Bibliometry of the Revista de Biología Tropical / International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation: document types, languages, countries, institutions, citations and article lifespan.

The Revista de Biología Tropical / International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation, founded in 1953, publishes feature articles about tropical nature and is considered one of the leading journals in Latin America. This article analyzes document type, language, countries, institutions, citations and for the first time article lifespan, from 1976 through 2014. We analyzed 3 978 documents from the Science Citation Index Expanded. Articles comprised 88 % of the total production and had 3.7 citations on average, lower than reviews. Spanish and English articles were nearly equal in numbers and citation for English articles was only slightly higher. Costa Rica, Mexico, and the USA are the countries with more articles, and the leading institutions were Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico and Universidad de Oriente (Venezuela). The citation lifespan of articles is long, around 37 years. It is not surprising that Costa Rica, Mexico, and Venezuela lead in productivity and cooperation, because they are mostly covered by tropical ecosystems and share a common culture and a tradition of scientific cooperation. The same applies to the leading institutions, which are among the largest Spanish language universities in the neotropical region. American output can be explained by the regional presence of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Organization for Tropical Studies. Tropical research does not have the rapid change typical of medical research, and for this reason, the impact factor misses most of citations for the Revista, which are made after the two-year window used by the Web of Science. This issue is especially damaging for the Revista because most journals that deal with tropical biology are never checked when citations are counted for by the Science Citation Index.

The geographic distribution of Costa Rican velvet worms (Onychophora: Peripatidae).

Velvet worms, "peripatus" or onychophorans, are "living fossils" that were geographically widespread in Cambrian seas but now occur exclusively on terrestrial habitats. The only extant species studied in some detail are those from Costa Rica, but their real geographic distribution was in urgent need of revision. To solve this problem we visited the localities mentioned in all the original taxonomic descriptions and redescriptions. These visits covered a 25 year period (1988-2014) and included interviews with local residents. We also examined all Costa Rican collections, and checked the information in old maps and books. Here we critically review geographic data, correct errors, designed neotype localities, report on the survival of populations after heavy volcanic eruptions or urbanization, and present the correct geographical distribution for the seven currently described Costa Rican species.

[Do biological assemblages and ensembles really exist?]. / ¿Existen realmente los ensambles y ensamblajes ecológicos?

In recent years the terms assemblage and ensemble have become more frequent in the ecological literature. After analyzing the definitions of the words in the French original, as well as their use in English and Spanish and opinions on how they can be defined, I conclude that the words assemblage and ensemble rarely improve scientific communication and can be eliminated from most ecological articles. The few justified exceptions are articles in which the emphasis is on how taxonomically close species interact trophically.

[The invalidity of the impact factor as indicator of the impact of Latin American scientific journals]. / La invalidez del factor de impacto como indicador del impacto de las revistas científicas latinoamericanas.

Use of the Impact Factor is currently being discarded in industrialized countries where, to name one case, up to 40% of the articles published in Nature are never cited, despite the high Impact Factor of that journal. However, it is still used in Latin America to evaluate journals and authors, potentially influencing who are given positions and who receives funding. To find out how valid the Impact Factor is for Latin American research, 1 used the database BINABITROP to see how much of the relevant literature was used to measure impact. I found that the Science Citation Index (SCI) excluded 96% of the relevant literature when measuring the impact of biological articles about Costa Rica for the studied year (2011). Therefore, the impact of Latin American science is unknown and the Impact Factor should not be used to assess how often a journal, institution or author are cited.

Subject and authorship of records related to the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) in BINABITROP, a comprehensive database about Costa Rican biology.

BINABITROP is a bibliographical database of more than 38000 records about the ecosystems and organisms of Costa Rica. In contrast with commercial databases, such as Web of Knowledge and Scopus, which exclude most of the scientific journals published in tropical countries, BINABITROP is a comprehensive record of knowledge on the tropical ecosystems and organisms of Costa Rica. We analyzed its contents in three sites (La Selva, Palo Verde and Las Cruces) and recorded scientific field, taxonomic group and authorship. We found that most records dealt with ecology and systematics, and that most authors published only one article in the study period (1963-2011). Most research was published in four journals: Biotropica, Revista de Biología Tropical/ International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Zootaxa and Brenesia. This may be the first study of a such a comprehensive database for any case of tropical biology literature.

