IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v115y2018i3d10.1007_s11192-018-2717-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Medical scientific output and specialization in Latin American countries

Author

Listed:
  • Grisel Zacca-González

    (National Medical Sciences Information Centre-Infomed)

  • Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez

    (CSIC, Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP)
    SCImago Research Group)

  • Benjamín Vargas-Quesada

    (University of Granada
    SCImago Research Group)

Abstract

“Smart specialization” allows one to identify national strengths and weaknesses within research fields and establish priorities accordingly. It may be a useful strategy for building scientific capacity in developing and peripheral countries. The objective of this paper is to characterize the scientific output and specialization of the most productive Latin American countries with focus on international collaboration and impact. We conducted a descriptive study based on the SCImago Institutions Ranking (SIR) portal, in the field of Medicine, for the period 2003–2013. The set of indicators applied was based on documents, citation, and collaboration. The results show that at the global level, Surgery, Cardiology, Oncology, Neurology, and Public Health are the most productive subjects in Medicine; in Latin America the most productive topics are Public Health, Infectious Diseases, Surgery, Neurology, and Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine. The most prolific countries are Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, though the ones having greater impact and more collaboration are Peru, Puerto Rico, and Argentina. The most productive and visible fields, such as Oncology, Cardiology, and Infectious Diseases, are related to major global health problems involving chronic and emerging diseases. This information could be useful to design pragmatic policies, to encourage research in key fields in order to respond better to the health needs of a given population.

