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Brazil's Scientific Research On The Rise, Thomson Reuters Study Finds

Posted on: Monday, 13 July 2009, 11:05 CDT

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters today announced the results of a study documenting Brazil's steady rise during the last two decades in both the volume and impact of its scientific work. According to Science Watch, these findings underscore Brazil's standing among the emergent "BRIC" nations. BRIC -- an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China -- are the countries possessing the resources and economic potential to capture a significant share of the world's future economic growth.

To assess Brazil's research, Science Watch turned to publication and citation statistics compiled in the Thomson Reuters National Science Indicators database.

The country's scientific output has increased dramatically. The number of published research papers with at least one Brazil-based author increased from just more than 3,000 in 1989 to more than 19,000 in 2007.

To examine output across various scientific fields, Science Watch compared Brazil's share of Thomson Reuters-indexed papers during two time periods, 1994-1998 and 2004-2008. Agricultural Sciences led the pack with an increase of 3.2 percentage points between the 1994-1998 period and the 2004-2008 period. Plant & animal sciences ranked second with a 3 percent increase and pharmacology & toxicology rounded out the top three with a 1.78 percent increase.

Science Watch also assessed the overall impact of Brazil's science by charting its combined citations-per-paper in all fields compared to the world average.

"Since 1985, Brazil has realized the highest overall impact average for any of the BRIC nations compared to the world average," said Christopher King, editor of Science Watch. "Although still registering below the overall world average for scientific impact, Brazil has been steadily rising towards parity since the late 1980s. It has moved from a score that was at 44 percent of the world average during the 1985-1989 time period to 63 percent of the world mark during 2004-2008. In recent years, however, Brazil's trajectory has been relatively flat, while both India and China are sharply rising in terms of impact."

For more information about Brazil's research output and impact, including expert analysis, visit Thomson Reuters' ScienceWatch.com.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

SOURCE Thomson Reuters


Source: PR Newswire

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