What was the participation of Latin authors in TOP journals in internal medicine during 2021? A brief bibliometric analysis

Abstract

In the field of medical scientific research and publication, there are few Latin American countries whose production is remarkable, although not comparable to that of high-income countries. The lack of investment for innovation is recognized as the main cause. Despite this, there are Latin authors who are making their contribution to the scientific heritage with high-quality studies.1 But how much participation do Latin authors have in research published by TOP internal medicine journals? Answering this question is part of the actions to achieve the current goals set by academic medicine regarding scientific development of low- and middle-income countries.2

A bibliometric analysis was carried out based on the information available on the journals in the TOP five belonging to the subject area and category: internal medicine; according to the Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), in order to assess the participation of Latin authors during the last year (2021) in articles published in internal medicine journals with the greatest impact worldwide, according to 2020 metrics. The journals analyzed were selected based on SJR indicator, H index according to Scopus, highest percentile according to Scopus and H5 index according to Google Scholar: JAMA Internal Medicine (SJR: 5.140), Annals of Internal Medicine (SJR: 3.839), Hypertension (SJR: 2.986), Journal of Internal Medicine (SJR: 2.625) and Journal of General Internal Medicine (SJR: 1.746). Metrics and data on the number of published articles, participating authors, Latin authors and publications according to typology were extracted. The considered typology of publications for classification was: original articles, reviews (narrative, systematic and meta-analysis) and other types (any other type of manuscript, e.g. letters to the editor). The participation of collaborative groups was not considered.