THE LANGUAGE OF MEDICINE, BASED ON THE BI BLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES FROM THE ORIGINAL ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN MIDICINA-CLINICA DURING 50 YEARS(1945-1995)

BACKGROUND: To describe and analyse the frequency of the Various langu ages in the bibliographical references from the original articles publ ished in MEDICINA CLINICA during the past 50 years (1945-1995). METHOD S: The languages of publication of 12,807 references from 540 original works published in MEDICINA CLINICA between 1945 and 1995 were determ ined (at the rate of near 50 articles per year at intervals of five ye ars). RESULTS: The percentage of references in English increased const antly until 1980, hut has decreased since then (26.3% in 1945, 42.1% i n 1955, 57.7% in 1970, 84.2% in 1980 and 78.5% in 1995). In contrast, the percentage of references in Spanish decreased until 1980, but has increased since then (27.4% in 1945, 18.4% in 1955, 15.8% in 1970, 8.1 % in 1980 and 20.0% in 1995). initially the percentage of references i n French remained more or less constant, but decreased markedly from 1 970 on ward (23.1% in 1945, 22.5% in 1955, 17.1% in 1970, 5.9% in 1980 and 0.5% in 1995). The percentage of references in German decreased a lmost continuously during the whole period studied (19.6% in 1945, 10. 7% in 1955, 5.8% in 1970, 0.3% in 1980 and 0.3% also in 1995). CONCLUS IONS: In 1965, English became the undisputed language of medicine in S pain. The importance of English increased from 1945, then stabilised a nd even started to decrease in 1980. The importance of Spanish has evo lved inversely to that of English, decreasing until 1980 and increasin g since that time. Tile importance of French remained stable until 197 0, since when it has decreased, although it continued to be mentioned relatively frequently until 1990. The importance of German decreased c onstantly from 1945, until this language almost completely disappeared from 1985 onward.