[Analysis of literature citations in original articles published in Spanish and international nursing journals and journals in 2 closely related disciplines].
OBJECTIVE
To compare Spanish nursing journals with 2 English-language standard journals, as well as Spanish journals in closely related disciplines, to identify possible quantitative and qualitative shortcomings in scientific documentation.


METHODS
We performed a descriptive, cross-sectional study of the references contained in 796 articles from 6 Spanish journals from 3 health disciplines (2000-2002) and 2 English-language nursing journals (2000-2001). The number of references, type of publication cited, and language of the document cited were compared in individual journals, and in journals grouped by discipline and according to language.


RESULTS
Spanish-language nursing journals had the lowest mean number of references per article (X- = 16.20) when compared with psychology journals (X- = 31.24), medical journals (X- = 31.39) and international nursing journals (X- = 37.11). Among Spanish journals, citation of English-language publications was most frequent in medical journals (X- = 26.28) and least frequent in nursing journals (X- = 6.04). In contrast, citation of Spanish documents was most frequent in nursing journals (X- = 9.79) and least frequent in medical journals (X- = 4.43).


CONCLUSIONS
Although scientific publication of Spanish nursing has improved, it is not comparable to publication of closely related disciplines and international nursing. The low citation of English documents clearly reveals the risk of scientific insularity.
Muñoz-Soler
Verónica
V
Departamento de Enfermería, Escuela de Enfermería, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, España. hipostasi@universia.es
Flores-López
María José
MJ
Cabañero-Martínez
María José
MJ
Richart-Martínez
Miguel
M
D015706:Bibliometrics; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D038622:Internationality; D007802:Language; D009729:Nursing; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013030:Spain