Bibliometric analysis of Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese Scientific Publications in the subject materials science, ceramics in JCR (SCI) database (1997-2008)

The Latin American scientific community is becoming increasingly significant in many areas, particularly, in the ceramic field because of its proximity to the processes of generation of infrastructure and housing demand in developing societies. The present study is devoted to determine the specific weight that each country, research institution and author have adquired. The thirty journals included in journal Citation Reports, under the category "Materials Science, Ceramics" along 1997-2008 period, have been selected and articles from Latin America and Portugal, have been analyzed Under a bibliometric approach. Thus, Within the document type "Journal Article or Review" 1423 papers have been collected and Studied from all institutional perspective; different bibliometric indicators (number of documents weighted impact factor, relative impact factor and the ratio between the number of citations and the number of documents) have been elaborated. Among the research centers showing a scientific highlight the most relevant is the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos (Brazil), followed by the Universidade Estadual Paulista and Universidade de Sao Paulo, both belonging to Brazil. The latter is also notable for its high weighted impact factor. Regarding publications, the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids ranked first, by bringing together the 20.45% of scientific production in Latin America and Portugal published in the JCR (1423 items). However, if data from Spain were collected, the magazine Bulletin of the Spanish Society of Ceramics and Glass, it is the most relevant, taking into account the higher number of articles (524), that represents for 19.68% of total records founded (2663). It has also confirmed a remarkable international collaboration, mainly with Spain, France, Brazil, USA, England and Portugal, and highlighting the situation of the latter country, carrying out 49.11% of scientific production analyzed in international collaboration. Finally, it was found that the annual impact factor of scientific publications has been a growing trend in all Countries and particularly, in Brazil.