ISBN database as a tool to retrieve and to analyse the publication of books on a certain topic. Case study: alcoholism

Abstract

Alcoholism is a big health problem in Spain. The objective of this study was to find out and to analyse books published in this field in Spain. ISBN Spanish database was chosen as a tool to retrieve them. Characteristics of this database were also studied. Books dealing with alcohol and alcoholism were retrieved (the words alcohol*, alcohol*, etanol*, etili* or beber* were searched). Authors, ISBN classification, year of publication, language (of publication and original) and publishers were analysed. One hundred and ninety-six books were analysed. An increase in the number of published books was observed in the last years studied; most of them were published between 1985 and 1993 (71 %). A great number (79%) was written by personal authors. Most of the books (95%) were published in Spanish. Twenty books (10%) were translations. According to the ISBN classification, these books were grouped in 28 different topics. Most frequently covered areas were pathology, diseases and medical/therapeutical clinical practice (n=58, 30%) and pharmacology/toxicology/drugs (n=43, 22%). Fourty per cent of the books was published by trade publishers, 26% by the Universities (47 -94%- were doctoral theses) and 19% by public organizations. It is concluded that the ISBN Spanish database can be a good tool to retrieve Spanish books dealing with alcoholism, but some limitations, that are extensively discussed, must be taken into account when a study of these characteristics is performed using this database.