Use of a Geographic Information System and lichens to map air pollution in a tropical city: San José, Costa Rica.

There are no studies of air pollution bio-indicators based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Costa Rica. In this study we present the results of a project that analyzed tree trunk lichens as bioindicators of air pollution in 40 urban parks located along the passage of wind through the city of San Jose in 2008 and 2009. The data were processed with GIS and are presented in an easy to understand color coded isoline map. Our results are consistent with the generally accepted view that lichens respond to the movement of air masses, decreasing their cover in the polluted areas. Furthermore, lichen cover matched the concentration of atmospheric nitrogen oxides from a previous study of the same area. Our maps should be incorporated to urban regulatory plans for the city of San José to zone the location of schools, hospitals and other facilities in need of clean air and to inexpensively assess the risk for breast cancer and respiratory diseases in several neighborhoods throughout the city.

Highly cited tropical medicine articles in the Web of Science from 1991 to 2020: A bibliometric analysis.

BACKGROUND: An adequate response to health needs to include the identification of research patterns about the large number of people living in the tropics and subjected to tropical diseases. Studies have shown that research does not always match the real needs of those populations, and that citation reflects mostly the amount of money behind particular publications. Here we test the hypothesis that research from richer institutions is published in better-indexed journals, and thus has greater citation rates. METHODS: The data in this study were extracted from the Science Citation Index Expanded database; the 2020 journal Impact Factor (IF2020) was updated to 30 June 2021. We considered places, subjects, institutions and journals. RESULTS: We identified 1041 highly cited articles with ≥100 citations in the category of tropical medicine. About a decade is needed for an article to reach peak citation. Only two COVID-19-related articles were highly cited in the last 3 y. The most cited articles were published by the journals Memorias Do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (Brazil), Acta Tropica (Switzerland) and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (USA). The USA dominated five of the six publication indicators. International collaboration articles had more citations than single-country articles. The UK, South Africa and Switzerland had high citation rates, as did the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA and the WHO in Switzerland. CONCLUSIONS: About 10 y of accumulated citations is needed to achieve ≥100 citations as highly cited articles in the Web of Science category of tropical medicine. Six publication and citation indicators, including authors' publication potential and characteristics evaluated by Y-index, indicate that the currently available indexing system places tropical researchers at a disadvantage against their colleagues in temperate countries, and suggest that, to progress towards better control of tropical diseases, international collaboration should increase, and other tropical countries should follow the example of Brazil, which provides significant financing to its scientific community.

Costa Rica publications in the Science Citation Index Expanded: a bibliometric analysis for 1981-2010.

Despite of its small size, the Central American country of Costa Rica is internationally recognized as one of the world leaders in conservation and as the Central American leader in science. There have been no recent studies on the country's scientific production. The objective of this study was to analyze the Costa Rican scientific output as represented in the Science Citation Index Expanded. All documents with "Costa Rica" in the address field from 1981 to 2010 were included (total 6 801 publications). Articles (79%) were more frequent than other types of publication and were mostly in English (83%). Revista de Biología Tropical published the most articles (17%), followed by Toxicon and Turrialba (2.5%). The New England Journal of Medicine had the highest impact factor (53.484) with nine articles. Of 5 343 articles with known institutional address, 63%were internationally collaborative articles (most with the USA) with h index 91 and citation per publication 18. A total of 81% of all articles were inter-institutionally collaborative articles, led by the Universidad de Costa Rica. This reflects research and education agreements among these countries. Universidad de Costa Rica ranked top one in inter-institutionally collaborative articles, the rank of the total inter-institutionally collaborative articles, and the rank of first author articles and corresponding author articles. Studied subjects and journals in our sample are in agreement with dominant science fields and journals in Costa Rica. Articles with the highest citation were published in New England Journal of Medicine. The largest citation of medical articles reflects the general interest and wider readership of this subject. All corresponding and first authors of the high impact articles were not from Costa Rica. In conclusion, the scientific output of Costa Rican authors is strong in the areas related to conservation but the impact is higher for biomedical articles, and Costa Rican authors need to improve their position within research teams.

Bibliometry of Costa Rica biodiversity studies published in the Revista de Biología Tropical/International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation (2000-2010): the content and importance of a leading tropical biology journal in its 60th anniversary.

