Scientific production of Bolivian universities

Jhossmar Cristians Auza-Santiváñez; María Victoria Santivañez-Cabezas; Aaron Eduardo Carvajal Tapia; Boris Adolfo Llanos Torrico; Germán José Martín Rico Ramallo; Judith Marlene Aliaga Ramos

doi:10.56294/dm202326

Authors

Jhossmar Cristians Auza-Santiváñez Universidad Mayor de San Andrés. Hospital del Gran Chaco “Fray Quebracho”. Tarija, Bolivia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7703-2241
María Victoria Santivañez-Cabezas Ministerio de Educación. Unidad Educativa “San Juan”. Tarija, Bolivia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0631-0950
Aaron Eduardo Carvajal Tapia Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de la Mujer "Dr. Percy Boland Rodríguez" Santa Cruz, Bolivia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4900-2299
Boris Adolfo Llanos Torrico Universidad Autónoma “Tomás Frías. Potosí, Bolivia https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5943-7642
Germán José Martín Rico Ramallo Universidad Privada del Valle, UNIVALLE. Cochabamba, Bolivia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2000-8547
Judith Marlene Aliaga Ramos Ministerio de Educación, Programa de Post-alfabetización. La Paz, Bolivia https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4092-3805

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56294/dm202326

Keywords:

Scientific production, Universities, bibliometrics, Bolivia, Science evaluation

Abstract

Introduction: Higher education is undergoing significant changes due to the existence of agents promoting substantial changes in universities.
Objective: To evaluate the scientific production of Bolivian universities in the Scopus database through a bibliometric study.
Methods: A descriptive bibliometric study was conducted. The time period analyzed was documents with publication dates between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2020.
Results: Private universities predominated in Bolivia with 54%, and the remaining 46% were public universities. The private university with the highest scientific production was the Universidad Católica San Pablo with 5.3%, followed by the Universidad Privada de Bolivia with 4.4%. Most articles were original, with 1,797 documents, 43,141 citations, and 24.01 citations per document, followed by conference articles.
Conclusions: The scientific production of Bolivian universities in Scopus during the 2000-2020 period had much lower indicators than expected, with low productivity and scientific performance. The universities with the highest scientific production over the 20-year period were the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, followed by the Universidad Mayor de San Simón. The number of published documents had a growth trend over time. Original articles predominated, and the predominant language of publication was English. According to the research area, the best indicators were in agriculture, social sciences, and medicine.

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