Suggested Citation

  • Grisel Zacca-González & Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Benjamín Vargas-Quesada, 2018. "Medical scientific output and specialization in Latin American countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(3), pages 1635-1650, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:115:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-018-2717-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-018-2717-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-018-2717-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-018-2717-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rousseau, Ronald & Yang, Liying, 2012. "Reflections on the activity index and related indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 413-421.
    2. Jun-Ying Fu & Xu Zhang & Yun-Hua Zhao & Mu-Hsuan Huang & Dar-Zen Chen, 2011. "Bibliometric analysis of complementary and alternative medicine research over three decades," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(2), pages 617-626, August.
    3. Wolfgang Glänzel & Jacqueline Leta & Bart Thijs, 2006. "Science in Brazil. Part 1: A macro-level comparative study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 67(1), pages 67-86, April.
    4. Gómez-Núñez, Antonio J. & Batagelj, Vladimir & Vargas-Quesada, Benjamín & Moya-Anegón, Félix & Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Zaida, 2014. "Optimizing SCImago Journal & Country Rank classification by community detection," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 369-383.
    5. Taghreed Adam & Saad Ahmad & Maryam Bigdeli & Abdul Ghaffar & John-Arne Røttingen, 2011. "Trends in Health Policy and Systems Research over the Past Decade: Still Too Little Capacity in Low-Income Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-10, November.
    6. Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Grisel Zacca-González & Benjamín Vargas-Quesada & Félix Moya-Anegón, 2016. "Benchmarking scientific performance by decomposing leadership of Cuban and Latin American institutions in Public Health," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(3), pages 1239-1264, March.
    7. Xiaojun Hu & Ronald Rousseau, 2009. "A comparative study of the difference in research performance in biomedical fields among selected Western and Asian countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 475-491, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ernesto Galbán-Rodríguez & Deborah Torres-Ponjuán & Ricardo Arencibia-Jorge, 2021. "Multidimensional quantitative analysis of the Cuban scientific output and its regional context," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2643-2665, March.
    2. Hamdi A. Al-Jamimi & Galal M. BinMakhashen & Lutz Bornmann, 2022. "Use of bibliometrics for research evaluation in emerging markets economies: a review and discussion of bibliometric indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(10), pages 5879-5930, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dag W. Aksnes & Thed N. Leeuwen & Gunnar Sivertsen, 2014. "The effect of booming countries on changes in the relative specialization index (RSI) on country level," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(2), pages 1391-1401, November.
    2. Daniel Fink & Youngsun Kwon & Jae Jeung Rho & Minho So, 2014. "S&T knowledge production from 2000 to 2009 in two periphery countries: Brazil and South Korea," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(1), pages 37-54, April.
    3. Abramo, Giovanni & D'Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea & Di Costa, Flavia, 2022. "Revealing the scientific comparative advantage of nations: Common and distinctive features," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    4. Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Cassidy R Sugimoto & Vincent Larivière, 2019. "Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, June.
    5. Li Ying Yang & Ting Yue & Jie Lan Ding & Tao Han, 2012. "A comparison of disciplinary structure in science between the G7 and the BRIC countries by bibliometric methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(2), pages 497-516, November.
    6. Cinzia Daraio & Francesco Fabbri & Giulia Gavazzi & Maria Grazia Izzo & Luca Leuzzi & Giammarco Quaglia & Giancarlo Ruocco, 2018. "Assessing the interdependencies between scientific disciplinary profiles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 1785-1803, September.
    7. Harzing, Anne-Wil & Giroud, Axèle, 2014. "The competitive advantage of nations: An application to academia," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 29-42.
    8. Lawson, Cornelia & Geuna, Aldo & Ana Fernández-Zubieta & Toselli, Manuel & Kataishi, Rodrigo, 2015. "International Careers of Researchers in Biomedical Sciences: A Comparison of the US and the UK," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201514, University of Turin.
    9. Ponomariov, Branco & Toivanen, Hannes, 2014. "Knowledge flows and bases in emerging economy innovation systems: Brazilian research 2005–2009," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 588-596.
    10. Jacques Wainer & Eduardo C. Xavier & Fabio Bezerra, 2009. "Scientific production in Computer Science: A comparative study of Brazil and other countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 535-547, November.
    11. Mike Thelwall, 2021. "Alternative medicines worth researching? Citation analyses of acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, and osteopathy 1996–2017," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(10), pages 8731-8747, October.
    12. Zsolt Kohus & Márton Demeter & László Kun & Eszter Lukács & Katalin Czakó & Gyula Péter Szigeti, 2022. "A Study of the Relation between Byline Positions of Affiliated/Non-Affiliated Authors and the Scientific Impact of European Universities in Times Higher Education World University Rankings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-14, October.
    13. Bahaa Ibrahim, 2018. "Arab Spring’s effect on scientific productivity and research performance in Arab countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(3), pages 1555-1586, December.
    14. Júlio Cesar Rodrigues Pereira & Juliana Parreira Vasconcellos & Lucilla Furusawa & Augusto De Moura Barbati, 2007. "Who’s who and what’s what in Brazilian Public Health Sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 73(1), pages 37-52, October.
    15. Máxima Bolaños-Pizarro & Bart Thijs & Wolfgang Glänzel, 2010. "Cardiovascular research in Spain. A comparative scientometric study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(2), pages 509-526, November.
    16. Simone Belli & Joan Baltà, 2019. "Stocktaking scientific publication on bi-regional collaboration between Europe 28 and Latin America and the Caribbean," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1447-1480, December.
    17. Martin Grančay & Tomáš Dudáš & Ladislav Mura, 2022. "Revealed comparative advantages in academic publishing of “old” and “new” European Union Member States 1998–2018," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1247-1271, March.
    18. Jenny-Ann Brodin Danell, 2014. "Reception of integrative and complementary medicine (ICM) in scientific journals: a citation and co-word analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 807-821, February.
    19. Kosyakov, Denis & Pislyakov, Vladimir, 2024. "“I'd like to publish in Q1, but there's no Q1 to be found”: Study of journal quartile distributions across subject categories and topics," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    20. Joel Emanuel Fuchs & Thomas Heinze, 2022. "Two-dimensional mapping of university profiles in research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7215-7228, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Medicine; Bibliometrics; Subject categories; Latin America; Activity Index; Scientific output;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:115:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-018-2717-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.