In order to determine the characteristics of papers published in the rheumatological literature, we have conducted a survey of the seven leading rheumatological journals published in 1987; 1107 original papers have been reviewed and classified according to study design, statistical techniques, and country of origin. Almost half of the published papers were clinical descriptive studies without inferential power; both authors and editors should reflect whether the impact of these studies on the knowledge of readers justifies their frequency. Analytical research was represented mainly by randomized clinical trials (15.6%), and case control studies (14.2%). Cohort studies represented 5.4% and this seems a low figure in a specialty in need of more aetiological research. Almost half of the papers originated from the USA or the UK; journals edited in these countries published papers mainly from the same country. English language journals from other countries published a larger percentage of papers from other countries, including many non-English speaking nations. Bibliometric studies are desirable to evaluate trends in publication.