[Notoriety of the French dermatology: analysis through dermatological publications].
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to evaluate the publications of French dermatologists in medical journals.


METHODS
All papers published in 1998 and indexed in PubMed were searched under the names of all dermatologists listed in a French registry of hospital dermatologists and analyzed. A sample of 8 departments of dermatology in University hospitals was selected at random and the publications from these departments were compared to those from the departments of rheumatology in the same hospitals. In addition the publications of French, German and Italian dermatologists were compared for the years 1989, 1994 and 1999.


CONCLUSIONS
In 1998, 452 papers were published by French dermatologists. This was more than for rheumatologists in the selected sample (133 vs 82). The impact factor was rather low (1.8 +/- 3), in part because many papers (43 p. 100) were written in French. In addition original studies and research papers accounted for only 20 p. 100 of all papers. The numbers of papers devoted to clinical research had increased in the last 10 years and compared favorably with German and Italian dermatology. In contrast, the number of research papers had decreased in the last 10 years in strong contrast with the dramatic increase of research papers originating from Germany.
Longvert
C
C
Service de Dermatologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor, 94010 Créteil Cedex, France. jean-claude.roujeau@hmn.ap-hop-paris.fr
Blom
A
A
Roujeau
J C
JC
D003880:Dermatology; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D011643:Publishing; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends