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Associate Professor Faculty of Pharmacy Université Paris-Sud 11 Châtenay-Malabry, France Head of Pharmacy Department Centre chirurgical Marie Lannelongue 133 Avenue de la Résistance F 92350 Le Plessis-Robinson, France fax 33.140948737 b.edouard{at}ccml.fr
Published Online, February 24, 2009. www.theannals.com, DOI 10.1345/aph.1L490
Methods: A systematic prospective analysis of 7 international pharmaceutical journals published in 2005–2006 was performed. All research articles in which the corresponding author was identified as a pharmacist were included. The following data were recorded for each article: geographic origin of the corresponding author (North America, Latin America, Oceania, Europe, Asia, Africa), country of the corresponding author, title of the journal, and number of non–English-language references.
Results: A total of 1568 articles were included; these contained
45,917 bibliographic references, of which 539 (1.17%) were published in
languages other than English. By geographic zone, this rate was heterogeneous
(homogeneity 
2 test; p < 0.001). North America
presented the lowest rate (0.30%) of non–English-language references;
significant differences appeared between North America and Europe (3.01%),
Latin America (7.66%), and Asia (0.58%). By journal, the percentage of
non–English-language references was also heterogeneous (homogeneity
2 test; p < 0.001).
Discussion: This study has several limitations. The greater frequency of non–English-language references in articles written by pharmacists whose first language is not English could be explained by self-citation of previous papers or citation of regulatory texts of the country in which the study was performed. The panel of journals was not proven to be representative of all international pharmaceutical journals, but English-language international pharmaceutical journals were included (according to the classification of the French Society of Clinical Pharmacy2), are edited in various parts of the world, cover a large range of topics, and are available in our university library (Table 1). Because only research articles (as defined by Palsdottir et al. and cited by Clyde3) written by pharmacists were analyzed, the results cannot be generalized to others types of articles or healthcare professionals.
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However, the results of this study showed slight differences between geographic zones: pharmacists from Latin America, Europe, and Asia are more likely to reference non–English-language articles in their publications than are North American pharmacists. A sub-analysis of major publishing countries revealed that pharmacists from the US, UK, and Australia almost never include non–English-language references in the bibliographies of their publications and that, on the contrary, pharmacists from countries where English is not the only language spoken (continental Europe, Canada, Japan) relatively often cite non–English-language articles (data not shown).
Possible reasons that most North American pharmacists do not include non–English-language references in the bibliographies of their published articles are as follows.
This question remains open.4,5
The results of this study show that non–English-language works are seldom cited as bibliographic references in articles written by North American pharmacists. This behavior is also frequent in articles written by British and Australian pharmacists. The role of native English language is probable, but the fundamental reasons for this restriction are not clear. The assistance of multilingual individuals to aid pharmacists who speak only English in accessing international literature should be considered.
References
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