[Bibliometric evaluation of the Spanish scientific output in neurosciences. Analysis of the publication with international readership between 1984 and 1993].

A bibliometric study was made of the Spanish scientific output in the Neurosciences between 1984 and 1993. The material studied was selected in accordance with the Science Citation Index (SCI) for the year 1993 (Neurosciences section) and from the journals considered to be a "priority' by the data base Excepta Medica CD: Neurosciences. The usual bibliometric rules were used: price's law of scientific literature growth, Bradford's law of scientific literature dispersal and Lotka's law of author productivity. The national participation indices (IPa) in the leading publications with an international readership, the % SUP index (% of documents included in 10% of the world top quality production), the authors/articles index, institutional contributions and the geographical origin of these were all analyzed also. Our results showed an exponential growth in the Spanish neuroscientific literature (correlation coefficient: 0.981) and increasing IPa (period 1984-1988; 0.88; period 1989-1993: 1.59). A total of 1,488 original documents were analyzed. There was an impact factor (FI) of over 3 in 20.8% of the articles, with an average FI of 2.701. The % SUP was 6.07. The journal with the largest numbers of original papers in Brain Research (Bradford's first zone) with 186 articles and the largest IPa was in the Journal of Pineal Research (8.403). The total number of authors was 2,470, total signatures of authors were 5,958 (3.04% of the authors had a productivity index (IP) > or = 1 and 57% an IP = 0. The average number of authors/article was 4.02. The origin of the articles was: University (56.77%), Hospital (26.73%) and CSIC (14.95%). Scientific production was concentrated in the CCAA of Madrid and Cataluña 55.93%, followed by Andalucia, Castilla-León and Valencia (22.57%).