Analysis of production and scientific visibility of Ecuador in the Andean context (2000-2013)

A quantitative analysis of the scientific production of Ecuador in the Andean context is provided for 2000-2013, using data provided by the SCImago journal & country rank (SJR). We identified the indicators of absolute production and growth rate, and used three indicators to evaluate visibility: absolute citation, cites per document and international collaboration. We concluded that 1) Ecuador enjoyed positive growth in scientific production during the study period, except in 2010 and 2011; 2) it rebounded at the end of the period analyzed; 3) half of the production was in the areas of agriculture and medicine, which therefore appeared as the main areas of national scientific development; and 4) the most productive area, agriculture, was also the most cited.