The The evolution of neuroscience in Brazil – Comparative study with the other Latin America countries and BRICS - Update

Abstract

Background. Neuroscience is a fast-growing area, but there are scarce studies that evaluate this growth from a critical point of view, evaluating and comparing with other countries the number of studies published and relating it to the production of knowledge, inferred by the number of citations. Objective. To compare the academic production in neurosciences in Brazil with other countries of Latin America and BRICS. Method. A survey was conducted in the SCImago Journal and in the Country Rank on the scientific production of the 20 countries belonging to Latin America and BRICS from 1996 to 2018. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and variance analysis. Results. Brazil presented both the highest average production in neuroscience among Latin American countries (p>0,01) and has received the highest number of citations in published articles. Compared with BRICS, Brazil ranked second in both production and citations, preceded by China. However, no significant differences were found between the number of citations obtained in Brazilian, Russian and Indian studies. Conclusion. Brazil is the largest producer of knowledge in neuroscience in Latin America and the second among BRICS countries, which shows its potentialities in the scope.