[Impact of Spanish-language urological publications in periodicals in the English language]

A study was conducted to analyze the impact of the articles published by Spanish authors in the English language urological journals and those published in Spanish journals in the bibliography referenced in the English language urological literature.

We randomly analyzed volumes 147, 39 and 69 of the Journal of Urology, Urology and the British Journal of Urology, respectively. All articles in the foregoing volumes were reviewed and analyzed as follows: sections, country, no of references, no of Spanish publications referenced, no of references of Spanish publications and the number of Spanish references cited in these.

356 articles were published in the Journal of Urology: of these, 59% were by American and only 6 (1.68%) were by Spanish authors, which ranked 8th according to number. These 6 articles by Spanish authors cited 84 references; of these, only 3 were Spanish publications. Overall, there were 6,708 references (mean 18.8); 6 (0.11%) were articles published by Spanish authors. In Urology, 140 articles were published: of these, 75% were by American and only one (0.71%) by Spanish authors, which ranked 6th according to number. This article by Spanish authors cited 38 references; of these, only 3 were Spanish publications. Overall, there were 2,055 references (mean 14.6); only 8 (0.38%) were articles published by Spanish authors. In the British Journal of Urology, 177 articles were published: of these, 96 (54.2%) were by British authors and only one (0.56%) by Spanis authors, which ranked 9th according to number. This article by Spanish authors cited 11 references; none of them were Spanish publications. Overall, there were 1,988 references (mean 11.2); 14 (0.7%) were articles published by Spanish authors.

Spanish authors are not worse off than those of other neighbouring countries in regard to the number of articles published (1.18%) in the three journals analyzed, where most of the articles were chiefly by American or British authors. Spanish publications have no impact in the English-speaking countries, although the number of Spanish publications has been slowly but steadily growing and currently account for 1.21% of the publications worldwide: 41.5% of these are referenced in the Science Citation Index and the Uro-Andrological publications rank 6th (4.2%). Moreover, when Spanish authors are able to publish articles in the English-language journals, they rarely reference Spanish publications. However, in proportion, these have more impact than the Spanish publications. The current trend in the prevalence of the English language in the scientific field is probably the cause of the nonexistent impact outside Spain, where they are hardly-read by the Spanish-speaking communities. The foregoing situation is further assisted by the fact that indexing is also done in the English language. Spanish authors are encouraged to increase the number of Spanish publications referenced, particularly those publishing articles in the foreign journals.