Bibliometric study on the scientific data made ​​at the international level and to the Spanish case. The quantitative studies of the scientific production constitute one of the basic indicators for the analysis and decision making in scientific policy.

• Study methodology
• Database updated
• Worldwide scope
• Results
• Thematic distribution
• Distribution by magazine
• Spain
• Distribution by thematic
• Distribution by organization
• Distribution by author

Study methodology


Database updated

The analysis ofscientific production on continental water has been realised through the database developed by the Institute for Scientific Information (Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), founded in 1960 by Eugene Garfield. Later was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992 and frequently is denominated like Thomson ISI. This Institute develops the Science Citation Index databasefrom a selection of aproximately 8000 scientific journals that represented the excellent in quality of articles. This database is available online through the Web of Science, through a service funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and allows free access to all the other academic organizations.

Time interval: 2003-2007

WORLDWIDE SCOPE

Results

Distribution by countries. The results show that the United States is by far the country that more publishes with 34% of the world-wide production. United Kingdom with (7%), Canada (6.8%), Germany (6.2%), Australia (6.2%), China (5,5%), France (4.5%) and Spain (3.7%). For the rest of the countries, the production is below these numbers.

Thematic distribution
 

Thethematic classifications that have been chosen are used by the ISI for their classifications. The topics are: environmental sciences, water resources, geosciences, environmental engineering, ecology, civil engineering, atmospheric sciences, limnology, occupational health and public health, geography and agricultural sciences. The results are shown in the graphs.

Environmental sciences, geosciences and water resources are the most productive subjects with 30, 16 and 12% respectively. The rest of categories throws values ​​below these figures.

Distribution by magazine

Really the differences are not too significant. These vary from 8% for the Journal of Hydrology to 2.5% for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.

SPAIN

Distribution by thematic

The distribution is similar to the observed at the global level. Hydric resources (24%), ecology (22%) and environmental sciences (20%) are the most productive disciplines by the authors.

Distribution by organization

The CSIC agglutinates a 20.7% of all publications, followed by the University of Barcelona with a 6.8% and the Polytechnic University of Madrid with 4.7%. The rest have a representation between 3.8 and 0.7%.

Distribution by author

Amils, R y Figueroa, J are the spanish authors that more have published on water issues in the period covered by the study.