Central America is recognized as a mega diverse "hot-spot" and one of its smaller countries, Costa Rica, as one of the world's leaders in the study and conservation of tropical biodiversity. For this study, inspired by the 60th anniversary of the journal Revista de Biología Tropical, we tabulated all the scientific production on Costa Rican biodiversity published in Revista de Biología Tropical between 2000 and 2010. Most articles are zoological (62%) and 67% of authors had only one publication in the jounal within that period. A 54% of articles were published in English and 46% in Spanish. A 41% of articles were written in collaboration among Costa Rican institutions and 36% in collaboration with foreign institutions. The Collaboration Index was 2.53 signatures per article. Visibility in American sources was 56% in Google Scholar and 42.66% in the Web of Science, but the real visibility and impact are unknown because these sources exclude the majority of tropical journals. Revista de Biología Tropical is the main output channel for Costa Rican biology and despite its small size, Costa Rica occupies the 10th. place in productivity among Latin American countries, with productivity and impact levels that compare favorably with larger countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile.

Air pollution in a tropical city: the relationship between wind direction and lichen bio-indicators in San José, Costa Rica.

Lichens are good bio-indicators of air pollution, but in most tropical countries there are few studies on the subject; however, in the city of San José, Costa Rica, the relationship between air pollution and lichens has been studied for decades. In this article we evaluate the hypothesis that air pollution is lower where the wind enters the urban area (Northeast) and higher where it exits San José (Southwest). We identified the urban parks with a minimum area of approximately 5,000 m2 and randomly selected a sample of 40 parks located along the passage of wind through the city. To measure lichen coverage, we applied a previously validated 10 x 20 cm template with 50 random points to five trees per park (1.5m above ground, to the side with most lichens). Our results (years 2008 and 2009) fully agree with the generally accepted view that lichens reflect air pollution carried by circulating air masses. The practical implication is that the air enters the city relatively clean by the semi-rural and economically middle class area of Coronado, and leaves through the developed neighborhoods of Escazú and Santa Ana with a significant amount of pollutants. In the dry season, the live lichen coverage of this tropical city was lower than in the May to December rainy season, a pattern that contrasts with temperate habitats; but regardless of the season, pollution follows the pattern of wind movement through the city.

Which statistics should tropical biologists learn?

Tropical biologists study the richest and most endangered biodiversity in the planet, and in these times of climate change and mega-extinctions, the need for efficient, good quality research is more pressing than in the past. However, the statistical component in research published by tropical authors sometimes suffers from poor quality in data collection; mediocre or bad experimental design and a rigid and outdated view of data analysis. To suggest improvements in their statistical education, we listed all the statistical tests and other quantitative analyses used in two leading tropical journals, the Revista de Biología Tropical and Biotropica, during a year. The 12 most frequent tests in the articles were: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Chi-Square Test, Student's T Test, Linear Regression, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, Shannon's Diversity Index, Tukey's Test, Cluster Analysis, Spearman's Rank Correlation Test and Principal Component Analysis. We conclude that statistical education for tropical biologists must abandon the old syllabus based on the mathematical side of statistics and concentrate on the correct selection of these and other procedures and tests, on their biological interpretation and on the use of reliable and friendly freeware. We think that their time will be better spent understanding and protecting tropical ecosystems than trying to learn the mathematical foundations of statistics: in most cases, a well designed one-semester course should be enough for their basic requirements.

A new giant species of placented worm and the mechanism by which onychophorans weave their nets (Onychophora: Peripatidae).

Onychophorans, or velvet worms, are poorly known and rare animals. Here we report the discovery of a new species that is also the largest onychophoran found so far, a 22 cm long female from the Caribbean coastal forest of Costa Rica. Specimens were examined with Scanning Electron Microscopy; Peripatus solorzanoi sp. nov., is diagnosed as follows: primary papillae convex and conical with rounded bases, with more than 18 scale ranks. Apical section large, spherical, with a basal diameter of at least 20 ranks. Apical piece with 6-7 scale ranks. Outer blade 1 principal tooth, 1 accessory tooth, 1 vestigial accessory tooth (formula: 1/1/1); inner blade 1 principal tooth, 1 accessory tooth, 1 rudimentary accessory tooth, 9 to 10 denticles (formula: 1/1/1/9-10). Accessory tooth blunt in both blades. Four pads in the fourth and fifth oncopods; 4th. pad arched. The previously unknown mechanism by which onychophorans weave their adhesive is simple: muscular action produces a swinging movement of the adhesive-spelling organs; as a result, the streams cross in mid air, weaving the net. Like all onychophorans, P. solorzanoi is a rare species: active protection of the habitat of the largest onychophoran ever described, is considered urgent.

Urban vegetation change after a hundred years in a tropical city (San José de Costa Rica).

Urban vegetation is of key importance because a large proportion of the human population lives in cities. Nevertheless, urban vegetation is understudied outside central Europe and particularly, little is known about the flora of tropical Asian, African and Latin American cities. We present an estimate of how the vegetation has changed in the city of San José, Costa Rica, after about one century, with the repeat photography technique (based on a collection of 19th and early 20th century photographs by José Fidel Tristán and others) and with data from the Costa Rican National Herbarium. We found little vegetation change in the landscape of San José during the 20th century, where a total of 95 families and 458 species were collected in the late 19th and early 20th century. The families with most species were Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae, Lamiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Solanaceae, Cyperaceae, Acanthaceae, Malvaceae, Piperaceae and Verbenaceae. Similar results have been found in Europe, where the number of plant species often is stable for long periods even when the individual species vary.

Determinants of scientific output: an in-depth view of the productivity of tropical botanist and conservationist, Luis Diego Gómez Pignataro.

Bibliometric studies have found that male researchers have their greatest productivity around the age of 40, that female researchers produce less than their male colleagues, that incentives for collaboration are slow to affect productivity and that, just like humans, research institutes become larger, less productive, more expensive to maintain and less able to raise money as they grow old. Almost invariably, these conclusions come from statistical studies of large numbers of European and American scientists, and there are practically no studies about tropical researchers. We present an in-depth analysis of the productivity of an internationally recognized tropical botanist and conservationist, Luis Diego Gómez Pignataro, based on the totality of his published work and on our own knowledge, as co-workers and friends, of the life frame in which that scientific output was produced. His life output departs from the expected pattern in that he had the highest productivity before reaching the expected peak productivity age, and that when he reached it his productivity fell and never recovered. Furthermore, marriage did not produce the expected fall in productivity. A close analysis of his life indicates that in the middle of his career he switched to intense teaching and conservation activities, and this better explains why his output of scientific research articles was low afterwards. This switch may occur in other tropical scientists.

Comparative Animal Mucomics: Inspiration for Functional Materials from Ubiquitous and Understudied Biopolymers.

The functions of secreted animal mucuses are remarkably diverse and include lubricants, wet adhesives, protective barriers, and mineralizing agents. Although present in all animals, many open questions related to the hierarchical architectures, material properties, and genetics of mucus remain. Here, we summarize what is known about secreted mucus structure, describe the work of research groups throughout the world who are investigating various animal mucuses, and relate how these studies are revealing new mucus properties and the relationships between mucus hierarchical structure and hydrogel function. Finally, we call for a more systematic approach to studying animal mucuses so that data sets can be compared, omics-style, to address unanswered questions in the emerging field of mucomics. One major result that we anticipate from these efforts is design rules for creating new materials that are inspired by the structures and functions of animal mucuses.

Sex ratio in two species of Pegoscapus wasps (Hymenoptera: Agaonidae) that develop in figs: can wasps do mathematics, or play sex ratio games?

The fig pollinating wasps (Hymenoptera: Agaonidae) have obligate arrhenotoky and a breeding structure that fits local mate competition (LMC). It has been traditionally assumed that LMC organisms adjust the sex ratio by laying a greater proportion of male eggs when there is superparasitism (several foundresses in a host). We tested the assumption with two wasp species, Pegoscapus silvestrii, pollinator of Ficus pertusa and Pegoscapus tonduzi, pollinator of Ficus eximia (= F citrifolia), in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Total number of wasps and seeds were recorded in individual isolated naturally colonized syconia. There was a constant additive effect between the number of foundresses and the number of males produced in the brood of a syconium, while the number of females decreased. Both wasp species seem to have precise sex ratios and probably lay the male eggs first in the sequence, independently of superparasitism and clutch size: consequently, they have a non-random sex allocation. Each syconium of Ficus pertusa and of F. eximia colonized by one foundress had similar mean numbers of females, males, and seeds. The two species of wasps studied do not seem to adjust the sex ratio when there is superparasitism. Pollinating fig wasp behavior is better explained by those models not assuming that females do mathematical calculations according to other females' sex ratios, size, number of foundresses, genetic constitution, clutch size or environmental conditions inside the syconium. Our results are in agreement with the constant male number hypothesis, not with sex ratio games.

[Correct use of Spanish when writing biological papers]. / Uso correcto del español en la redacción de artículos biológicos.

We present a list of the most frequent errors in biological manuscripts written in Spanish, and we explain which are the recommended options. Our article is based on the International Codes of Nomenclature, and the guidelines of the Real Academia de la Lengua and the Council of Science Editors. We group the indications in four categories: lexical errors (e.g., English cognates); spelling (graphic accents, punctuation, font), morphology (use of prepositions) and style (linguistic economy).

Bibliometrics of Sudanese scientific publications: Subjects, institutions, collaboration, citation and recommendations / Bibliometría de publicaciones científicas sudanesas: temas, instituciones, colaboración, citas y recomendaciones

Abstract Introduction: Sudan is the third largest country in Africa and has rich reserves of petroleum and other ground resources, but its per capita Gross Domestic Product is only $808 and researchers work in insufficient institutional facilities and with little funding. Previous studies about its scientific productivity have been limited to specific subjects and relatively short periods, with no large analyses until now. Objective: To analyze the scientific output of Sudan in depth, considering all research areas and several decades of scientific activity. Methods: We retrieved the documents with "Sudan" in field country in the Science Citation Index Expanded for the period 1900-2019. Results: We retrieved over 9 000 publications and found that most were articles; that citation was higher for review articles and book chapters, and that this index mostly covered articles in English. Beginning in 1972, the number of publications in this database has increased rapidly. The citation lifespan indicates slow growth in the Sudanese scientific literature, and collaboration is frequent both nationally and internationally, possibly because the scarce resources make collaboration almost compulsory. Most external collaboration is done with Saudi Arabia but citation is higher for articles resulting from international megaprojects, led by Europe and the USA, in which Sudanese researchers play secondary roles. Research focusses on applied technological subjects with little innovation value. Women play a smaller role in Sudanese science. Conclusions: Our recommendations for Sudanese science include increasing the number of women in leading research positions; providing funding directly to researchers (i.e., bypassing bureaucratic bodies); increasing basic research to avoid stagnation; training Sudanese researchers for leading positions; and identifying specific research areas where Sudan can lead in its region.

Resumen Introducción: Sudán es el tercer país más grande de África y tiene ricas reservas de petróleo y otros recursos terrestres, pero su Producto Interno Bruto per cápita es de solo $ 808 y los investigadores trabajan en instalaciones institucionales deficientes y con poca financiación. Los estudios previos sobre su productividad científica se han limitado a temas específicos y períodos relativamente cortos. Objetivo: Analizar la producción científica de Sudán en profundidad, considerando todas las áreas de investigación y varias décadas. Métodos: Recuperamos los documentos con "Sudán" como país de origen en el Science Citation Index Expanded para el período 1900-2019. Resultados: Hallamos más de 9 000 publicaciones y encontramos que la mayoría eran artículos; que fueron más citados los artículos de revisión y capítulos de libros, y que esta base de datos cubría principalmente artículos en inglés; desde 1972, el número de publicaciones en ella ha aumentado rápidamente. La vida útil de las citas indica un crecimiento lento en la literatura científica sudanesa, y la colaboración es frecuente tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, posiblemente porque los escasos recursos hacen que la colaboración sea casi obligatoria. La mayor parte de la colaboración externa se realiza con Arabia Saudita, pero hay más citas para los artículos resultantes de megaproyectos internacionales, dirigidos por Europa y Estados Unidos, en los cuales los investigadores sudaneses desempeñan papeles secundarios. La investigación se centra en temas de tecnología aplicada con poco valor de innovación. Conclusiones: Nuestras recomendaciones para la ciencia sudanesa incluyen aumentar el número de mujeres en altos puestos; proporcionar financiación directamente a los investigadores (sin pasar por organismos burocráticos); ir más allá de la investigación aplicada para evitar el estancamiento; capacitar al personal sudanés para puestos de liderazgo; e identificar áreas de investigación específicas donde Sudán puede liderar en su región.

