Scientific output of Brazilian dermatologists during the last 25 years in the five highest impact factor journals in dermatology.

BACKGROUND

The qualitative and quantitative scientific output of Brazilian dermatologists in journals of high impact factor is little known.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the scientific output of dermatologists from Brazilian institutions in journals of high impact factor.

METHODS

The five journals with the highest impact factor in dermatology were analyzed. All articles produced from Brazilian institutions between 1986 and 2010 were compiled and the following aspects were analyzed: position of Brazilian researchers in the list of authors, selected theme, experimental design, studied disease, area of interest and year of publication.

RESULTS

Seventy-four articles written with the participation of Brazilian dermatologists have been identified. Upon grouping the articles in five-year periods, an important increase was observed in the Brazilian production from the year 2006 onwards. The dermatologists were placed as second authors in the majority of cases (53.66%). According to the selected theme to be studied, the majority of the articles had a laboratory focus (45.95%). The majority of the articles reported cross-sectional studies or non-controlled clinical trials (both at 17.57%), and pemphigus foliaceus was the most studied disease (29.73%).

CONCLUSION

The increase in the number of publications by Brazilian dermatologists over the last years is encouraging, but it is still small in comparison to the total number of articles published in these five periodicals.