Research on contents analysis and documentary languages in Spanish information and documentation journals

Abstract

Analysis of the bibliographic production on Content Analysis and Documentary Languages in Spain from 1982 to 1994, based on the articles published in seven spanish journals devoted to Library and Information Science subjects. The distribution of the papers by journals, years, number of authors, subjects, places and research centers is studied, with the following results: a) the most productive period is 1988-1990; b) Madrid and Barcelona, followed by Granada, are the most important centers of research; c) the majority of the papers are written by two or more authors, and they are only sporadic contributions; and d) the UDC and thesauri are by far the most researched subjects, followed only by abstracting. It may be concluded that neither content analysis nor indexing and classifying are important research topics in Spain compared with other traditional LIS research fields. Excluding papers from CINDOC (Madrid) and those of a very small group of productive individuals, a lack of well-grounded research lines and groups is evident. So, establishing lasting research groups, promoting periodical discussion meetings and, perhaps, a journal devoted specifically to these subjects is highly recommended. FinalIy, the bibliography resulting from the research project is appended in an annex.