Bibliometric aspects of medical information in Arab countries.

This paper discusses the current state and development of health and biomedical literature in Arab countries. The study concentrates on the Arabic sources of medical articles, and surveys and analyzes the size of the literature and its development in the past 100 years. Two aspects of these sources are covered: the Arab medical information sources published within the Arab region, and those published outside the region. This includes the quantity of material available within and outside the Arab region. The size of the Arab medical literature indicates that it is worthy of collection. Treatment of the Arab medical literature, a pressing and urgent issue, is needed to assist in the research and development of an Arab medical infrastructure.