Latin America (LA) is a large multicultural region with nearly 600 million inhabitants, and significant heterogeneity between and within countries. Science in LA must adapt to the economic situation of the region; in fact, most of the scientific and technological productivity is concentrated in a few countries with only Brazil investment in research, development and innovation being greater than 1% of its gross domestic product (1). To complicate matters further, unstable political situations in some LA countries have contributed to brain drainage during the past century, having had this great impact in the development and advance of the region’s scientific enterprise (2). The promo¬tion of science and technology is one way of improving the living conditions of the population. When research and development is considered over time some of the LA countries show an increase greater than the growth of there own economies. In this context, by examining LA’s publication output and citation impact, an in¬crease in the scientific and output of several LA countries can be appreciated. In fact, there has been an increase in the number of publications from the region over the last 20 years; however this has not been accompanied by an equal growth in quality. While the total LA’s research output grew from about 2% of the world’s output in 1996 to 4% in 2012, this has not be accompanied by an increase in the citation impact relative to the rest of the world. Thus a large gap still exists between LA and most developed countries. Compounding this problem is the fact that, in general, LA research is underestimated because around one third of its publications are not indexed in major citation databases (3). So, in addition to publish in indexed journals, LA has to increase its output not only in terms of the quantity but also of the quality of its research in order to achieve a higher citation impact for its publications. Quality must be better recognized and rewarded in terms of academic advancement and research funding. In addition, researchers need greater institutional support, as well as better links to government, business and non-governmental organizations. Improving basic education, stimulating young people to seek scientific careers and better distributing the scientific enterprise across the countries in LA are also essential.

 
1. Van Noorden R. The impact gap: South America by the numbers. Nature. 2014;510:202-203.

2. Wiesel T. Fellowships: Turning brain drain into brain circulation. Nature. 2014;510:213-214.

3. Radosevic S, Yoruk E. Are there global shifts in the world science base?. Analysing the catching up and falling behind of world regions. Scientometrics. 2014;101:1897-1924.

 

 

Bernardo A. Pons-Estel
GLADEL coordinator
Hospital Provincial de Rosario,
Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina