title: Dental research in Spain. A bibliometric analysis on subjects, authors and institutions (1993-2012).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bibliometrics is defined as the use of statistical methods in the analysis of a body of literature to reveal the historical development of subject fields and patterns of authorship, publication, and use. Our objective was to characterize Spanish scientific output in Dentistry through the analysis of Web of Science database in a 20-year period. By means of a bibliometric study documents were statistically analyzed using indicators that showed quantitative and qualitative aspects of the production. Specifically, time course of the scientific production within the time span was analysed, as were the journals where the article was published and the categories of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) in which they belong, thematic areas, authorship, and finally authors and institutions with the highest production in Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  By means of the design of a specific search strategy previously described in the scientific literature, we recovered all citable documents about Dentistry signed by Spanish researchers and included in the WoS database between 1993 and 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 3006 documents fulfilled the search criteria, of which 2449 (81.5%) were published in journals within the category Dentistry Oral Surgery and Medicine and 557 (18.5%) within other categories of the JCR. During the four quinquenniums studied, the production increased quantitatively (8.6-fold) and qualitatively. Finally, the universities of Granada and Complutense of Madrid were the institutions with the highest production and most prolific authors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Spanish dental production sharply increased in the last two decades, reaching quantitative and qualitative levels similar to those of the other medical specialties in the country.
authors.affiliation: Campus de Cartuja, Ed. Máximo, Granada University, 18071 Granada, Spain, evaristo@ugr.es.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bueno-Aguilera
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Contreras
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lucena-Martín
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pulgar-Encinas
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D018865:Dental Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors
references.citation: PLoS One. 2015;10(7):e0131816
references.pmid: 26196296
references.citation: Nature. 2004 Jul 15;430(6997):311-6
references.pmid: 15254529
references.citation: Rev Clin Esp. 2004 Feb;204(2):75-88
references.pmid: 15023305
references.citation: Eur J Oral Sci. 2006 Apr;114(2):102-8
references.pmid: 16630300
references.citation: Med Clin (Barc). 2008 Mar 1;130(7):246-53
references.pmid: 18355424
references.citation: Scientometrics. 2010 Sep;84(3):575-603
references.pmid: 20700371
references.citation: Med Clin (Barc). 1997 Oct 18;109(13):481-96
references.pmid: 9379740
references.citation: Clin Oral Investig. 2013 Sep;17(7):1773-83
references.pmid: 23099725