[Output and citation in public health: a perspective based on the journals Cadernos de Saúde Pública and Revista de Saúde Pública].

This is a comparative bibliometric study of the two main scientific journals in the Public Health field in Brazil: Cadernos de Saúde Pública (CSP) and Revista de Saúde Pública (RSP). Twenty-four issues of each periodical were analyzed, published from 1996 to 2003, comprising a sample of 819 articles (496 from CSP and 323 from RSP). The following elements in the articles were identified and analyzed: thematic area of the article and citation pattern of publications (articles in periodicals, books and/or book chapters, theses/dissertations, Internet documents, "gray" literature, and other types of publications). The resulting data showed that the majority of the articles represent the sub-area of "epidemiology". The citation pattern in the journals showed articles in periodicals in first place, followed by citations of books and/or book chapters. Papers in the sub-area "social sciences in health" published in CSP are exceptions, since books and chapters are the most frequently cited. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for the characterization and evaluation of scientific output in Public Health in Brazil.