The quality of social work production by spanish authors indexed in the ESCI

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Abstract

Introduction. With the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), Social Work studies in Spain reached a maximum level of development as undergraduate and postgraduate university studies (master's and doctorate degrees) have been established. This achievement fulfils a historical aspiration of the entire Social Work academic and professional community. Nevertheless, the Social Work discipline now faces the university's dominating research demands including the publication of papers in journals indexed in the world's major databases. Methodology. In this study, we analyse Spain's Social Work scientific production in journals indexed in the ESCI on an international scale. To do so, we studied 511 articles published between 2005 and 2020 which met the search criteria allowing us to identify this production. Results. The publications were analysed using the SPSS statistical analysis tool and the SCIMAT bibliographic analysis tool. The results indicated that Spanish production has grown significantly in recent years, though there is still a long way to go before its extent matches that of the main Anglo-Saxon countries, where Social Work research has a long history. Discussion. Authors must continue to publish in English and in international journals. The fact that Spanish journals are internationalising is not a sufficient reason not to pursue this challenge. We must continue to respond to it and mainly focus on increasing the number of articles published in English in journals with an impact index. Conclusions. The number of documents in Spain is not substantial, totalling 511 scientific publications over 16 years. The published papers are mainly in Spanish, with very few publications in English. The journals in which most articles are published are located in Spain, with Spanish being the preferred language. Regarding the sex of the main author of the articles, women publish more articles in English than men. In relation to the bibliometric quality indexes and the topics of the articles, Social Work production by Spanish authors in the ESCI is characterised by a low bibliometric index, as citations are scarce. Finally, in terms of the evolution of the topics, very little stability was observed over the different periods, with topics appearing and disappearing. The quality index of the topics with a constant evolution was also minimal.

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APA

Chaves-Montero, A., & Va´zquez-Aguado, O. (2021). The quality of social work production by spanish authors indexed in the ESCI. Alternativas, 28(2), 189–213. https://doi.org/10.14198/ALTERN2021.28.2.03

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