Bibliometric evaluation of Latin American contributions on COVID-19

Introduction: The propagation of COVID-19, an infectious disease caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, has become a pandemic which, along with its rapid dissemination worldwide, has brought about an exponential increase in the amount of research related to the subject to which Latin American researchers have contributed actively. Objective: To conduct a descriptive bibliometric study of the main trends in research on COVID-19 produced in Latin America. Materials and methods: We searched in the Web of Science, Scopus, and Pubmed databases to retrieve the Latin American scientific production on COVID-19. Bibliometric indicators of production, visibility, impact, and collaboration were analyzed to assess the regional participation in studies on the subject. Results: The analysis of 142 documents evidenced an exponential growth of scientific production in the period analyzed, an important level of international collaboration (51.4%) in scientific production, and the leadership of regional institutions (71%) in the research with publications in high-visibility jounals especially in Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. Conclusions: The results regarding the regional participation in the research on COVID-19 were relevant not only in relation to its quantity and exponential growth during the period analyzed but also in terms of its quality and excellence with a high rate of international collaboration and publications in important scientific journals, which besides their visibility, represent a considerable contribution to the research compared to the other geographical contexts.