Objective: To analyze Spanish scientific productivity from 1999 through 2003 in the area of smoking research, in comparison with world and European Union research, based on data in the Science Citation (SCI) Index.
Material and methods: This bibliometric study was carried out by searching the title field of the Science Citation Index Expanded. Descriptive statistics with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were compiled.
Results: Two-hundred ninety-two documents on smoking by Spanish authors were located. The most productive subspecialties were the group comprised of public health, education and health economics with 57 articles, and areas of the respiratory system, experimental research, and internal medicine with 36 articles each. The journals that published the largest number of articles located were Medicina Clínica, with 35 articles (12%) and Archivos de Bronconeumología with 20 (6.8%). International collaboration was undertaken with institutions in the United States of America and other European Union countries. The mean (SD) number of citations received was 5.12 (8.6) (range 59-0). Spain contributed 8.34% of the SCI-indexed smoking research overall and 12.85% of SCI-indexed smoking research from the European Union.
Conclusions: Smoking research is developing appropriately in Spain and has high impact, even though output is modest. Factors associated with increased citation are international collaboration, language (being written in English), and having a non-Spanish first author.