Scientific production of Spanish emergency physicians over the last 30 years (1975-2004). Descriptive bibliometric analysis

Aim: Describe the biomedical research characteristics of Spanish

emergency physicians from 1975 to 2004 as well as the

evolution over from time.

Methods: The Science Citation Index-expanded was used in the search

for documents, the presence of the word “Spain” was required in the

field “address” along with any expression used to define an emergency

service in Spain (in English, Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician). Erroneous

retrieval and congress communications were excluded. For the

documents included, the main bibliometric data were collected and

their temporary evolution evaluated.

Results: Spanish emergency physicians signed 606 papers (20.2 per

year): two thirds written in Spanish, half were original research, and

most of were from emergency physicians working at hospitals. One

hundred and thirty-seven centers yielded at least 1 paper and, by Autonomic

Communities, Catalonia, Andalusia and Madrid shaved the greastest

scientific production. The average impact factor was 1.11, with a

index of no citation of 45%, and indexes of in-hospital, out-hospital and

international collaborative studies of 57%, 19%, and 4%, respectively.

All these indexes were lower than the general biomedical investigation

in Spain, although they showed a significant improvement over the last

30 years.

Conclusion: The scientific production of Spanish emergency physicians

has been quantitatively and qualitatively low, although it a trend to increase

has been observed in the last 30 years. Catalonia, Andalusia

and Madrid were found to have the greatest investigative activity in

emergency medicine.