:Acta-v-=N uroch rurgica

Acta Neurochir (Wien) (1992): 116: 98- 106

9 Springer-Verlag 1992 Printed in Austria

Neurosurgical Publications in European Journals * T. Trojanowski, I. Rabow 1, and L. Rabow 2 Department of Neurosurgery University Medical School in Lublin (Poland), 1Medical Library, University of Ume~, and 2Department of Neurosurgery, University of Ume5 (Sweden)

Summary The number of papers published in European neurosurgicaljournals during the last decade (1980-90) was analysed using online databases. Thirteen journals devoted to neurosurgery were published in Europe at that time. In five of them neurosurgery appears together with other specialities. Almost 50% of all European neurosurgical journals are written in English. They published 68% of all papers by neurosurgeons appearing in the European neurosurgical journals during the last decade. Together with the American neurosurgical journals English was used in about 80% of all neurosurgical publications. Other languages used are German and French (9% each), Russian (5%), Czech or Slovak (4%), Polish (3%), Rumanian (2%). Most papers by European neurosurgeons originate from England, followed by Germany, France, Italy and Sweden. Of the EastEuropean countries Polish neurosurgeons contributed with 782 publications, followed by Czechoslovakia (568), Hungary (501), USSR (470) and East Germany (452). The proportion of papers published in neurosurgical journals by European neurosurgeons to those in the journals devoted to other neurosciences varied from 99% in the USSR to 12% in Austria with an average of 38%. Citation analysis indicates that only a few of the journals have a large impact on neurosurgical publications, while the others have a rather limited influence.

Keywords: Neurosurgical papers; European neurosurgery; citations analysis; language of publication; neurosurgical journals; bibliometry.

Introduction T h e increase o f new k n o w l e d g e in n e u r o l o g i c a l surgery a n d related fields continues to evoke a spate o f publications. T h e y a p p e a r in a variety o f scientific j o u r nals: n a t i o n a l a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l , d e v o t e d solely to neurosurgery, to its subspecialities or to o t h e r neurosciences. It is an o b v i o u s necessity for scientists w o r k i n g in the same field in different countries to have b o t h * Paper prepared on behalf of the Research Committee of the EANS, chairman Prof. J. Pickard.

easy access to their foreign colleagues a n d quick a n d efficient m e a n s o f d i s s e m i n a t i n g their o w n findings 8. All original r e p o r t s relevant to n e u r o s u r g e r y in num e r o u s j o u r n a l s a n d in v a r i o u s tongues can no longer be read, m u c h less critically a p p r a i s e d . R e a d e r s are inclined to select a limited n u m b e r o f j o u r n a l s for regular use. This selection p r o m o t e s wide circulation o f some j o u r n a l s a n d limits t h a t o f the others. T h e language o f p u b l i c a t i o n plays a n i m p o r t a n t role in this process 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 T o e v a l u a t e the p r e s e n t trends in p u b l i c a t i o n s in the field o f n e u r o l o g i c a l surgery in E u r o p e we reviewed E u r o p e a n n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s f r o m the last decade in o r d e r to estimate: 1) the c o n t r i b u t i o n o f n e u r o s u r g e o n s f r o m different countries, 2) the type o f j o u r n a l s in which their p a p e r s a p p e a r , 3) the l a n g u a g e s used a n d 4) the i m p a c t those p u b l i c a t i o n s a n d j o u r n a l s have on the i n t e r n a t i o n a l exchange o f scientific i n f o r m a t i o n . W e also w a n t e d to evaluate the usefulness o f comp u t e r i z e d b i b l i o g r a p h i c d a t a b a s e s for such e v a l u a t i o n s in a relatively n a r r o w speciality like n e u r o s u r g e r y . It was n o t o u r a i m a n d we did n o t a t t e m p t to evaluate the i m p o r t a n c e o f v a r i o u s c o n t r i b u t i o n s to the field o f n e u r o s u r g e r y by the individuals, centers, countries o r journals.

