Reference lists in medical journals--language and length.

A total of 8,251 references from seven medical journals from four language areas (English, French, German and Swedish) have been studied. The mean number of references per article varies from 13 to 27, the range is wide (2-63). Six per cent of the references are more than 25 years old and most of them could probably be omitted. The English language predominates to the degree (91%) that there is practically no influx from other language areas than those included in the study. A Medline search shows a much higher proportion of references in other languages (English 59%) and makes it likely that non-English references to a large degree are neglected by authors writing and reading only English. It is concluded that it should be possible to limit the number of references per original article to 20-25.