Bibliometric analysis of the Spanish MR radiological production (2001-2007)

To evaluate the number and characteristics of papers on MR imaging written by radiologists in Spain and published in 2001-2007 Medline-indexed journals, including a comparison with the MR research output from German radiological departments.

Specific search profiles were devised to retrieve items from the Medline database. Relationship with the topic and major thematic areas of the articles, publication year, journal, language of publication, and mean impact factors were analyzed. Spanish and the German institutions with the highest MR productivity were identified. Also, the number of articles from Spain and Germany published in their respective official journals (Radiología and ROFO) was recorded.

There were 332 Spanish articles published in 101 different journals. The higher number of papers was published in Spanish radiology and non-radiology journals (n=105, 32%, mean IF: 0.191). The journal with the higher number of articles was Radiología (n=51, 15%). "Neuroradiology" was the most frequent topic (n=139, 42%). The Spanish productivity on MR imaging was yearly stable (p=0.67), with the higher percentage of papers (17%) published in 2006. The topic with the higher IF was "neuroradiology" (IF: 2.317). There were no yearly variations for the three major thematic areas ("Neuro imaging": p=0.64; "Body imaging": p=0.91; and "Non-clinical miscellanea": p=0.46). The highest number of MR publications was found in two Spanish institutions (Dr. Peset University Hospital and Vall d'Hebron Hospital) (both, n=28, 8%). In comparison, there were 1681 articles on MR imaging from Germany, having the two most productive institutions more than 150 papers in this period (University Hospital Essen and Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen). The adjusted number of articles per million populations was 20.4 for Germany and 8.1 for Spain. A total of 395 (23%) articles originating from Germany were published in the official German radiological journal ROFO. The percentage of articles originating from Spain and Germany published in their respective official journals was statistically different.

Spanish radiologists published approximately two-third of their MR articles in several non-Spanish journals, while the official Spanish radiological journal Radiología leads the ranking of Spanish journals. Spanish radiologists are mainly active in the "neuroradiology" topic. The Spanish healthcare sector is the most active. German institutions published more in their official journal ROFO.