Scientific publications of European neurologists: a survey commissioned by the European Academy of Neurology

Background and purpose: Bibliometric searches may provide an indirect assessment of research in a field or country. The European Academy of Neurology decided to investigate how article production was developing in European countries, as an indicator of neurological vitality.

Methods: We searched two databases, Scopus and PubMed, for articles published by authors belonging to neurological institutions in all European countries, the USA, Brazil, China and Japan. The search assessed production in the period between 2000 and 2015. We calculated four indicators, i.e. gross neurological product (GNP) (which includes all articles published in any indexed journal), production in top neurological journals, GNP per inhabitant and GNP per gross domestic product.

Results: All indicators greatly increased over time. The European GNP paralleled that of the USA and was higher than those of the other countries. Restricting the search to top neurological journals showed that, since 2012, European production grew faster than that of the USA. Germany had the highest production within Europe, Switzerland had the best ratio between GNP and inhabitants, and The Netherlands had the best ratio between GNP and gross domestic product.

Conclusions: Although this search had several limitations, the results were so straightforward that we can conclude that European neurology is highly active in the world. Future analyses should compare neurology with other main medical disciplines.