THE LANGUAGE OF MEDICINE IN AUSTRIA (1920 -1995)

The objective of this study was to perform a citation analysis of the frequency of the various languages used in the bibliographical referen ces of the original articles published in the Wiener klinische Wochens chrift during the past 75 years (1920-1995). The languages of publicat ion were recorded of 14,667 references from 800 original papers, at th e rate of 50 articles per year at intervals of five years. The percent age of references in German remained constant until 1946, but has been decreasing progressively since that time: 87% in 1920, 84% in 1946, 5 1% in 1970, and 20% in 1995. The percentage of references in English, on the other hand, has continued to increase, especially since 1946: 3 % in 1920, 9% in 1946, 41% in 1970, and 79% in 1995. Even though the i mportance of English started to increase as from 1946, it did not supp lant German as the main language of medicine in Austria until 1980 (th irty years later than usually accepted up to now).