COVID-19 in Latin America: A Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Publications in Health

GALLEGOS MIGUEL; CERVIGNI MAURICIO; CONSOLI A J. ; CAICHO-RODRIGUEZ TOMÁS; POLANCO FERNANDO; MARTINO PABLO; CASTRO PECANHA V; BUERGOS VIDELA C; POLANCO CARRASCO ROBERTO ; CUSSINATO A. M

Electronic Journal of General Medicine

Editorial Park

Lugar: London; Año: 2020 vol. 17 p. 1 - 7

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global health crisis. The scientific community has respondedwith a sizable level of research and publications, many of which are beginning to be identified and analyzed insystematic reviews of the literature and bibliometric studies. No readily identifiable, comparable study focusedon Latin American scientific literature has been undertaken thus far. Therefore, this article analyzes suchliterature, focused on COVID-19, and one that has been published in the scientific journals of the region. A searchwith the keyword ?COVID-19? in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) database resulted in theidentification of 261 documents. Following PRISMA guidelines, the total number was reduced to 117 for thepurpose of the bibliometric analysis (i.e., elimination of preprint duplicates). Such analysis resulted in thefollowing findings: 69 publications were editorial or individual commentaries, and 48 were original articles. Themale authors totaled 280, contrasted with 169 female authors. Two Brazilian journals led in the number ofpublications: Cadernos de Saúde Pública and Clinics. Even though the Latin American scientific productivityregarding COVID-19 is not well represented in the different databases of the region, it is expected that thesescientific publications will achieve increased visibility in the coming months. The article emphasizes theimportance of systematic and bibliographic reviews ofthe scientific literature in Latin America in orderto evaluatethe public health achievements of the region.Keywords: COVID-19, review, scientific publications, bibliometrics, Latin America