[Typology of Tunisian medical research indexed in Medline from 1965 to 1999].

The medical research is a criteria of a country development and the performance of its health system. This study tried to describe the typology of the Tunisian medical research (themes, journals, types of publication,..). It was a bibliometric and exhaustive survey of Tunisian manuscripts indexed in Medline from 1965 to 1999. Among the 3673 eligible references to the study, 73% have been produced in clinic sciences. The main subjects were: Cancer, hydratic cyst and tuberculosis represented respectively 3.9%, 2.9% and 1.8% of manuscripts. 91% of articles have been published in French. 65% of articles have been published in national journals. This work showed that the medical scientific production remains globally lower in relation to the national human resources, that its social relevance is insufficient in relation to the load of morbidity and that the radiance of the Tunisian medical research would be limited by the choice of no English-writing journals. Thus, the promotion of the national medical research requires the backing of the teaching of: documentary techniques, English and written communication.