[Revista de Saúde Pública: forty years of Brazilian scientific production].
OBJECTIVE
To recognize the characteristics and path taken by the through analysis of the scientific production it has published over the period from 1967 to 2005.


METHODS
Scientometric methods were used to analyze reference data on the articles published in the Revista, retrieved from the databases ISI/Thomson Scientific (Web of Science), National Library of Medicine (PubMed) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO).


RESULTS
The Revista is the only Brazilian publication in the field of public health that is indexed by ISI/Thomson Scientific. It is prominent as a medium for publishing Brazilian scientific production in public health and is displaying a geometric increase in publication and citation, with annual rates of 4.4% and 12.7%, respectively. The mean number of authors per paper has risen from 2 to 3.5 over recent years. Although original research articles predominate, the numbers of reviews, multicenter studies, clinical trials and validation studies have been increasing. The number of articles published in foreign languages has also increased, accounting for 13% of the total, and the leading countries originating these are the UK, USA, Argentina and Mexico. The number and diversity of journals citing the Journal has been increasing, many of which are non-Brazilian. Authorship per author shows good fit to Lotka's Law, but the parameters suggest greater concentration and less dispersion than would be expected. Among the fields of interest of published papers, the following topics account for more than 50% of the total volume: infectious-parasitic diseases and vectors; health promotion, policies and administration; and epidemiology, surveillance and disease control.


CONCLUSIONS
The Revista shows great dynamism, without signs of abating or reaching a plateau any time soon. There are signs of progressively increasing complexity in the studies published, and more multidisciplinary work. The Revista seems to be widening its outreach and recognition, while remaining faithful to the field of public health in Brazil.
Pereira
Júlio Cesar Rodrigues
JC
Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. juliocrp@usp.br
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001938:Brazil; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D011634:Public Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing