ENGLISH OR GERMAN - THE LANGUAGE OF MEDIC INE IN ORIGINAL PAPERS CITED IN DEUTSCHE-MEDIZINISCHE-WOCHENSCHRIFT FROM 1920 TO 1995

Aim of study: To describe and analyse the frequency of English and Ger man in the bibliographical references from the original articles publi shed in ''Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift'' during the past 75 yea rs (1920-1995). Methods: The language of publication of 16001 referenc es from 800 original papers, at the rate of 50 articles per year at in tervals of 5 years, was determined. Results: The percentage of referen ces in German has been decreasing during the whole studied period: 90. 1% in 1920, 85.9% in 1935, 75.8% in 1950, 44.1% in 1965, 31.0% in 1980 , and 16.4% in 1995. The percentage of references in English, on the c ontrary, has continued to increase: 3.2% in 1920, 10.6% in 1935, 21.5% in 1950, 50.0% in 1965, 66.2% in 1980, and 82.8% in 1995. Conclusion: Even though the importance of English has been increasing during the entire considered period, it did not clearly supplant German as the ma in language of medicine in Germany until 1975.