Spanish Scientific research in psychology: an analysis of the differences in the production and scientific collaboration

Abstract

[Introduction]: Scientific journals have a fundamental role in the different stages of the research activity, since they are the way in which researchers obtain recognition for their contributions to scientific progress. The publication of a work in a prestigious journal can help to increase the personal and social recognition of professors and researchers, also conditioning directly the progression in their academic career. One of the aspects that most differentiates some disciplines from others is related to the vehicle of dissemination of research results, but, in addition, in some disciplines, as in the case of Psychology, it is observed that there are also some differences in the publication habits and research dissemination. The objective of this work is to identify and characterize the publication habits of researchers working in Psychology at Spanish institutions.

[Methodology]: The data has been extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database. The period of the study covers the years 2008 till 2017. We identified the works published in Psychology journals that are included in the Journal Citation Reports (SCI and SSCI) throughout the period examined. The research analyses all the aspects related to the Spanish scientific production in Psychology in the 11 psychological thematic areas existing in the databases used as sources of information and those related to scientific collaboration, in order to know and to compare the differences between the diverse thematic areas dedicated to Psychology.

[Results]: 15,563 Psychology works carried out in Spanish institutions were analyzed. When the Spanish scientific production is analyzed according to the thematic areas (see Tables 1 and 2) in which the journals where these works have been published are included, it is observed that it is the category P. Multidisciplinary (6,297 papers), where more works have been published throughout the period analyzed; followed by the Psychology category of the JCR – SCI (3,875 works) and P. Experimental with 2,742 papers. On the contrary, the thematic areas with the lowest scientific output during the analyzed period are P. Psychoanalysis (68 works), P. Mathematical (298 works) and P. Educational (795 papers).

[Conclusions]: This study shows the existence of different production and collaboration habits among the specialties within the Psychology field. Therefore, it is concluded that it is necessary to find an appropriate method that can serve to evaluate the activity of the different specialties in the most objective possible way by taking into account each of the different characteristics and peculiarities of the 11 psychological categories available in the JCR