Methods and Material The journals were categorized according to their main subject area into neurosurgical and non-neurosurgical. The title of neurosurgical journals had to contain the term "neurosurgery" or "neurological surgery". Some titles included also other specialities, mostly neurology. Non-neurosurgical journals can be either directly related to neurosurgery (e.g. neurotraumatology, epilepsy, stereotactic sur-

Austria Tschechoslovakai The Netherlands Great Britain Great Britain Italy Fed. Pep. Germany France Poland W.Berlin Romania GDR USSR

Country English Czech, Slov. English English English English German French Polish English Romanian German Russian

Language

404 829

1770 590 442 215 3033 419 1820 716 909 449

No papers

(45)

(24)

507 (15) 153 (50) 258 (52) 2213 (53) 50 ( 7 ) 54 (10) 146 (10) 14 ( 9 ) 38 (30) 30 ( 6 )

Neurology

Numbers calculated from EMBASE, giving first author's institution only.

Mean percent distribution

2604 40 104 444 446 447 706 83 28 266

Acta Neurochirurgica Cesk Neurol Neurochir * Clin Neurol Neurosurg J Neurol Neurosurg Psych J Neurosurg Sci ~ Neurochirurgia Neuro-Chirurgie Neurosurg Rev Rev Med Int Neurol Psihiatr Neurochir ~ Zentralbl Neurochir ~

(76) (13) (21) (11) (65) (81) (48) (56) (22) (54)

Neurosurgery

Journal

2)

i)

15

7

(0.3)

O)

1

Neurophysiology

Author from the Department of

(0.5)

6(1) 20 ( 1 ) 3(2)

18 ( 0 )

3423 308 493 4168 685 547 1486 149 127 493

288 115 130 1506 174 45 614 49 61 190 26 ( 1 )

(30)

(8) (37) (27) (36) (26) (8) (41) (33) (48) (39)

Total

Others

Neuroradiology

Table lb. Contribution of Authors from Various Categories of Institutions to Publications in the European Neurosurgical Journals in the Years 1980-91. Numbers represent the frequency of appearance of the given institution in the institutional affiliation field of SCI databank. Percent distribution within the journal given in brackets.

Journal not listed in databases.

1950 1937 1974 1987 1944 1973 1958 1955 1951 1978

Acta Neurochirurgica Cesk Neurol Neurochir Clin Neurol Neurosurg Brit J Neurosurg J Neurol Neurosurg Psych J Neurosurg Sci Neurochirurgia Neuro-Chirurgie Neurol Neurochir Pol Neurosurg Rev Rev Med Int Neurol Psihiatr Neurochir ~ Zentralbl Neurochir Zh Vopr Neirokhir 1936 1937

Est. year

Journal

Table la. European Neurosurgical Journals'." lssuing Country, Language of Publications and Number of Papers Published During the Last Decade (1980-90)

',D

O

o"

,o.

100

T. Trojanowsld et al.: Neurosurgical Publications in European Journals

gery, neuro-oncology) or to other neurosciences or be altogether unrelated to neurosciences. Journals issued by the national societies of the European countries and the international European societies or associations were classified as European journals (Table I a). J Neurosurgery, Surgical Neurology and Neurosurgery were selected for comparisons as they constitute the most representative group of American neurosurgical journals. Data on the numbers of papers published in various journals in the years 1980-90 were collected online at the Medical Library, University of Umegtusing the databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE and Science Citation Index (SCI). All European neurosurgical journals listed in tab. Ia were included in the investigations. We had to use more then one database to include all the neurosurgical journals elected for the study as journal coverage differs between databases. To find the institutional affiliations of contributing authors the SCI database was used as it lists all contributing institutions, whereas M EDLINE and EMBASE only list the institution of the first author. Many of the European neurosurgical journals are not covered as source items in SCI. Those are: Ceskoslovenska Neurologie a Neu-

