Declaración de Sant Joan d’Alacant en defensa del acceso abierto a las publicaciones científicas, del Grupo de Editores de Revistas Españolas sobre Ciencias de la Salud (GERECS) / Declaration of Sant Joan d'Alacant in defense of open access to the scientific publications, from the publishers of Spanish journals group on (GERECS) health sciences

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[Internationalism and science. Social and scientific bases of the European information science movement]. / Internacionalismo y ciencia. Las bases sociocientíficas del movimiento documental europeo.

As part of a continuing line of research on scientific documentation we propose in this article a novel approach to the study of the European information science movement at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. We suggest that this movement took place within the context of increasing internationalism of scientific endeavours, a process which was paralleled by the standardization of units, weight and measures for the different sciences. We investigate problems arising from scientific communication in connection with other aspects apparently unrelated to Information Science. Specifically, we refer to conflicts between nationalism and colonialism; concordance and discord between science policy and the corporate interests of nonscientific associations; higher educational policy; the professionalization of sciences; and the economic interests at stake as a consequence of the use of different information models.

[The Royal Protomedicato Tribunal and the surgical profession in eighteenth century Spain]. / El Real Tribunal del Protomedicato y la profesión quirúgica española en el siglo XVIII.

Different approaches to the study of the Royal Protomedicato have not been entirely successful in defining its roles and connections with other organizations that controlled the practice of health professions during the Enlightenment. The loss of manuscript sources relating to the institution has been an almost insurmountable obstacle. In this study we examine the difficult relationships between the Protomedicato and the elite members of the Corps of Military Surgeons who made possible the implementation of a new model of training in surgery in Spain. The establishment of teaching imparted by the new colleges of surgery, together with the restrictions on access to the profession, drove a wedge into the traditional forms of control previously exerted by physicians through the Royal Protomedicato. These changes led to reforms in the tribunal.

[An unpublished letter by Ignacio María Ruiz de Luzuriaga (1763-1822) on the spread of vaccination in Spain (1801)]. / Una carta inédita de Ignacio María Ruiz de Luzuriaga (1763-1822) sobre la difusión de la vacuna en España (1801).

With this document we provide an initial study of the introduction of vaccination against smallpox in Spain. Despite the great number of studies on the topic, there is need for complementary research to examine in detail how, when, and with what means vaccination was introduced in and spread throughout the country. Doctor Ignacio María Ruiz Luzuriaga (1763-1822), a leading character in this process, was an ardent proponent of vaccination, and vaccinator to the court. Although he published nothing on the topic, he left behind several manuscripts, including reports and letters, that are held at the National Academy of Medicine in Madrid. We present one such letter, dated approximately in December, 1801, in which the writer gives an overview of the spread of vaccination and its proponents. Despite the inflated role Luzuriaga claims for himself, the text offers new information, and in particular, raises a number of questions (such as that regarding professional competition, the lack of a central vaccination committee, the role of enlightened bureaucrats, and communications with France during this period) which have yet to be examined in depth by Spanish medical historians.