The 5/95 gap in the indexation of psychiatric journals of low‐ and middle‐income countries

Abstract

Mari JJ, Patel V, Kieling C, Razzouk D, Tyrer P, Herrman H. The 5/95 gap in the indexation of psychiatric journals of low‐ and middle‐income countries. Objective: To investigate the relationship between science production and the indexation level of low‐ and middle‐income countries (LAMIC) journals in international databases. Method: Indicators of productivity in research were based on the number of articles produced over the 1994–2004 period. A survey in both Medline and ISI/Thomson was conducted to identify journals according to their country of origin. A WPA Task Force designed a collaborative process to assess distribution and quality of non‐indexed LAMIC journals. Results: Twenty LAMIC were found to present more than 100 publications and a total of 222 indexed psychiatric journals were found, but only nine were from LAMIC. The Task Force received 26 questionnaires from editors of non‐indexed journals, and concluded that five journals would meet criteria for indexation. Conclusion: Barriers to indexation of journals contribute to the difficulties in achieving fair representation in the main literature databases for the scientific production in these countries.