Analysis of Spanish Scientific Publications on Drug Dependence
during the period 1976-2000 in the European Union Context Elena
Guardiola (1, 2), Xavier Snchez-Carbonell (2), Anna Belles (2),
Marta Beranuy (2) (1) Medical Information and Documentation
Department. Q. F. Bayer. Pau Claris, 196. 08029 Barcelona - Spain
(2) FPCEE Blanquerna. Universitat Ramon Llull. Cster, 24-30. 08022
Barcelona - Spain Introduction Methods The Spanish publications in
the field of drug dependence and drug abuse indexed in PsycINFO
published form 1976 to 2000 were retrieved and analysed (evolution
through years, authors, number of authors, journals, topics and
language of publication) and then compared with data from the rest
of EU countries (14 countries). A descriptive statistical analysis
was performed and graphical displays were prepared. Results
Conclusions Drug dependence is a big problem in the European Union
(EU). Research on drug dependence has increased in the last decades
in Spain. A method to evaluate scientific productivity in a
specific field consists on the analysis of publications indexed in
bibliographic databases. Main goal of this study was to evaluate
Spanish scientific publications on drug dependence during 25 years
and to compare them with publications in the EU in the same period.
A total of 4,825 articles were retrieved; 501 (10,4%) from Spain
and 4,324 from other EU countries. Spanish articles increased from
15 (4,8%) in 1976-1980 to 192 (12,4%) in 1996-2000. This means that
Spain scientific production in this area multiplied by 12,8 while
the EU by 4,6. Only two countries (UK and Germany) published more
articles than Spain (Table 1, Figure 1, 2). Main language in EU
publications was English (n=3,794); publications in Spanish
increased dramatically in the last years (to n=329) (Table 2);
authors that published in Spanish were mainly from Spain. Thirty
journals published 25 or more articles from EU; 4 of them are
published in Spain: Actas Lusoespaolas de Neurologa, Psiquiatra y
Ciencias Afines (that published 50 articles), Adicciones (49),
Psiquis: Revista de Psiquiatra, Psicologa y Psicosomtica (36) and
Anales de Psiquiatra (25) (Table 3). Authors that published in
Spanish journals were mainly from Spain. Spanish articles were
published mainly in Spanish- and English-language journals. Only
one Spanish author was among the 25 authors who published more than
20 articles (18 were from UK, 3 from Sweden, 2 from Germany, 1 from
Finland and 1 from Spain). PsycINFO is a useful database to compare
scientific productivity between countries as it includes author
addresses in all records Scientific interest in drug dependence has
grown in the EU during the 25 years studied. These results confirm
the tendency observed in other studies and show that Spanish
research on drug dependence has increased; this increase is bigger
than the increase observed in the EU Spain is among EU countries
with a greater number of publications on drug dependence Language
of publication was Spanish in many publications from Spain, while
EU countries published mainly in English Spanish journals have
published a lot of EU articles At least four Spanish journals have
to be considered in health libraries dealing with drug dependence:
Actas Lusoespaolas de Neurologa, Psiquiatra y Ciencias Afines,
Adicciones, Psiquis: Revista de Psiquiatra, Psicologa y
Psicosomtica and Anales de Psiquiatra Guardiola E, Snchez-Carbonell
X, Belles A, Beranuy M. Analysis of Spanish scientific publications
on drug dependence during the period 1976-2000 in the European
Union context. 9 th European Conference of Medical and Health
Libraries. Santander, September 20 t 25, 2004 Table 1. Articles on
drug dependence from the EU indexed in PsycINFO (1976 2000). 1976-
1980 1981- 1985 1986 - 1990 1991 - 1995 1996 - 20001976 - 2000
Country nnnnn n (%) Austria4414242874 (1.5) Belgium13710 1757 (1.2)
Denmark21922211882 (1.7) Finland1229446457206 (4.3)
France1048995178286 (5.9) Germany467391101194505 (10.5) G.
Britain1472084434995671864 (38.6) Greece10716933 (0.7)
Ireland4913231665 (1.3) Italy21458090111347 (7.2) Luxembourg000000
Netherlands3467988130346 (7.2) Portugal0362314 (0.3)
Spain155083161192501 (10.4) Sweden3486102100123445 (9.2)
Total3126271,0931,2501,5434,825 Table 3. Journals that published 40
or more articles. Journaln Addiction 760 Alcohol and Alcoholism 293
Drug and Alcohol Dependence 220 British Journal of Psychiatry 148
Substance Use and Misuse 142 Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental
Research 133 Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 129 Addiction Research
102 Tijdschrift voor Alcohol, Drugs en andere Psychotrope Stoffen
99 Journal of Studies on Alcohol 78 Addictive Behaviors 70 Drugs:
Education, Prevention and Policy 63 Psychopharmacology 56
Psychologie Mdicale 52 Actas Luso Espaolas de Neurologa, 50
Adicciones 49 Journal of Drug Issues 44 Psychological Reports 41
Table 2. Language of publication of the 4,825 articles on drug
dependence from the EU indexed in PsycINFO (1976 - 2000) grouped by
5-year periods. Language 1976- 1980 n (%) 1981-1985 n (%) 1986-1990
n (%) 1991-1995 n (%) 1996-2000 n (%) Total n (%) Danish0 (0)5
(0.8)2 (0.2)1 (0.1) 9 (0.2) Dutch2 (0.6)38 (6.1)56 (5.1)29 (2.3)5
(0.3)130 (2.7) English226 (72.4)403 (64.3)789 (72.2)1,059
(84.7)1,317 (85.4)3,794 (78.6) Finnish0 (0)1 (0,2)0 (0)3 (0.2)0
(0)4 (0.1) French20 (6.4)49 (7.8)88 (8.1)18 (1.4)31 (2.0)219 (4.5)
Greek0 (0) 3 (0.2)1 (0.1)4 (0.1) German36 (11.5)47 (7.5)47 (4.3)31
(2.5)47 (3.0)208 (4.3) Italian14 (4.5)26 (4.1)42 (3.8)19 (1.5)21
(1.4)122 (2.5) Portuguese0 (0)1 (0.2)7 (0.6)0 (0) 8 (0.2) Spanish14
(4.5)51 (8.1)61 (5.6)84 (6.7)119 (7.7)329 (6.8) Swedish0 (0)6
(1.0)1 (0.1)2 (0.2)0 (0)9 (0.2) Others0 (0) 1 (0.1) 2 (0)
Total3126271,0931,2501,5434,825
