Rosely de Andrade Vargas

The role of National journals on the rise in Brazilian Agricultural Science Publications in Web of Science

Essential to economic growth in Brazil, agricultural research is one of the most productive areas of national science. In recent years, an increase in publications from the field on international databases has helped raise the country′s ranking in terms of global scientific output. This is attributable to factors such as the expansion of graduate programs, increased investment in research and the larger collection of Brazilian scientific journals in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The present study analyzes the influence of national journals on the performance of Brazilian output in Agricultural Science represented in WoS from 2002 to 2011, and raises new questions in the debate over the growth of Brazilian scientific output in the last decade. Based on an analysis of 42,106 articles with at least one Brazilian author, papers were mapped in order to identify and characterize the journals used for publication. Results show that the number of articles in the field increased 301.52% during the period studied, due to the expansion of Brazilian journals in WoS and an increase in the number of issues published by these journals. Following inclusion on the database, several journals increased their periodicity. Half of the output assessed was published in national journals, many of which have only recently been included in WoS, are edited in Portuguese and exhibit a low impact factor. The inclusion of new Brazilian titles on the database and changes to the periodicity of journals can be interpreted as signs of improvement in Brazilian agricultural science journals.

A produção científica do Rio Grande do Sul em Ciências Agrárias representada na base Web of Science

This paper characterizes the scientific output of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in agricultural sciences as represented in the database Web of Science between 2000-2010. Based on the analysis of 6,617 indexed documents, using Bibexcel, we identified types of documents, languages and journals most frequently used by authors to disseminate their research. The annual production growth and a list of the most productive institutions are also presented. The results reveal that agricultural research in Rio Grande do Sul, indexed in the Web of Science, showed a strong growth, increasing from 179 articles in 2000 to 1,107 documents in 2010. Scientific papers accounted for 92% of the publications. English and Portuguese were the most used languages by the authors. As to the journals, 18 out of the 20 titles most used by researchers are published in Brazil. The journal Ciencia Rural led the ranking of the most used journals, accounting 10% of total output during 2000-2010.

Neotropical Ichthyology: trajectory and bibliometric index (2003 - 2010)

The Neotropical Ichthyology journal was created in 2003 and soon became one of the main publications in its field as it is reflected in the number of articles submitted every year and the fact that it has been indexed by both SciELO and ISI. In order to understand the reasons for its trajectory, the journal history was recovered and bibliometric indices on author, citation and impact factor were mapped for the period between 2003 and 2010. A descriptive study on journal information source and a bibliometric study of the 388 articles published by the journal and the 642 articles that cite it have been carried out. Bibliometric analyses showed that 75.8% of the articles had been written by Brazilian authors and 91.3% had been published in collaboration. The journal was cited by 171 different publications from 28 countries, including renowned journals in the field. Self-citation accounted for 26.8% of journal citation. Analyses have been able to show that strict evaluation control and editing of the articles have contributed towards its success and internationalization.

A pesquisa brasileira em Ciências Agrárias na Web of Science: estudo bibliométrico da produção científica e colaboração (2000- 2011)

This paper presents an analysis of scientific output and collaboration of Brazilian agricultural research in the Web of Science (WoS) during 2000-2011. A total of 45,163 documents were retrieved. Data analysis was conducted with the use of softwares Bibexcel and Pajek. The results indicated that the number of Brazilian articles in the field of agricultural sciences indexed in WoS has increased by 344%; however, the main driver for this growth was the raise in the number of national journals indexed in the database. Although Brazilian articles have been found in 799 journals, from 46 countries, 53.5% of the total production was published in national journals, having low impact factor. The percentage of articles with multiple authors in the total volume of publications increased from 96.1% in 2000 to 98.4%, in 2011.The proportion of articles in collaboration between institutions rose from 47.3%, in 2000, to 64.2%, in 2011. However there was a decrease of publications with international collaboration of 21.7 % in 2000 to 15.4 % in 2011. The most important collaborative relationships were established with the U.S., France and Germany.

Science in South Brazil: Production overview between 2000 and 2010

The evaluation of scientific activity is essential in building R&D indicators which are used to ensure the distribution of resources, the development of national, regional and institutional policies and to assess the results of the implemented strategies. Recently, this type of evaluation has also become a point of interest for nations that present rapid expanding scientific output. This is the case of Brazil. However, in addition to data at national level, it is also important to identify the situation at regional level, since several Brazilian regions present a huge diversity. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the scientific output in Rio Grande do Sul, a state located in southern Brazil, indexed by Web of Science between the years 2000 and 2010, identifying characteristics such as the output size, document type, language and journal name. Bibexcel software was employed for analysis of the 41,552 references obtained. Results show a large growth of scientific output between years 2006 and 2009, the diversity of languages in which papers are published, the importance of journal papers and the prevalence of articles on Agriculture.