Revistas electrónicas manejadas por el alumnado de ciencias de la salud de las universidades de Vigo y Santiago de Compostela (España)

Abstract

Objective: To analyse the electronically published medical journals which Health Studiesí students have access to. Methods: Cross-sectional study. In September 2002, we carried out a study of the medical journals which were electronically available from the libraries of Vigo University, Santiago de Compostela University, and the C.H.U.S. Results: 384 internet-available medical journals were found. 51 (13,3%) were published in Spanish, 330 (85,9%) in English, 2 (0,52%) in French, and one (0,3%) in Portuguese. All of them provided an index, 365 (95,1%) an abstract, 68 (17,7%) the full text, and 71 (18,5%).when subscribed to. Conclusions: We find it striking that in Internet, more than 80% of English-written medical journals do not provide the full text, neither via free access, nor via subscription, whilst in Spanish there is a 50% distribution. It is also striking that the Spanish subscribed medical journals which provide the whole text are more than twice the English medical journals.