Análisis de la información científica publicada en el Brasil en cinco años sobre la enfermedad de Chagas, esquistosomiasis, malaria, leishmaniasis y filariasis / Analysis of scientific information published in Brazil in 5 years on Chagas disease, schistosomiasis, malaria, leishmaniasis and filariasis

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a quantitative evaluation of the scientific information produced in Brazil on several endemic diseases Chagas' disease, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, leprosy, malaria and filariasis. The source of data was the Index Medicus Latino Americano (IMLA), and the published scientific information was analyzed in general and specifically, by type of disease and year of publication. The indexed production of articles on the material of the Latin American countries as a whole increased from 3,506 articles in 1978 to 5,528 in 1982 (for an increase of 52.7 per cent), whereas that of Brazil alone rose from 1,781 to 2,531 (an increase of 42.1 per cent) during the same period. The output of articles on endemic diseases totaled 703 papers (6.3 per cent of the total indexed production). Of this total, 441 (62.7 per cent) was on applied research and 262 (37.3 per cent) were on basic research, and these proportions held relatively constant. Chagas' disease and schistosomiasis accounted for 75.2 per cent of that total over the period considered. The production of papers on the diseases of interest grew 79.2 per cent, at the same rate as that of all biomedical information published in Brazil over the period. An equilibrium was reached between the numbers of basic and applied papers. The analysis also identified the core of Brazilian periodicals that most frequently publish information on those endemics. It was also found that a large proportion of articles by Brazilian authors are published in journals of international circulation, and the foreign journals that publish papers by researchers in Brazil were identified (Au)