[Citation count as an international impact of scientific work and measure of individual influence on the development of a scientific field in Croatia].

The number of citations of a particular author is one of the most important criteria for his recognition in the international scientific community, as well as the key indicator of the importance of his scientific work. Our objective is to show the most prominent Croatian scientists actively working in institutions in Zagreb, Rijeka and Split. To obtain the data we used Source Index (SCI) for the period 1986-1996, as well as individual bibliographies given by authors themselves. Scientists that during 1986-1996 published eight or more scientific papers in journals indexed by Current Contents were analyzed. These papers should have been cited at least once in Science Citation Index 1992-1996. These criteria were fulfilled by ninety-four authors. Citation count was performed in Sci 1992-1996. Journal impact factors of the most cited articles were obtained and the average impact factor of all journals included in this analysis was calculated. Relatively small number of authors (17 out of 94 or 16.1%) have more than 100 citations. Less than 50 citations were counted for the majority of the authors (61.7%). Results show that the journal impact factor is not responsible for the quality of the paper. Our scientists have published papers in almost all leading biomedical journals. Some of these papers were frequently cited in the period 1992-1996, which points out their quality and actuality. Actively working in Croatian institutions most cited authors promote Croatian scientific work and develop our biomedical science and education.