Brazilian knowledge production in the field of child and adolescent health.
OBJECTIVE
To assess (a) the trend of MEDLINE citation of pediatrics articles associated with Brazilian institutions from 1990 through 2004; (b) the number of Brazilian pediatrics articles published in journals with the highest impact factor; and (c) the regional distribution of institutions.


METHODS
PubMed search limited to ages 0 to 18 years, English language, MEDLINE and humans subsets, Brazilian affiliation. For each year, we compared the articles retrieved to the whole of MEDLINE citations with the same search limits, except for affiliation, as well as to the total Brazilian scientific production cited in MEDLINE, without age limits. We made a descriptive analysis, and used the chi-square test for trend. Data concerning publication in journals with the highest impact factor were aggregated into three-year periods.


RESULTS
A total of 7,222 Brazilian pediatrics articles were listed in MEDLINE from 1990 through 2004, corresponding to 0.95% of all articles concerning the age group from 0 to 18 years. There was a fivefold increase in the absolute number of Brazilian articles along the study period. The ratio of Brazilian to total articles increased from 0.51 to 1.60% (p < 0.01). Scientific knowledge production remains strongly concentrated in the Southeast of Brazil.


CONCLUSIONS
Brazilian research activities in pediatrics have had a steady upward trend, which relates to the proportional growth of the Brazilian scientific production as a whole.
Blank
Danilo
D
Departamento de Pediatria, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Rosa
Luciana O
LO
Gurgel
Ricardo Q
RQ
Goldani
Marcelo Z
MZ
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D015706:Bibliometrics; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D016239:MEDLINE; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012016:Reference Values