[Analysis of literature citations in original articles published in Spanish and international nursing journals and journals in 2 closely related disciplines].

Objective: To compare Spanish nursing journals with 2 English-language standard journals, as well as Spanish journals in closely related disciplines, to identify possible quantitative and qualitative shortcomings in scientific documentation.

Method: We performed a descriptive, cross-sectional study of the references contained in 796 articles from 6 Spanish journals from 3 health disciplines (2000-2002) and 2 English-language nursing journals (2000-2001). The number of references, type of publication cited, and language of the document cited were compared in individual journals, and in journals grouped by discipline and according to language.