Visibility of Latin American nursing research (1959-2005).

OBJECTIVES To analyze scientific activity in Latin American nursing using bibliometric indicators. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a quantitative, descriptive study of the universe of Latin American nursing journals (119) and scientific documents (13,208) published according to current library databases including: the Web of Science (WOS), Medline, LILACS, Periodica, Cuiden, and SciELO. A database was prepared using ProCite. RESULTS The PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) Open-access Directory of Latin American Nursing Journals includes the greatest number of the 119 journal titles (60%). The average journal longevity is 11.3 years and Brazil produces the greatest percentage (31.9%) of journals. Of the current journals, 55% do not have international readership. The non-Latin American countries that contribute most to document diffusion are Spain, the United States, and England. The doubling time of scientific production of documents is 7.3 years and the annual growth rate is 10%; 2% of researchers form the most productive group of authors. Only in recent years has the number of contributions to the ISI nursing category begun to stabilize. CONCLUSIONS Latin American scientific nursing production is still growing exponentially and Latin American nursing contributions to knowledge being disseminated through databases of recognized scientific quality seem to be increasing. The current scientific task is to organize and improve the publication processes. CLINICAL RELEVANCE We describe the conditions in which Latin American nursing research has become institutionalized, the challenges that it has faced, and the gradual incorporation of such research into international science.