Scientific publication in requirements engineering in spain: an analysis in a european context

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study is to analyze the Spanish scientific publications in requirements engineering, comparing them with those of the European Union countries. METHOD: Identification, using several procedures, of 2625 publications with which the analysis has been carried out. RESULTS: Quantitative data about the volume of scientific publication, researchers’ productivity, publication patterns and collaboration patterns have been obtained for both Spain and the other European Union countries. CONCLUSIONS: Spain averages similar European countries in both volume of publication and researchers’ productivity. On the contrary, several drawbacks regarding publication and collaboration patterns were identified. Concretely, it has been observed that: (1) Spanish researchers publish an important percentage of papers in low-importance outlets and (2) collaboration with other researchers, either from foreign countries or industrial/commercial organizations, is particularly low, so that most of the papers are authored only by members of Spanish university research groups.