This study analyzes the productivity and visibility of Spanish publications
in the area of clinical neurology in the period 2000-2009 and compared with those
for Italy, France and Germany. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used the database Web of
Science. The analysis (annual and in five-year) was restricted to the citable
documents (original articles, reviews and proceedings papers). Bibliometric
indicators used were the number of publications, citations received by
publications and Hirsch's h-index. We also assessed the slope of the annual
growth rate (b), the number of publications by language and the international
collaboration. RESULTS: In the period 2000-2009 there were 46,114 publications in
neurology clinic of which 6,998 were Spanish publications (h = 75), 11,629 in
Italy (h = 101), French 9,745 (h = 102) and 20,143 in Germany (h = 124). The rate
of increase in the total number of publications in Spain (b = 15) was lower than
that observed in Italy (b = 65), Germany (b = 61) or France (b = 34). In the case
of publications in English, the growth rate was higher for Spain (b = 37) than
for France (b = 36) but lower than for Germany (b = 54) and Italy (b = 65).
CONCLUSIONS: Although the total number of publications and the observed increase
are lower in Spain compared to Italy, France or Germany, the Spanish publications
in Clinical Neurology shows good trend indicators with regard to publications in
English and international collaboration. This improvement was associated with
greater visibility as showed by the five-year analysis of citations received by
Spanish publications