The use of bibliometric data in evaluating research on therapeutic community for addictions and in psychiatry.

The purpose of this study is to describe the publication characteristics associated with therapeutic community research and illustrate differences between addiction studies and other types of therapeutic community papers. A total of 223 published reports on research pertaining to the therapeutic community in a variety of treatment settings from 1987 to 1992 were analyzed. The articles consisted mainly of addiction studies (38%) and hospital psychiatry (36%) studies. Collaborative authorship was scanty. Quantitative studies (systematic data presented and analyzed statistically) were performed more often in addiction papers than in psychiatric therapeutic community papers. Addiction studies were also cited slightly more often. Addictions are often a rather simple and distinct focus for research, as well as a major public health problem. This may lead to the smoother use of traditional quantitative research strategies and standard publication channels than in other psychiatric therapeutic community studies.