rochirurgie, Revista de Medieinae-Internae, Neurologie, Psihiatrie, Neurochirurgie, Journal of Neurosurgieal Sciences, Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska, Zhurnal VoprosyNeirokhirurgii and Zentralblatt fuer Neurochirurgie. The first three of above fisted are indexed selectively by EMBASE, and journal code combined with country code were used for them. The figures for Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska were calculated directly from the relevant issues of the journal. The total number of source items for each selected journal during the years 1980 to 1990 was matched with each European country, as expressed in the institutional affiliation field in the database. The source items from all selected journals were matched with all probable language expressions for neurosurgery in the institutional affiliation field. The number of source items, calculated per country has not been reduced for overlaps in tab. 1 b, i.e. cooperative articles where more than one country was involved. In order to evaluate the proportion of papers from neurosurgical institutions in relation to those from departments of neurology, neurophysiology and neuroradiology, the source items from all selected journals were matched not only with all probable expressions for neurosurgery but also for neurology, neurophysiology and neuroradiology (Table 1b). Languages of papers were checked by language codes in the language field of database. The citing pattern for the selected journals together with the total number of source items for each journal was collected from ISI Journal Citation Report 1988. Clin Neurol, Neurosurg and Neuroehirurgia are source journals in SCI but are not listed as citing journals, only as cited journals. Neurosurg Rev was not indexed in SCI until 1987. Brit J Neurosurg started publishing in March 1987. The citing patterns were evaluated using impact factor and immediacy index, two factors commonly used in bibliometrics. Impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is represented by the ratio between citations in one year of articles from the preceding two years and all citable items from the same two years. Immediacy index measures how quickly the "average article" in a journal is cited. It is the ratio between the number of citations and citable items in the same year.

Results Thirteen solely o r p a r t l y n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s were p u b l i s h e d in E u r o p e in the last decade. E M B A S E lists 4186 m e d i c a l j o u r n a l s u n d e r 85 m a i n headings. A n average n u m b e r o f j o u r n a l s p e r h e a d i n g is 50. T h e h e a d i n g n e u r o l o g y a n d n e u r o s u r g e r y c o m prises 110 titles, which m a k e s 2.6% o f all i n d e x e d j o u r nals. F o r c o m p a r i s o n , p s y c h i a t r y c o m p r i s e s 211 j o u r nals (5.0%), n e u r o l o g y a n d p s y c h i a t r y 27 (0.6%), neuroscience 57 (1.4%). O u t o f 110 j o u r n a l s classified under the h e a d i n g " N e u r o l o g y a n d N e u r o s u r g e r y " , 14 are neurosurgical, 9 o f t h e m E u r o p e a n . Science C i t a t i o n I n d e x (SCI) places n e u r o s u r g e r y in " N e u r o s c i e n c e s " . I t c o n t a i n s 112 titles, o f which 6 are neurosurgical, including 3 E u r o p e a n a n d 3 f r o m outside o f E u r o p e . T h r e e j o u r n a l s were established before 1939, the r e m a i n i n g 10 a f t e r w a r d s (Table 1 a). Six o f the 13 E u r o p e a n n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s are p u b l i s h i n g in English, 2 in G e r m a n a n d 5 in o t h e r l a n g u a g e s (Table 1 a). A m o n g p a p e r s b y n e u r o s u r g e o n s a p p e a r i n g in E u r o p e a n n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s 68 % are p u b l i s h e d in English, 9 % in F r e n c h , 9 % in G e n ~ a n , 5% in Russian, 4 % Czech or Slovak, 3 % Polish, 2 % R u m a n i a n . A n average n u m b e r o f p a p e r s p u b l i s h e d y e a r l y in a j o u r n a l v a r i e d f r o m 40 to over 100. Acta Neurochirur-

gica, Neurochirurgia and J. Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry were p u b l i s h i n g m o r e then 100 p a p e r s per year. T h e y were closely followed by Neurologia Neurochirurgia Polska, Zhurnal Voprosy Neirokhiruri a n d Neuro-Chirurgie (Table 1 a). T h e p r o p o r t i o n o f papers in E u r o p e a n n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s c o m i n g f r o m n e u r o s u r g i c a l institutions in r e l a t i o n to those f r o m departments of neurology, neurophysiology, neurorad i o l o g y a n d others is p r e s e n t e d in T a b l e 1 b. This shows a distinction between p u r e l y n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s a n d those s h a r e d with o t h e r specialities. A u t h o r s p u b l i s h i n g in Acta Neurochirurgica, J Neurosurgical Sciences, Neu-

rochirurgia, Neuro-Chirurgie, Neurosurgical Review a n d Zentralblanfuer Neurochirurgie are p r e d o m i n a n t l y a t t a c h e d to d e p a r t m e n t s o f n e u r o s u r g e r y . T h e r e are 8 j o u r n a l s d e d i c a t e d solely to n e u r o s u r g e r y . I n the rem a i n i n g 5 j o u r n a l s n e u r o s u r g e r y is a c c o m p a n i e d b y o t h e r specialities. N e u r o s u r g i c a l presence in those, as j u d g e d b y the i n s t i t u t i o n a l affiliation o f the a u t h o r s is less then a b o u t 20%. N e u r o r a d i o l o g y a n d n e u r o p h y s i o l o g y has only a very limited presence in the investigated journals. N o t neuroscientific i n s t i t u t i o n a l affiliations have relatively high c o n t r i b u t i o n s o f over 2 5 % , even in p u r e l y n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s , except in Acta Neuro-

