Abstract

ORJUELA ROJAS, Juan Manuel. Contributions of Countries with Low and Middle Incomes to Journals with the Highest Impact Factor in Psychiatry. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2010, vol.39, n.3, pp.610-616. ISSN 0034-7450.

Introduction: The wide gap in terms of research between high-income countries versus low and middle-income countries not only prevents the development of the latter in terms of evidence-based medicine, but also limits the understanding of psychiatry at a global level. This inequity is evident among the journals with the highest impact around the world, as they mostly publish articles from developed countries. Objectives: To review and discuss the issues involved in the publication of psychiatric literature among high, low and middle-income countries, as well as defining in simple terms the concept of impact factor. Method: Narrative review of the medical literature. Results and Conclusions: Over 90% of the literature found in the journals with highest impact factor in Psychiatry comes from high-income countries, while only about 6%-10% comes from low and middle-income countries, even though the latter represent 80% of the world's population. This shows an important publication bias, which significantly affects the international diffusion of studies conducted in low-income countries or in languages other than English, since journals with the highest impact factor are the main source of information and update of millions of psychiatrists around the world.

Keywords : Impact factor; developed countries; developing countries; psychiatry; serial publications.

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