Spanish paediatric research in ANALES DE PEDIATRIA: research groups and research areas (2003-2009)

Introduction: Authorships of scientific papers are a significant milestone for researchers. Quantification of authors' contribution in research papers makes it possible to investigate patterns of research collaboration and interactions in scientific community. The objective of this paper is to analyse scientific collaboration and to identify research groups and research areas of ANALES DE PEDIATRIA. Material and methods: Papers published in ANALES DE PEDIATRIA between 2003 and 2009 period were selected from Medline. An author name normalization process was carried out. Productivity and scientific collaboration indexes have been determined. Research groups have been identified through co-authorships networks analysis. Thematic areas of research and major domains of research groups have been characterised by means of quantification of Medical Subject Headings terms assigned to documents. Results: An analysis was made of 1,828 documents published by 4,695 authors. The collaboration index (articles) was 5.3 +/- 2.3. A total of 97 research groups consisting of between 2 and 80 researchers, which add up 415 researchers have been identified. The main diseases and medical signs studied were asthma (n = 35), multiple abnormalities (n = 28), premature diseases (n = 25), sepsis (n = 24), congenital heart defects (n = 23), respiratory insufficiency (n = 22), HIV infections (n = 21), streptococcal infections (n = 20) and gastroenteritis (n = 20). Conclusions: ANALES DE PEDIATRIA is one of the most productive Spanish medical journals. Author's collaboration was similar to those observed in other Spanish clinical journals included in Journal Citation Reports. A remarkable number of paediatric research groups publishing on many topics have been identified. (C) 2010 Asociacion Espanola de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.