[Scarcity of spanish medical information in four Spanish journals (author's transl)]

To evaluate if Spanish medical publications contribute to medical communication between Spanish medical workers of if in the contrary, Spanish authors gather most information from foreign journals, the percentage of Spanish references in Spanish journals has been calculated. Four Spanish journals and four foreign journals corresponding to the year 1977 have been reviewed. It has been found that the number of persons authoring an article in Spanish journals excedes in one author those of foreign papers, that Spanish papers have a mean of six more references than their foreign counterparts, and that there is a low number of Spanish references, decreasing even further if autoreferences are excluded. The findings are discussed with special emphasis on the low percentage of Spanish references in Spanish papers.