the scientific production of Spanish dermatologists in international literature than the classification used by JCR.