Visibility and impact studies of scientific journals are often made to assess their presence in one or more databases.1,2 Scientific production analyses of the different publications3 are able to inform the scientific community of the state of the art of research in a specific field.

The present letter presents a retrospective descriptive analysis of the publications appearing in the journal Medicina Intensiva and included in the Scopus database over the last 29 years (1988–2017). The investigation specifically focuses on the scientific production of authors pertaining to Latin American institutions.

The journal MedicinaIntensiva published 2955 articles included in Scopus during the period 1988–2017. Of these, 129 or 4.4% of the total corresponded to publications generated by Latin American institutions. In terms of the distribution by countries, Argentina generated the largest number of publications (n=48), followed by Mexico (n=19), while Brazil, Ecuador and Peru were at the end the list, with three publications each (Table 1).

With regard to the type of publications produced by authors from Latin American institutions, original papers were seen to predominate (n=80), with Argentina again heading the list. Letters to the Editor were less numerous (n=32), and in relation to this type of publication Mexico was seen to produce the largest number of contributions (Fig. 1).

Figure 1.

Estimation of the types of publication produced by Latin American institutions, distributed by countries.

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The results obtained show that MedicinaIntensiva has become a journal that generates and divulgates knowledge in the field of Medicine and intensive care.3 However the contributions of authors from Latin American institutions remain minimal. In this regard it is important to continue strengthening the exchange of new knowledge and to make the contribution of Latin American based studies known to the world.