Contemporary neuroscience is characterized by intensive internationalization of basic and applied memory research. A scientometric analysis of the publications by Bulgarian authirs abstracted in MEDLINE from 1966 till 2004 was carried. A total of 94 papers authored by 61 Bulgarian authors and published between 1980 and 2004 became internationally 'visible' through this widely used data-base. Four Bulgarian journals contain 38 articles but 25 foreign ones from 10 countries - 56 articles. A total of 50 papers were published in 22 mono-disciplinary journals from 11 countries, 36 - in 4 two-disciplinary journals from 4 countries, and 7 - in 2 journals from two countries. In 11 journals containing the term 'pharmacology' in their title a total of 65 papers by Bulgarian authors were published. Acta Physiologica et Pharmacologica Bulgarica (Bulgaria) contained 32, Methods and Findings in Experimental and Clinical Phamracology (Spain) - 15 and European Neuropsychopharmacology - 5 papers. International collaboration resulted in 5 papers published in Bulgarian and in 12 papers published in foreign journals. V. D. Petkov and V. V. Petkov from the Institute of Physiology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia) were the most productive authors in this field with 36 and 30 papers, respectively. Recently, there is a trend of gradually improving international visibility of Bulgarian pharmacology dealing with memory in man and animals

Tomov, D.

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Varna Medical University Press: Journals