T. Trojanowski et aL: Neurosurgical Publications in European Journals

chirurgica and Neurochirurgia where it reaches only 8 % (Table 1 b). An analysis of the type of journal in which papers by authors with neurosurgical institutional affiliations are published showed that the majority of them (62%) appeared in non-neurosurgical journals (Table 2). An opposite tendency occurs in the USSR, Rumania and Czechoslovakia, countries issuing national neurosurgical journals in languages of limited spread. The overall distribution of papers by European neurosurgeons in neurosurgical journals classified as national, European and American is almost equal, varying between 11 and 15%. The remaining 62% appear in non-neurasurgical journals (Table 2). National neurosurgical journals are issued in 10 European countries (Table 2). Most of them are circulated also outside their home country, except those using languages with a limited spread. Only about 12% of the papers from European neurosurgical institutions are published in national neurosurgical journals. In

101

Czechoslovakia, GDR, Rumania and the USSR this proportion is much larger between 46% and 93%. German, Italian and French neurosurgeons on the other hand send less then 10% of their papers to the carresponding national journals. Dutch, Spanish and the British neurosurgeons published most of their papers in American neurosurgical journals (Table 2). Table 3 shows the number of papers from neurosurgical institutions in Europe, Japan and the USA that appeared in the European neurosurgical journals. The largest contributions came from Great Britain, Italy, FRG and France, followed by the USA. Overall contribution of papers by European neurosurgeons to the European neurosurgical journals equals 76%, that of Japanese 2.5% and American 5.5% (Table 3 b). In Aeta Neurochirurgica, official journal of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, the largest number of papers originated from FRG, followed by Italy, Sweden and Denmark. Only I per year or even no papers came from other member countries:

Table 2. Distribution of Papersfrom the Neurosurgieal Institutions in European Countries Between Various Categories of Neurosurgieal Journals in the Years 1980-90. Number of papers, and in brackets percent distribution between various journals within each country Origin of paper

Neurosurgical Journals:

Austria Belgium Bulgaria Czechoslovakia Denmark Finland France FRG GDR Great Britain Greece Hungary Iceland Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Rumania Spain Sweden Switzerland USSR Yugoslavia

348 633 227 208 1645 365 210 273 162 434 -

(8) (15)

Total

4505

(12)

National

(61)

(14) (5) (46) (18)

(35) (76)

(93)

American

Not neurosurgical

Total

50 (3) 148 (20) 2 (4) 9 (2) 131 (14) 91 (14) 297 (6) 356 (7) 4 (1) 2447 (27) 20 (18) 42 (8)

1542 412 46 181 545 408 3617 3225 221 4832 60 402

(88) (57) (82) (32) (60) (65) (76) (69) (49) (54) (53) (80) (56) (36) (65) (56) (62) (13) (53) (77) (78) (1) (54)

1755 727 56 568 912 634 4750 4684 452 9048 112 501 2 4362 1384 511 782 68 214 1036 2444 1355 470 145

European 163 167 8 30 236 135 203 876 19 124 32 57 2 901 221 117 50 14 20 176 309 154 15 33

(9) (23) (14) (5) (26) (21) (4) (19) (4) (1) (29) (12) (100) (21) (16) (23) (6) (20) (9) (17) (13) (11) (3) (23)

4062

(11)

651 457 64 25 12 4 316 240 146 16 34

(15) (35) (12) (3) (18) (2) (30) (10) (11) (3) (23)

2445 496 330 434 42 28 544 1895 1055 5 78

5562

(15)

22843

(62)

36972

T. Trojanowski et al.: Neurosurgical Publications in European Journals

102 Bulgaria, Iceland, Portugal, R u m a n i a , U S S R , G D R a n d Czechoslovakia (Table 3 a).

J Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Neurochirurgie a n d Neurochirurgia have a wide i n t e r n a t i o n a l

The highest n u m b e r of papers by a u t h o r s from neurosurgical institutions appeared in J Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry a n d in Acta Neurochirurgica.

range of c o n t r i b u t i o n s from neurosurgical institutions

The next j o u r n a l , Neuro-chirurgie, published d u r i n g the same time a b o u t 1/3 o f the n u m b e r of papers a p p e a r i n g

in most E u r o p e a n countries as well as from the U.S.A,

in each o f those two j o u r n a l s .

