Scientific research in malaria: Bibliometric assessment of the Latin-American contributions

Background: Malaria is a parasitic disease of high global impact in public health, including Latin America. There should be more researched, particularly in this region. A bibliometric assessment of the Latin American contributions about malaria was done. Methods: Bibliometric study at SCI (1980-2013), MEDLINE/ GOPUBMED (1802-2013), Scopus (1959-2013), SCIELO (2004-2013), LILACS (1980-2013). The studies were characterized by study type, year of publication, city/country of origin, journals and more productive authors, citations and H index. Results: At SCI, 2,806 articles were retrieved (5.13% of the total). Brazil was the highest producer (31.41%), followed by Colombia (14.3%) and Mexico (9.5%). The region received 39,894 citations, 32.2% from Brazil (H index=51), 12.75% Mexico (H index=38), 11.2% Colombia (H index=33). At Scopus, there are 4,150 articles (4.9% of the total), 33.0% Brazil, 11.3% Colombia and 8.8% Mexico; 17% in Brazil were from Universidad de São Paulo; 23.6% of Colombia from Universidad de Antioquia; 15.4% of Mexico from Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública. At Medline there were 4,278 records (36.8% Brazil). At SciELO there are 792 records (45.3% Brazil). At LILACS there were 1744 records (34.3% Brazil). Conclusions: Brazil has the highest output of the region, as Venezuela the scientific production in Malaria was related with the burden of disease. This was not the case for Colombia. Scientific production at bibliographical databases, particularly regionals, is low, compared to the high incidence of this disease that requires more research and control.