La selección de la literatura científica en el ámbito biomédico: el factor de impacto

The main national and international databases on health sciences are revised in order to ascertain the criteria used for selecting their material -mainly journals- and the share of spanish and latin american journals in them. On the other hand the criteria used by researchers for selecting the information are analyzed as well as the reasons to explain the importance nowadays of quantitative indicators such as the so called “impact factor”