title: Assessing the evolution of publications by Brazilian spine surgeons in the last decade.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the scientific contribution of Brazilian Spine Surgeons not only in number of publications but also in their quality between January 2000 to December 2011.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature search of publications by Brazilian spinal surgeons on topics concerning the spine or spinal cord was performed using an online database; Pubmed.gov. The results were limited to articles published from January 2000 to December 2011. A total of 1,778 articles were identified after a Medline search. After exclusion criteria, the study comprised 206 articles. The quality of the Journals was assessed with IF and the article quality using the Oxford classification.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An increasing number of publications by Brazilian spine surgeons was observed in recent years: 45.1 % of those papers were published during the last 4 years (2008-2011). Clinical studies and case reports were the most frequent types of article published (37.5 vs 31.1 %). An increasing number of Brazilian publications in non-Brazilian journals has been observed in recent years (linear-by-linear association: 5.449, P = 0.020). The Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria was the most frequent journal in which the papers were published (N = 67, 32 %). The IF of the publications varied from 0.021 to 8.017. The analysis of quality of the articles using the Oxford classification demonstrated that most of them provided LOE 4 (N = 113, 54.9 %) or 5 (N = 45, 21.8 %).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There have been an increasing number of publications by Brazilian spine surgeons in recent years and the quality of the articles published has improved. Also the number of publications by Brazilians in non-Brazilian journals has increased in recent years.
authors.affiliation: Medical Faculty of the University of Caxias do Sul, Rua General Arcy da Rocha Nóbrega, 401/602, Caxias do Sul, RS, 95040-290, Brazil, asdrubalmd@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Asdrubal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Falavigna
authors.forename: Ricardo Vieira
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Botelho
authors.forename: Alisson Roberto
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Teles
authors.forename: Pedro Guarise
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Helton Luiz Aparecido
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Defino
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001938:Brazil; D013502:General Surgery / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000601:surgery*