Spanish Society of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (SERVEI) Bibliometric Study (2010-2015): What, How, and Where do Spanish Interventional Radiologists Publish?

PURPOSE: We analyzed the scientific production of members of the Spanish Society of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (SERVEI) from 2010 to 2015. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the indexed scientific productivity of all SERVEI members for the last 6 years as measured by bibliometric indexes. Different databases were used (e.g., PubMed, Scopus, Web of Knowledge) to retrieve the total number of publications, number of citations, and h-index. Every article was assigned the impact factor of its publication year and its corresponding quartile according to Journal Citation Reports. The relationships between all of these parameters and the Spanish region, the gender and age of the interventional radiologists (IRs), and their connection to the university environment were also studied. RESULTS: A total of 519 scientific articles from 247 SERVEI members working in 118 Spanish hospitals were included, an average of 0.3 articles per interventionist/year. Most of the manuscripts were published in impact journals (52.2%) and placed in the lowest quartile (Q4). Navarre, Aragon, and Catalonia were the regions with the highest publication rate during the period studied (1.7, 0.92, and 0.6 publications per interventionist/year, respectively). Only 57 articles (12.6%) were published in 11 of the 125 journals under the category of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and Medical Imaging according to JCR. CONCLUSIONS: The scientific production of the Spanish IRs in the last 6 years is difficult to interpret. However, more than 50% of IRs published one article in the last 6 years. Finally, it would be advisable to repeat this study over a period of time in order to compare.