Scripta Scientifica Medica, vol. 36 (2004), pp 65-69 Copyright © Varna University o f  MedicineINTERNATIONAL VISIBILITY OF BULGARIAN MEMORYRESEARCHD. TomovDepartment o f  Health Management, Prof. P. Stoyanov Varna University o f  Medicine A B ST R A C TContemporary neuroscience is characterized by intensive internationalization o f basic and applied memory research. A scientom etric analysis o f the publications by Bulgarian authors abstracted in M EDLINE  from  1966 till 2004 was carried. A total o f 94 papers authored by 61 Bulgarian authors and published between 1980 and 2004 becam e internationally 'visible' through this widely used data-base. Four Bulgarian journals con­tain 38 articles but 25 foreign ones from 10 countries - 56 articles. A total o f 50 papers were published in 22 mono-disciplinary journals from 11 countries, 36 - in 4 two-disciplinary journals from 4 countries, and 7 - in 2 journals from two countries. In 11 journals containing the term o f 'pharm acology' in their title a total o f 65 papers by Bulgarian authors were published. Acta Physiologica et Pharm acologica Bulgarien  (Bulgaria) con­tained 32, M ethods and Findings in Experim ental and Clinical Pharm acolology (Spain) - 15 and European  Neuropsychopharmacology - 5 papers. International collaboration resulted in 5 papers published in Bulgarian and in 12 papers published in foreign journals. V. D. Petkov and V. V. Petkov from the Institute o f  Physiology of the Bulgarian Academ y of Sciences (Sofia) were the most productive authors in this field with 36 and 30 pa­pers, respectively. Recently, there is a trend o f gradually im proving international visibility o f  Bulgarian phar­macology dealing with m em ory in man and animals.Key words: m em ory  research , in ternationalization , B ulgarian  pharm acological science, M E D L IN E , scientometricsIN T R O D U C T IO NNowadays scientific cooperation becomes an important precondition for effective research (3,4,7-9). Recently, sci­ence policy makers are strongly interested in tire collabora­tion patterns o f  the countries o f  tire European Union (2,6). Foreign authorship is one o f  the features o f  intemationality of modem scholarly journals (17). Dynamic international­ization is a typical peculiarity o f  contemporary neurosci­ence. Scientists from big and small countries are involved in national and international teams attempting to solve the interdisciplinary problems in the rapidly advancing field of memory research. In the recent decades, Bulgaria takes part in tire system o f international scientific communications, too. In this way, our authors become gradually more visible on tire world scientific information market (1).Our previous investigations o f the former ( 10,11 ) and pres­ent contemporary scientific communications in experimen­tal and clinical memory research reveal air interrupted ad­vance of this interdisciplinary field accompanied by mani­fested internationalization (12,14) and institutionalization of research (12,15,16). There exists outlined country strati­fication in science (5,13) and only some small countries areAddress for correspondence:D. Tomov. Dept, o f Health Management, Prof. P. Stoyanov Varna University of Medicine, 55 Marin Drinov St., BG-9002 Varna E-mail: dimtomov@yahoo.como f significant importance at international and world level. In this respect, identification o f  productive scientists from internationally less 'visible' countries requires a more care­ful and purposeful examination o f  the information flows re­flected in large and popular databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCI, etc.The aim o f the present paper is to analyze the presentation in MEDLINE o f the papers dealing with memory and pub­lished by Bulgarian authors.M A T E R IA L  A N D  M E T H O D SA retrospective search o f the papers on human and animal memory written by Bulgarian investigators and subse­quently abstracted in MEDLINE from 1966 till 2004 was carried out. The combined mfonnation retrieval o f  the terms o f  'memory' and o f Bulgaria*' revealed 79 relevant papers. Then, all die names o f the Bulgarian authors were separately searched and 15 additional papers by these au­thors without the term o f 'Bulgaria*' were identified. Our scientometric analysis included the following parameters: annual distribution o f papers; names and addresses o f  au­thors; national and thematic belonging o f journals, and ad­dresses and thematic belonging o f  authors’ institutions. Only some scientometric distributions were presented to il­lustrate the most significant peculiarities o f die65D. Tomovinstitutionalization and internationalization o f Bulgarian memory research.R E SU L T S A N D  D ISC U SSIO NA total o f 94 papers on memory by Bulgarian authors were abstracted in MEDLINE. Between 1980 and 2003, a total o f  38 papers were published in 4 Bulgarian journals. Be­tween 1985 and 2004, a total o f  56 papers were published in 25 foreign journals from 10 countries. The rising relative share o f  papers published abroad is illustrated on Fig. 1.scientists in the field of pharmacology o f memory present­ing with 36 and 30 publications abstracted in MEDLINE, respectively. Next come some highly productive authors such as M. Lazarova-Bakarova (with 23 papers), A. Mosharof (with 14), M. Genkova-Papasova (with 13), V. Georgiev, R. Kehayov and D Getova (with 12 papers each), etc. The distribution o f  the number o f authors ac­cording to the number o f  their papers is demonstrated on Fig. 2. Thirty-one authors present with one article only. Five internationally co-authored papers were published be­tween 1988 and 1998 in a Bulgarian journal but 12 ones -Fig. 1. Annual distribution ofpapers in Bulgarian and foreign journalsn (papers)n (authors)Fig. 2. Authors ’ distribution according to the number o f  their papersAccording to the data from MEDLINE, a  total of 61 Bul­garian authors participate in the scientific communications in this field during period. Their publication activity is dif­ferent like in any scientometric distributions. Veselin D. Petkov and V. V. Petkov are the most productive Bulgarianbetween 1986 and 2004 in foreign journals. Only in 2001-2004,5 papers by international collectives were pub­lished in foreign journals. The distribution o f  the foreign countries according to the number o f their journals contain­ing papers on memory by Bulgarian authors is presented66International visibility o f bulgarian memory researchIJSA NET ENG GER SPA POL SCO HUN FRA CANFig. 