Assessing RU-486 Research Productivity Chiung-Yu Chiu1*, Lin-Chiao Wu1, Yee-Shuan Lee2 and Yuh-Shan Ho1# 1School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University 2Bibliometric Centre, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital Introduction The use of mifepristone as an abortion drug is still doubtable as an ethic issue and two decades after its creation, mifepristone becomes an option for women in the United States seeking an abortion. A brief history of mifepristone is listed: 1980 Mifepristone was first synthesized. 1983 FDA issued testing permit for mifepristone to the Population Council. 1988 France approved use as early abortion method. 1989 Bush administration banned importation for "personal use." 1991 United Kingdom approved mifepristone. 1992 Sweden approved mifepristone. 1993 Personal importation ban lifted by Clinton administration. 1994 Population Council conducted clinical trials at 17 U.S. clinics. 1996 New Drug Application for mifepristone-misoprostol medical abortions submitted. Six months later, the FDA issued an "approvable" letter asking for more information. 2000 FDA gave mifepristone final marketing approval. The purpose of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis on the publication pattern of documents related to RU-486. A clear domination should shown particularly in United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, and France. Methodology Documents extracted with following criteria: Science Citation Index documents Include keyword RU-486 Published from 1981 to 2002 Analysis based on: Citation per Publication (CPP) = Citation/Publication Yearly publication (P) Country of Origin Authorship US domination due to later approval Steady incline of yearly production Results Total production: 1805 Average yearly production: 150 98% were published in English Steady yearly production Main-stream country domination USA and UK accounted for more than 50% of total production Conclusion Steady production indicate RU-486 is not a recent research topic Searched under a brand-name rather than the content might introduce a different result Steady decrease of production after approval denoted the research mostly done for monitoring Domination of main-stream countries in production and citation All four countries were among the top 6 producing countries Reference http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_00/prl21023.htm