Half a century of Sri Lanka research: Subjects, researchers, institutions, journals and impact (1973-2019) / Medio siglo de investigación en Sri Lanka: temas, investigadores, instituciones, revistas e impacto (1973-2019)

Abstract Introduction: Bibliometric analyses of research in Sri Lanka, a lower-middle income island nation in South Asia, has focused mainly on medical research, concluding that there is a need for increased research productivity and impact, and for local solutions to health concerns. There has been no general bibliometric analysis across scientific disciplines in the nation, or any study that covers a long period of time to identify general time trends. Objective: To measure and analyse Sri Lanka research by focusing on subjects, authors, institutions, journals and citation for half a century. Methods: We used an advanced search method to extract publications with the word "Sri Lanka" in the SCI-EXPANDED, and calculated indicators such as total citations from Web of Science Core Collection since publication year to the end of 2019, citations in 2019, and mean citations per publication. Journal data were taken from 2019 Journal Citation Report. Affiliation re-classification was done to ensure consistency regarding the origin of all publications. Publications were further analysed based on collaboration, and first and corresponding authorship. Results: We retrieved 16 069 publications in 19 document types (77 % articles). Corrections had the highest number of authors per publication (616) followed by articles (116). Four articles had more than 5 000 authors and 593 articles had more than 1 000 authors. The highest citations in this database were for international megaprojects where Sri Lanka authors played minor roles. The UK had the most collaborative articles with Sri Lanka (19 %). The articles were published in 3 051 journals across 177 Web of Science categories. The category of Public, environmental and occupational health, with 193 journals, had 6.7 % of all articles, followed by environmental sciences (6.6 %). Conclusion: Sri Lanka has an unusually strong pattern of participating as small role players in international megaprojects about health and physics. Sri Lanka authors should be encouraged to expand their horizons by researching non-applied fields that are the basis of all innovation; to strengthen their own journals so that they have better visibility and impact, and to improve their positions in international projects that are published in larger journals.

Resumen Introducción: Los análisis bibliométricos de la investigación en Sri Lanka, una nación insular de ingresos mediano-bajos en el sur de Asia, se han centrado principalmente en la investigación médica, concluyendo que existe la necesidad de aumentar la productividad y el impacto de la investigación, y de soluciones locales a los problemas de salud. No ha habido un análisis bibliométrico general de disciplinas científicas o algún estudio que cubra un período largo de tiempo para identificar tendencias generales. Objetivo: Medir y analizar la investigación de Sri Lanka centrándose en temas, autores, instituciones, revistas y citas, durante medio siglo. Métodos: Utilizamos un método de búsqueda avanzada para extraer publicaciones con las palabras "Sri Lanka" en el SCI-EXPANDED, y calculamos indicadores como el total de citas de Web of Science Core Collection desde el año de publicación hasta finales de 2019, citas solo en 2019, y media de citas por publicación. Los datos de revistas son del Journal Citation Report 2019. Revisamos manualmente las afiliaciones para garantizar su coherencia, y, de todos los tipos de publicación, analizamos en detalle los artículos en función de la colaboración y la autoría. Resultados: Hallamos 16 069 publicaciones en 19 tipos de documentos (77 % artículos). Las correcciones tuvieron el mayor número de autores por publicación (616), seguidas de los artículos (116 autores en promedio); cuatro artículos tenían más de 5 000 autores y 593 artículos tenían más de 1 000 autores. Las citas más altas en esta base de datos fueron para megaproyectos internacionales en los que los autores de Sri Lanka desempeñaron papeles menores. El Reino Unido tuvo más artículos colaborativos con Sri Lanka (19 %). Los artículos se publicaron en 3 051 revistas de 177 categorías del Web of Science. La categoría d Salud pública, ambiental y ocupacional, con 193 revistas, tuvo el 6.7 % del total de artículos, seguida de Ciencias ambientales (6.6 %). Conclusión: En Sri Lanka hay una tendencia inusual a participar como pequeños actores en megaproyectos internacionales sobre salud y física. Debería alentarse a quienes hacen ciencia en Sri Lanka a ampliar sus horizontes investigando campos no aplicados, que son la base de la innovación; a fortalecer sus propias revistas para lograr mayor visibilidad e impacto, y a mejorar su ubicación en proyectos internacionales que se publican en revistas más grandes.