J a p a n a n d other countries (Table 3 b). Some j o u r n a l s h a d m a x i m u m of papers from a single country. T h o s e

N e u r o s u r g e o n s from the U S A a n d J a p a n p u b l i s h i n g in the E u r o p e a n neurosurgical j o u r n a l s prefered J Neu-

were Ceskoslovenska Neurologie a Neurochirurgie, Neu-

rology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (567 papers) a n d Acta Neuroehirurgica (251 papers).

rologia i Neurochirurgia Polska, Revista de MedicinaeInternae, Neurologie, Psihiatrie, Neurochirurgie, Zhurnal Voprosy Neirokhirurgii, a n d Neurosurgical Review.

I m p a c t factor a n d i m m e d i a c y index were used to

J o u r n a l s with significant i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o n t r i b u t i o n s

indicate how often a n d how s o o n is the paper published in a given j o u r n a l likely to be cited. J Neurology Neu-

are publishing in English, F r e n c h a n d G e r m a n .

rosurgery and Psychiatry, Acta Neurochirurgica, Neuro-

Table 3a. Contributionof Authorsfrom EuropeanNeurosurgicalInstitutions to Publications in European NeurosurgicalJournals in the Years 1980-90. Numbers correspond to the number of neurosurgical institutions represented by the authors of papers. Abbreviations: N- neurol., Ns- neurosurg. Journal Country

Acta Ns

C e s k Clin NNs NNs

Austria Belgium Bulgaria Czechoslovakia Denmark Finland France FRG GDR Great Britain Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Rumania Spain Sweden Switzerland USSR Yugoslavia

66 33 1 6 182 78 75 613 4 102 10 33 2

1

570 67 93 19 2 4 54 205 52 4 8

Total

2283

351

Japan USA Others

118 133 310

2

Total

561 2844

Total in base

7 48

Brit J Ns 2

348

1 1

6 3 I 9 1 8

14 4 6 110 3

J NNs J Ns N-chi- N-chi- N Ns Ns RevMedZentr ZhVopr total P s y c h Scien rurgia rurgie Polska Review N Psih N-chir N-khir 16 45 1 3 30 51 98 97 2 1638 9 2

10

28 1 1

3 38

1 1

633 4

1 2

8 3 1

3

28 5 1

1

28

273

18

3

9 4 1 2 10 2

434 1

163 167 8 382 236 137 836 1103 227 1884 32 57 2 39 1266 431 117 323 14 183 176 310 154 449 33

384

449

8729

1 2 1 10 13 1 5 3 2

2 1 12 227 6 6 4 1

28 1 2 23

104 1 2

3 1 28 208 2

1

14

1 3 1

3

3

33 173 142 16 6 9 3 77 85 33

1 365 3

15 3 3

4 12 3 25

10 1 34

2

13

1

2

4

315

169

2582

438

423

775

13 22 96

16

127 440 744

2 11 20

26 5 39

4 484

1 1 2

1 1 8

89

288 635 1792

2

131

16

1311

33

70

488

4

10

89

2715

353

446

185

3893

471

493

1263

394

538

11444

18 210 1

79 1 4 4

2 162 1

281

281

2 2 1

115

119

164

164

T. Trojanowski et al.. Neurosurgical Publications in European Journals

103

Table 3b. Contribution of Authorsfrom European NeurosurgicalInstitutions to Publicationsin European and SelectedAmerican Neurosurgical Journals in the Years 1980-90. Numbers correspond to the number of neurosurgical institutions represented by the authors of papers Journal Country

European journals

Austria Belgium Bulgaria Czechoslovakia Denmark Finland France FRG GDR Great Britain Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Rumania Spain Sweden Switzerland USSR Yugoslavia

