Perspectives and Evolution of Research in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Sciences in Latin America

Publications on cardiovascular research have significantly increased in Brazil and in most of Latin American countries over the past decade. According to the bibliometric study by Colantonio et al. published as a special article in this issue of the Brazilian Archives of Cardiology, this increase occurred at a mean percentage of 12.9% per year from 1999 to 2008. In the last five years, the number of publications in Cardiovascular Sciences has significantly increased in the same countries, reaching approximately 1,500 publications in this area of knowledge in 2013, according to data from the main international indexing systems such as Thompson-Reuters’ Web of Science and Elsevier’s Scopus-Scimago. These figures, however, still account for less than 3% of articles published in international journals indexed in the area of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Sciences.

The bibliometric analysis regarding publications on cardiovascular research in Latin America further demonstrates there is a close association between the Human Development Index (HDI) and the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the analyzed countries and the total number of studies published during the assessed period. This association was significant, with the sole exception of Brazil, which showed a much more significant participation in the number of scientific publications produced in the country than that expected by its level of development, accounting for more than 60% of all assessed publications. The growing increase in the number and quality of publications in Cardiology in our country is explained by the better qualification of Brazilian researchers as a result from the training provided by the Stricto sensu graduate programs and incentive programs aimed at scientific formation and production sponsored by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) and national medical societies.

[…]