International trends in psychiatric research. A citation analysis

Purpose of review The state of research in psychiatry of different countries can be assessed using a database of the Institute for Scientific Information, which includes publications and citations taken from the peer-reviewed journals that are indexed. The aim of this paper was to comment on the international trends that result from a citation analysis of the psychiatric field. Recent findings The US and the UK were the leading countries both in terms of the number of papers and impact. However, in recent years, several European countries have displayed an impressive growth. Summary Citation analysis discloses very different patterns in the growth of research in psychiatry between different countries. Substantial differences in performances may reflect a number of phenomena, such as the efficiency of academic or research institutions and priorities in investments.