Scientific production of midwives in Latin American obstetrics and gynecology journals indexed in Scopus.

Abstract

To describe the characteristics of the scientific production of midwives in Latin American obstetrics and gynecology journals indexed to Scopus during the period 2011 to 2016. This paper reports a descriptive bibliometric study, with intentional non-probabilistic sampling. We analyzed articles of research papers published by midwives in medical specialty journals in obstetrics and gynecology of Latin America indexed to Scopus, in the 2011 to 2016 period. We found eight obstetrics and gynecology journals in Latin America indexed in Scopus. There were 1,696 articles published between 2011 and 2016, of which 4.9% were authored or co-authored by midwives. Of these publications, 93.8% were related to topics of the specialty, 62.5% had midwives as corresponding authors, 64.1% of papers were in Spanish, only 3.1% were published in English, and 57.8% of midwives worked in Chile at the time of publication. In 2016, there was one-fifth the number of publications compared to 2012. We found little scientific production by midwives in Latin American obstetrics and gynecology journals indexed in Scopus. Strategies that encourage and allow research and scientific production by midwives are needed.