Englisch oder Deutsch? Die Sprache der Medizin aufgrund der in der Deutschen Medizinischen Wochenschrift erschienenen Literaturangaben (1920 bis 1995)

Abstract

AIM OF STUDY: To describe and analyse the frequency of English and German in the bibliographical references from the original articles published in "Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift" during the past 75 years (1920-1995). METHODS: The language of publication of 16,001 references from 800 original papers, at the rate of 50 articles per year at intervals of 5 years, was determined. RESULTS: The percentage of references in German has been decreasing during the whole studied period: 90.1% in 1920, 85.9% in 1935, 75.8% in 1950, 44.1% in 1965, 31.0% in 1980, and 16.4% in 1995. The percentage of references in English, on the contrary, has continued to increase: 3.2% in 1920, 10.6% in 1935, 21.5% in 1950, 50.0% in 1965, 66.2% in 1980, and 82.8% in 1995. CONCLUSION: Even though the importance of English has been increasing during the entire considered period, it did not clearly supplant German as the main language of medicine in Germany until 1975.

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