COVID-19 in Latin America: A Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Publications in Health
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Miguel Gallegos 1 2 3 * , Mauricio Cervigni 2 3 , Andrés J. Consoli 4 , Tomás Caycho-Rodríguez 5 , Fernando Andrés Polanco 3 6 , Pablo Martino 2 3 , Viviane de Castro Pecanha 7 , Carmen Burgos Videla 8 , Roberto Polanco-Carrasco 9 , Adriana Marie Cusinato 2 10
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1 Universidad Católica del Maule, CHILE2 Universidad Nacional de Rosario, ARGENTINA3 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, ARGENTINA4 University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA5 Universidad Privada del Norte, PERU6 Universidad Nacional de San Luis, ARGENTINA7 The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA8 Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales y Educación, Universidad de Atacama, CHILE9 Cuadernos de Neuropsicología, CHILE10 Universidad de Palermo, ARGENTINA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global health crisis. The scientific community has responded with a sizable level of research and publications, many of which are beginning to be identified and analyzed in systematic reviews of the literature and bibliometric studies. No readily identifiable, comparable study focused on Latin American scientific literature has been undertaken thus far. Therefore, this article analyzes such literature, focused on COVID-19, and one that has been published in the scientific journals of the region. A search with the keyword “COVID-19” in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) database resulted in the identification of 261 documents. Following PRISMA guidelines, the total number was reduced to 117 for the purpose of the bibliometric analysis (i.e., elimination of preprint duplicates). Such analysis resulted in the following findings: 69 publications were editorial or individual commentaries, and 48 were original articles. The male authors totaled 280, contrasted with 169 female authors. Two Brazilian journals led in the number of publications: Cadernos de Saúde Pública and Clinics. Even though the Latin American scientific productivity regarding COVID-19 is not well represented in the different databases of the region, it is expected that these scientific publications will achieve increased visibility in the coming months. The article emphasizes the importance of systematic and bibliographic reviews of the scientific literature in Latin America in order to evaluate the public health achievements of the region.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Literature Review

ELECTRON J GEN MED, Volume 17, Issue 6, December 2020, Article No: em261

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejgm/8460

Publication date: 06 Aug 2020

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