Comparison of journals of suicidology: A bibliometric study from 2006-2010

Background: Three English-language journals deal explicitly with suicide phenomena. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has analyzed the subject content of these three journals. Aims: To review the abstracts of the three suicide-related journals in order to clarify the subjects of the papers. Methods: We examined all abstracts of every paper published in Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, Archives of Suicide Research, and Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior for the 5 years between 2006 and 2010, and categorized each paper by subject. Results: We found that the journals were similar with respect to subject allocation. Most papers dealt with epidemiological issues (32.7-40.1% of abstracts); prevention (5.8%-15.3%) and research (8.3%-10.6%) were next best represented subjects. Clinical papers comprised from 2.8% to 8.2% of the studies published. Conclusions: English-language suicide journals publish a preponderance of epidemiological studies. Clinical studies are relatively underrepresented.