• Sarah Mendoza-Parra, Tatiana Paravic-Klijn, Ana María Muñoz-Muñoz, Omar A Barriga, and Evaristo Jiménez-Contreras.
• Departamento de Enfermería, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile. smendoza@udec.cl
• J Nurs Scholarsh. 2009 Mar 1; 41 (1): 54-63.

ObjectivesTo analyze scientific activity in Latin American nursing using bibliometric indicators.Materials And MethodsThis 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.ResultsThe 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.ConclusionsLatin 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 RelevanceWe 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.

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