Abstract
Latin America embodies countries of special interest for ecological studies, given that areas with great value for biodiversity are located within their territories. This highlights the importance of an evaluation of ecological research in the Latin America region. We assessed the scientific participation of Latin American researchers in ecological journals, patterns of international collaboration, and defined the main characteristics of the articles. Although Latin American publications have increased in fourteen years, they accounted up to 9% of publications in Ecology. Brazil leaded the scientific production in Latin America, followed by Argentina and Mexico. In general, Latin American articles represented a low percentage of most journals total publication, with particularly low expression in high impact-factor journals. A half of the Latin American publications had international collaboration. Articles with more than five authors and with international collaboration were the most cited. Descriptive studies, mainly based in old theories, are still majority, suggesting that Ecology is in a developing stage in Latin America.
Highlights
The overall scientific production of Latin American countries rose almost 200 percent between 1988 and 2001 (Hill 2004)
It is important to emphasize that we considered as LA authors those authors who were affiliated to Latin American institutions, regardless their nationality
Latin America is passing through a process of increasing number of publications in Ecology
Summary
The overall scientific production of Latin American countries rose almost 200 percent between 1988 and 2001 (Hill 2004). Brazil ranked first in Latin America and 17th in the rank among 146 countries in terms of overall scientific production, but drops off to the 91st position in terms of citation per article (data from a 10-year country ranking of ISI Essential Science Indicators consulted in June 2016; In-Cites 2006). Areas of special interest for ecological studies are located in LA countries, since within their territory there are seven out of 25 hotspots for biodiversity conservation priorities (Myers et al 2000). The evaluation of ecological research conducted in Latin America is useful to inform policy makers and support management efforts aiming mitigation of environmental pressure and conservation of biodiversity and natural resources (Martínez et al 2006). Thereby, the development of Ecology as a science must be a priority to LA researchers due to high anthropogenic alterations on natural environments (Toledo and Castillo 1999)
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