163 167 8 382 236 137 836 1103 227 1884 32 57 2 39 1266 431 117 323 14 183 176 310 154 449 33

Total

J Neurosurgery 7 l7 2 37 12 38 63 119 3 7

39 123 2 6 83 69 185 226 4 1622 14 23

4 8 1 11 10 74 67 77 3 12

Total

50 148 2 9 131 91 297 356 4 1818 20 42

213 315 10 391 367 228 1133 1459 231 3702 52 99 2 107 1917 888 181 348 26 187 492 550 300 465 67

195 168 85 7 23

1 44 20 30 4 5

8729

661

3799

541

5001

13730

Japan USA Others

422 2087 1038

831 4755 2850

454 844 683

2208 8542 6323

3493 14141 9856

3915 16228 10894

Total

3547

8436

1981

17073

27490

31037

12276

9097

5780

17614

32491

44767

long to the E u r o p e a n n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s with the highest influence. O n l y the first o f t h e m has a n i m p a c t factor a n d i m m e d i a c y index in the r a n g e o f the highly influential J Neurosurgery. Acta Neurochirurgica c o m p a r e s well with Surgical Neurology, b u t yields to Neurosurge~y (Table 4). A n a l y s i s o f the j o u r n a l s m o s t frequently cited in p a p e r s p u b l i s h e d b y the E u r o p e a n n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r nals in o u r m a t e r i a l shows, t h a t the c i t a t i o n s are pred o m i n a n t l y c o m i n g f r o m the p u b l i s h i n g j o u r n a l itself (Table 5). This applies to Acta Neurochirurgica, JNeurology Neurosurge~ T and Psychiatry a n d Neuro-chirurgie. C i t a t i o n s o f the o t h e r j o u r n a l s are n o t given in

5 147 15 2 1

Total USA

3 77 52 31 5 6

chirurgie, a n d Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery be-

57 393 406 41 16 12

Surgical Neurology

68 651 457 64 25 12 4 316 240 146 16 34

Totaliu base

6 111 36 21 8

Neurosurgery

SCI. A m o n g A m e r i c a n j o u r n a l s , J o u r n a l o f N e u r o surgery is m o s t frequently cited in E u r o p e a n as well as in A m e r i c a n n e u r o s u r g i c a l j o u r n a l s . T h e frequency o f citations f r o m the r e m a i n i n g A m e r i c a n j o u r n a l s is also high, higher then t h a t f r o m the E u r o p e a n j o u r n a l s with the exception o f J Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (Table 5).

Discussion T h e sources o f b i b l i o g r a p h i c i n f o r m a t i o n like a b stract j o u r n a l s , indexes a n d d a t a b a s e s can be used for b i b l i o m e t r i c a n d scientometric studies o f p u b l i s h e d papers2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. A n a t t e m p t to base a n analysis o f scientific p u b l i c a t i o n s in the field o f n e u r o s u r g e r y in

104

T. Trojanowski et al.: Neurosurgical Publications in European Journals

Table 4. Impact Factor and Immediacy Index for European and Selected American Neurosurgical Journals Listed in SCI Journal Citation Report 1988 Journal

Impact factor

Immediacy index

Acta Neurochirurgica Clin Neurol Neurosurg J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiat Neurochirurgia Neuro-Chirurgie Neurosurg Rev J Neurosurg Neurosurgery Surg Neurol

0.586 0.356 1.994 0.114 0.360 0.218 2.161 1.044 0.686

0.090 0.033 0.265 0.000 0.012 0.006 0.348 0.131 0.060

Impact factor: a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year; the ratio between citations in one year of articles from the preceeding two years and all citable items from the same two years. Immediacy index: a measure of how quickly the "average article" in a journal is cited; the ratio between the number of citations and citable items in the same year.

