A bibliometric approach to research into fibromyalgia

Objectives: To obtain a general and updated vision of research into fibromyalgia for its better understanding. A productivity analysis (by year and author) and a content analysis (by journal and topic) was carried out. Methodology: The computer databases of the Web of Knowledge: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) of the Web of Science were used. For the exploration of the topics a content analysis was done on a sample of 356 articles, obtained using a simple randomized procedure based on a random number table (risk alpha = 0.05; z(alpha) = 1.96 approximate to 2; p = q = 0.5) with a sample error of 5%, with the purpose of reaching some general conclusions in the study of this topic area. Results and conclusions: Overall, 3,201 article references have been obtained. In the years 1998 to 2003 the production of scientific articles increased considerably (43.5%) in comparison to the previous period, from 1992 to 1997 (27.4%). In the past decade (1996-2005) the production of articles tripled with respect to the first fifteen years (1980-1995). There is an overall 306 different journals that publish on this subject. The topic area that received most attention has been the study of the physiopathologic mechanisms (31.01%). There is an increment in the articles of psychiatry and psycology in the last few years.