3. Country distribution according to the number o f  journalson Fig. 3 while that o f these countries according to the number of the papers in these journals is shown on Fig. 4. Acta Phvsiologica et Pharmacologica Bulgarica (Bul­garia) contains 32 papers; Methods and Findings in Expéri­mental and Clinical Pharmacolology (Spain) - 15 papers and European Neuropsychopharmacology - 5 papers.A total of 50 papers were published in 22 mono-disciplin­ary journals from 11 countries; a total o f  36 papers were published in 4 two-disciplinary journals from 4 countries, and 7 papers were published in 2 journals from two coun­tries (Table 1 ).In 11 journals containing tire term o f 'pharmacology' in their title a total o f 65 papers by Bulgarian authors were published. Therefore, psychopharmacology dominates in the thematic belonging o f  the journals although most Bul­garians who have published these papers currently work in tire Institute o f Physiology o f the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.Bulgaria participates with a total o f  3 main institutions in the city of Sofia (Bulgarian Academy o f Sciences, Medical University o f Sofia and University o f  Forestry) and one - in the city of Plovdiv (Medical University o f  Plovdiv). A de­tailed characteristic o f  the institutionalization of Bulgarian memory research is summarized in Table 2. The successful creation and effective existence o f  highly specialized labo­ratories within the aforementioned Institute o f  Physiology indicates the substantia] role o f narrow-topic institutionalization o f basic research. However, there is no institution in Bulgaria containing tire term of'memory' in its nomination yet. There are already a few 'memory' institu­tions in Germany, Finland, the UK, Denmark, France, Bel­gium, the USA and other countries (12,15,16).There is convincing evidence o f the gradual improvement of the international visibility o f  Bulgarian psychophamracology in the recent decades. It is related with the accessibility o f  sufficiently prestigious foreign bio­medical journals for hard science' manuscripts independ­ently of the country o f  the authors, on the one hand, and with the obviously enhanced quality o f research work of Bulgarian investigators performed in domestic and foreign research institutes and laboratories, on the other hand. However, much should be done to reach the scientific pop­ularity at least o f the colleagues from the other ex-socialisto f f t  INC I U o A  C IN U  U t K  o k U  F U L  H U IN  Г К А  L.A ÎNFig. 4. Country distribution according to the number o f  papers in their journalsTable 1. Journal distribution according to disciplinary profilesNumber of profilesProfile Journals Countries Papersonepharmacology 6 5 23neuroscience 5 4 10medicine(general) 2 2 4biochemistry 2 2 3phytotherapy 2 2 2other(5) 5 4 8twophysiology and pharmacology 1 1 32neurology and biology 1 1 1psychology and pharmacology 1 1 2neurology and pharmacology t 1 1threeneurology, psychology and pharmacology1 1 5pharmacology, biochemistry and psychology1 1 2one problem only alcoholism 1 1 1total 17 29 11 94countries like Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic who are relatively more actively involved in memory research in the recent years.67D. TomovTable 2. Institutionalization o f  Bulgarian memory researchCity Main Institution Specialized Institution Narrow Profile Institution Thematic ProfileDepartment of Experimental Pharmacology PharmacologyInstitute of PhysiologyLaboratory of CNS Pharmacology PharmacologyBulgarian Academy of SciencesLaboratory of Experimental Psychopharmacology PsychopharmacologyDepartment of Drug Toxicology Pharmacology and ToxicologyNeuroscienceSofiaBrain Research Institute Department of Neurotransmitter and Neuromodulator Mechanisms in the BrainNeuroscienceDepartment of Pharmacology and Toxicology Pharmacology and ToxicologyMedical Faculty Department of Psychiatry PsychiatryMedical Clinic of Child Neurology NeurologyUniversityNational Center of Hygiene, Medical Ecology and Nutrition Hygiene and EcologyInstitute of Pharmacology and Pharmacy Pharmacology and PharmacyUniversity of Forestry Faculty of EcologyDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry Chemistry and BiochemistryDepartment of Physiology PhysiologyPlovdiv MedicalUniversity Medical FacultyDepartment of Pharmacology and Toxicology Pharmacology and ToxicologyDepartment of Pharmacology PharmacologyTotal 4 7 12 11The rising socio-medical importance o f  memory disorders necessitates united efforts o f the scientists from all over the world in order to solve these difficult interdisciplinary is­sues as successful as possible. Fortunately, Bulgaria strives to contribute in this aspect as much as possible, too.R E FE R E N C E S1. Рож ков, C., Jl. И ванчева, С. Ш апошник. Публикационна реализация на българските учени, изявена в международно съавторство (библиометричен анализ).- Стратегии образ, и научн. полит., 2000, № 2, 61-67.2. G länzel, W., A. Schubert, H .-J. C zerw on. А bibliometric analysis of international scientific coop­eration of the European Union (1985-1995).- Scientometrics, 45, 1999, 185-202.3. G länzel, W. National characteristics in international scientific co-authorship.- In: Assessment and Moni­toring of Scientific and Technological Developments.Sixth International Conference on Science and Tech­nology Indicators. Leiden, 24-27.V.2000. Abstracts, p. 43.4. G om ez, 1., M. T. Fernandez , J. Sebastian . Analysis of the structure of international scientific co­operation networks through bibliometric indicators.- Scientometrics, 44, 1999, 441-457.5. H argens, L. L., D. H. Felm lee. Structural deter­minants o f stratification in science.- Am. Sociol. Rev., 49, 1984, 685-697.6. H icks, D. M., P. A. Isard , В. R. M artin. A morphology of Japanese and European corporate re­search networks.- Res. Policy, 25, 1996, 359-378.7. H icks, D. M ., H. S. Katz. Research collabora­tion.- In: The Changing Shape of British Industrial Research. STEEP Special Report No 6. Brighton, SPRU, 1997, 54-82.8. Intemationalität der Forschung. Symposium der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Schloß Ringberg/Tegemsee, 20-22.V.1996.68International visibility o f bulgarian memory researchMax-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berichte und Mitteilungen, 1997, No 1,367 p.9. K retschm er, H. Patterns of behaviour in coauthorship networks of invisible colleges.- Scientometrics, 40, 1997, 579-591.10. Tomov, D., P. M ileva. Historiography of scien­tific communications in the field of memory and blood-testis barrier.- Scr. Sei. Med., 32, 2000, 69-71.11. Tomov, D. T., S. G erasim ova. Computerized historiography of interdisciplinary collaboration in memory research.- In: Collaboration in Science and in Technology. Second Berlin Workshop on Scientometrics and Informetrics. Berlin, 1-3.IX.2000. F. Havemann, R. Wagner-Döbler, H. Kretschmer, eds. Proceedings. Berlin, Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsforschung, 2001, 185-196.12. Tomov, D., О. Persson. Institutionalization and in­ternationalization in the field of memory research.- Eur. J. Neurosci., 10. 1998, Suppl. 10, p. 152.13. Tom ov, D. Comparative scientometrics and dy­namic stratification in science.- Science and Science o f Science (Kiev), 3, 1994, No 5, 165-166.14. Tom ov, D., О. Persson. Internationalization of clinical and experimental memory research.- Scr. Sei. Med., 31, 1999, 159-166.15. Tom ov, D. Dynamic institutionalization of memory research. I. Role of hippocampus.- Scr. Sei. Med., 36, 2004, Suppl. 1, p. 38.16. Tom ov, D. Dynamic institutionalization of memory research. II. Cerebral cortex histology.- Scr. Sei. Med., 36, 2004, Suppl. l,p . 103.17. Uzun, A. Assessing intemationality of scholarly journals through foreign authorship patterns: the case o f major journals in information science, and scientometrics,- Scientometrics, 61, 2004, No 3, 457-465.69

International Visibility of Bulgarian Memory Research

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International Visibility of Bulgarian Memory Research

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