Europe on bibliographic sources encountered some difficulties. They were mostly concerned with lack of complete information on all investigated neurosurgical journals in a single database and by the flimsiness of information on the institutional affiliations of the authors. Different ways of naming departments made it impossible to be sure of covering all neurosurgical institutions in the searches. The names are not coded and contain sometimes a general name or description of the institution, e.g. Natl Hosp Nervous Dis. It has no "neurosurgery" or "neurological surgery" etymology. In SCI authors' addresses are given as written by the authors, without any authority control of terminology, spelling or abbreviations, and in some cases there are no institutions quoted at all. Furthermore, in EMBASE the information on institutional affiliations is restricted to the first author only. This means that the papers written by neurosur-

Table 5. Number of Citations Made in 1988 by European and Selected American Neurosurgieal Journals to Papers Published in Neurosurgieal Journals During the Years 1979-88 Citing journals in 1988 to years 1979-88 Cited journal (total source items)

Acta Neurochir

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiat

Neurochirnrgie

J Neurosurgery

Neurosurgery

Surg Neurol

Total citings all journals

Acta Neurochir (3093) Brit J Neurosurg ~ (313) Clin Neurol Neurosurg (390) J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiat (3572) Neurochirurgia (473) Neuro-chirnrgie (1366) Neurosurg Rev (66) ~ J Neurosurg (3843) Neurosurgery (11010) Surg Neurol (2273)

150

6

10

104

95

31

771

17

3

2

14

11

I0

144

6

10

4

4

1

4

198

29

364

22

33

42

11

3529

14

3

9

14

12

10

104

25

3

66

12

17

8

235

17

2

10

14

3

93

298

72

125

872

765

226

5877

186

41

78

399

639

! 52

3166

93

23

66

187

199

131

1324

Established in March 1987. The source item figure taken from Excerpta Medica Embase, for it is not listed as citing journal in SCI Journal Citation Report in 1988. ~ Not indexed in SCI until 1987.

T. Trojanowskiet aI.."NeurosurgicalPublicationsin European Journals geons would be omitted if the first author is not from a neurosurgical institution. Thus it had to be accepted that the numbers quoted in tables referring to papers by authors with neurosurgical affiliations are not absolutely accurate. It could be assumed however that the proportions between various journals are retained due to the even distribution of numbers inaccuracy between them. It was expected that the dominating part of the papers published in neurosurgical journals should be authored or co-authored by neurosurgeons. Available data confirmed this assumption for 80% of publications where the author's institution was identified, emanated from neurosurgical departments, solely or in collaboration. This was true in all European journals studied, with the understandable exception of J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiat, Clin Neurol Neurosurg, Cesk Neurol Neurosurg, Rev Med Int Neurol Psihatr Neuroehir, Neurol Neurochir Pol, where papers from non-neurosurgical departments were in majority. The number of papers published by those journals (Table 1) should be divided by a factor of 2-4 to give an actual number of neurosurgical papers. This does not apply to the other tables, where institutional affiliations of authors were confirmed. Samples have shown that the publication pattern for various European countries (Table 1 a and 3a) are not significantly changed when only publications identified as originating from neurosurgical institutions are taken into consideration. The study was performed not in an attempt to evaluate the merits of any given paper, journal or author. It describes the trends in publishing neurosurgical research with special interest for the situation in Europe. Neurosurgical journals constitute only about 0.3% of all medical journals listed in the major indexes of medical literature. More then a half of them are published in Europe. The percent quoted is underestimating the number of neurosurgical journals published for only 3 (23%) of the existing 13 European neurosurgical journals are reviewed in SCI as citing journals. European neurosurgery belongs to the relatively new specialities with only 3 journals established before 1939 and the most recent founded in 1987. With the expanding volume of information published and incomplete scanning of the literature by the most popular indexes it is increasingly difficult for clinicians and researchers to keep up to date in the field of neurosurgery. In recognition of that problem review journals like Neurosurgery Reviews and Current Opinion in Neurology and Neurosurgery were developed recently.

