Bibliometric study of the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria in the context of Spanish journals of Archeology and Prehistory collected by Scopus and InDICEs CSIC

The publication in 2018 of volume 75 of the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria [TP] provides the occasion for a complete analysis of its contents since its iception in 1960. TP's presence in documentary databases makes possible this contribution to the debate on the evaluation of scientific journals. The bibliometric study addresses the thematic evolution, the distribution of authorship and the impact through citations, according to the data that can be extracted from InDICEs-CSIC and Scopus. To place the journal in the context of the Spanish publications of archeology and prehistory, a comparison is made with other nine Spanish archeology journals present in Scopus and published between 2010 and 2018 by public institutions: Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina, Archivo Espanol de Arqueologia, Complutum, Lucentum, Munibe Antropologia-Arkeologia, Pyrenae, Saguntum, SPAL, and Zephyrus. The classification by periods of the articles that appeared in those 9 years clearly defines the thematic orientation of each journal. Their comparison allows a general characterization of the patterns of scientific publication in the last decade by archeologists oriented towards Prehistory or Ancient History, respectively. Consequently, the article is also a contribution to the history of science.