Biotechnology profile analysis in Colombia

It is widely accepted that biotechnology is a globally significant and growing research field. Because of its biodiversity, Colombia has a comparative advantage to innovate and commercialize biotechnological products and services. The aim of this study is to obtain a research profile and intellectual structure of the country in the biotechnology field by using bibliometric methods. These methods are needed to monitor the capacities and the compliance of national policies in biotechnology. By using records extracted from the ISI WoK database, this study describes the biotechnology publication trend, productivity and collaboration among institutions and countries, preferred journals, and the intellectual structure at the research subject area. Although, a growing trend in biotechnology publication was observed, the productivity is still low when compared to other countries in the region and the world. On the other hand, researchers seem to show a preference for international over domestic collaboration. The results suggest two elements: first, policy has not had the expected outcome in the short term, and second, a lack of internal collaboration could therefore reflect low endogenous capacities. The bibliometric methods used in this study can be applied to a wide range of research fields other than biotechnology.