105

Almost 50 % of the European neurosurgical journals are publishing in English. They published 68% of all papers by neurosurgeons appearing in the European neurosurgicaljournals during the last decade. The other common languages are German and French used in 19% and 6% of the neurosurgical publications respectively. The proportion of papers written in English worldwide is further increased to about 80% by publications in the American neurosurgical journals. They have substantial influence on European scientists as indicated by citation analysis. It should also be noted that the majority of journals have summaries in English. Thus English is the dominating language for communication in the field of neurosurgical research following the general trend in science, that is definitely in favour of writing in English 6' 8 Journals established by the international scientific societies usually have a policy of accepting papers in English, French or German but in practice are almost entirely in English s. An analysis of MEDLINE database for all medical publications indicates that the use of English is increasing and that English appears to have growing intranational as well as international currency in medical communication 5. The early predominance of the English language in contributions to neurological surgery, and the relative terseness and simplicity of this language have led the editors of many journals to the policy that all contributions should be published in English. This would mean that many neurosurgeons would need to learn but one other language than their native tongue in order to remain abreast of the field4. Neurosurgeons in their research and publications are often cooperating and exchanging ideas with scientists of other specialities. It is indicated by 25 % contribution of those authors to papers published in purely neurosurgical journals and by the high proportion of papers (62%) by neurosurgeons published in not neurosurgical journals. Only in the countries issuing national neurosurgical journals in languages of limited spread do most papers by neurosurgeons appear in strictly neurosurgical journals (USSR, Czechoslovakia and Rumania). Neurosurgeons from Germany, France and Italy publish about 90% of their work abroad in journals with European and world circulation. The Dutch, Spanish and British neurosurgeons provide most of the European neurosurgical papers to the American journals. A tendency to publish there may be justified by the higher impact of those journals as indicated by citation analysis. An opposite direction of

106 flow of papers may also be observed. American neurosurgeons have a considerable contribution to the European neurosurgical journals (Table 3). Acta Neurochirurgica has a large number of American papers matched in number only by Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. This shows that the exchange of scientific ideas and results of research is very intense worldwide and takes place mostly on the pages of a few journals with established reputation. This finding is further confirmed by the citation analysis 1. It shows a domination of American journals, but Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and Acta Neurochirurgica are closely matching it. Citation analysis, as introduced by Garfield in 1955 evaluates authors' work without considering qualitative factors. The rationale of citation analysis is that articles which remain influential will be more often cited in the relevant literature than papers in which ideas and concepts have become obsolete. I f we concede that papers which have been most influential in changing the direction of neurosurgical scholarship are most creative, it follows that frequency of citation will correlate directly with the creativity expressed in an author's publication. Citation analysis should not be considered the ultimate assessment of the published work of authors; peer review and historical context remain important factors 1. Citation analysis of the neurosurgical journals shows that neurosurgeons are often placing their publications in the same journals they cite most in their own papers. The findings of this study indicate that the results of neurosurgical research by European neurosurgeons are most likely to achieve wide reception if written in English and published in one of the influential European or American neurosurgical journals. With the present multiplicity of neurosurgical journals in Europe only some of them are included in the circle for worldwide exchange of ideas.

T. Trojanowski et at.: Neurosurgical Publications in European Journals It is not enough to review neurosurgical journals to have access to all or even most papers by neurosurgeons. They publish a considerable proportion of their work in non-neurosurgical journals. Neurosurgical journals publishing in languages of limited spread have only a local circulation and are not reviewed by the main medical literature indexes and their citation rate is negligible. They could probably have wider influence if at least their English summaries were scanned and indexed.

References 1. Davis RA (1988) An objective perspective on neurosurgieal publications. The value of citation analysis. Surg Neurol 29: 248253 2. Garfield E (1980) Do French scientists who publish outside of France and/or in english do better research assays of an information scientist. Philadelphia: ISI Press 3:498-530 3. Garfield E, Welljams-DorofA (1990) Language use in international research: A citation analysis.Ann Am Academyof Political and Social Science 511:10-24 4. Krayenbiihl H, Maspes PE, Sweet WH (1966) Editorial preface. Prog Neurol Surg 1 5. Maher J (1986) The development of English as an international language of medicine. Applied Linguistics 7:206-219 6. Rebora A (1988) Pubblicarein Inglese,una sceltaobbligata. Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venerologia 123:387-391 7. Stefaniak B (1986) What is being published by Polish physicists. Czech J Phys 36:148-155 8. Swinburne JK (1983) The use of English as the international language of science: A study of the publications and views of a group of French scientists. The Incorporated Linguist 22: 129132 Databases EMBASE Excerpta Medica Amsterdam, The Netherlands MEDLINE, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda MD, U.S.A. SCI ScienceCitation Index. Institute of Scientific Information Philadelphia, U.S.A. Correspondence and Reprints: Prof. Dr. Tomasz Trojanowski, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical School, 20-950 Lublin, Jaczewskiego8, Poland.

Neurosurgical publications in European journals.

The number of papers published in European neurosurgical journals during the last decade (1980-90) was analysed using online databases. Thirteen journ...
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