Abstract

GALEANO, ME; AMARILLA, A  and  PARRA, G. Scientific productivity of Paraguay in the field of biomedicine: a bibliometric analysis. Mem. Inst. Investig. Cienc. Salud [online]. 2007, vol.5, n.1, pp.26-30. ISSN 1812-9528.

In order to assess the scientific production of a country, it is usual to quantify and qualify the scientific research articles published by its researchers. The objective of this study was to identify the number of publications of Paraguayan authors indexed to the Pubmed database in the last 20 years, to determine its temporal distribution and the contribution of different institutions to scientific development of Paraguay. Thus, articles published between 1986 and 2005, and indexed in the PubMed database were retrieved using boolean operators. Seventy one (67%) out of 106 articles were published in the last 10 years (1996-2005), indicating an improvement in the biomedical sciences in Paraguay. Three of all the Paraguayan institutions had the highest numbers of published articles, and they belong to the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion being as follow: IICS (39, 6%), FCM (16%) and FCQ (15%). It is remarkable the great number of articles published by the IICS and FCM-76% and 88% from their total articles, respectively- in the last 10 years in journals indexed to Medline. Finally, 82% of the articles were published in journals with an impact factor (range 0,191-4,927), giving an average value of 1,932. Although this may seem as a low value in comparison to other countries of the region, it is still acceptable for a scientific developing country. Although a linear increment in number of articles annually published by Paraguayan authors it is actually registered, the scientific productivity in biomedical science in Paraguay is very low. Therefore, we believe it is important to promote it because the excellence in education and public health is essential for the social and economic development of the country.

Keywords : Bibliometric analysis; impact factor; articles; scientific productivity.

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