ARCHIVES OF MEDICAL-RESEARCH - AN HISTORICAL AND SUBJECT COVERAGE OVERVIEW

A bibliometric study about the subject content of the articles publish ed in the Mexican scientific journal Archives of Medical Research is r eported. The journal, published by the Mexican Institute of Social Sec urity (IMSS), is comprised of 100 regular issues and 12 special supple ments giving a total amount of 1,424 reports on medical research perfo rmed in Mexico during the last 25 years. According to the type of stud ies published during this period, we found that there is a similar per cent of biomedical and clinical reports in the journal (47 and 42%, re spectively) and a low proportion of epidemiological and medical educat ional reports (8 and 3%, respectively). Six thematic areas of research have been permanently published in this journal: investigations on in fectious and neurological diseases being the areas mainly represented (34% of the total, corresponding to 17% in each area), followed by stu dies in reproductive biology (10%) and endocrine (7%), oncological (5% ) and cardiovascular (3%) diseases. The tendency of the subjects cover ed by the journal during this period shows an increment in reports on infectious and parasitic disorders together with an increase in public ations related to medicinal plant pharmacology; reproductive biology a nd endocrine studies show also an increasing tendency. On the other ha nd, a moderate decrease in studies related to neurological, oncologica l and cardiovascular diseases is observed, The origin of contributions during the last five years has balanced the proportion of papers publ ished from IMSS scientists, other Mexican biomedical researchers and f oreign contributions, thus reflecting favorably the recent changes in the journal's policies. This journal represents a clear example of a s cientific publication edited in a developing country, originating as a national publication that evolved progressively into an international biomedical journal.