Development of Status Paper on Health Related Research Papers Published in National and International Journal 2000

Abstract

Background: A great wealth of literature generated in the field of health science at a considerable cost of time and energy is lying scattered almost unknown and unused. There is hardly any bibliographic control especially in the field of periodic literature. Unnecessary duplication of work occurs for the want of proper bibliographic control. Scientific periodic literature is however, highly significant for the study of the development of scientific ideas in as much as contribution of Nepali health professionals to the growth and development of health literature can be determined to a large measure on its basis. Hence this study is proposed to undertake a bibliometric study of periodical literature in health science in Nepal. Methods: This study was conducted using scientrometric analysis. Each journal undertaken in this study was scanned and the bibliographic information from the relevant articles was noted down on the data sheets. For contents, each article was pursued and various subject headings from the article were noted down on the data sheets. Apart from this, MEDLINE and POPLINE database were also used for this study. Results: The study found that the top authors contributed most of the articles. Mapping of the subjects revealed that most of the authors concentrated on basic subjects which Nepal is facing like respiratory diseases, biopsy, immunization, bacterial study etc. Regarding the authorship, the trend has moved from single authorship towards multiple authorship. The authors in the Nepalese journals are in decreasing trend. The main reason being the articles published in Nepalese journals are not indexed in INDEX MEDICUS so the research type articles are published in foreign journals. Conclusions: The growth of literature in health science requires further investigation from the point of view of mathematical modeling. Keywords: authors; health science; periodic literature; research journals.