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Benchmarking scientific performance by decomposing leadership of Cuban and Latin American institutions in Public Health

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Abstract

Comparative benchmarking with bibliometric indicators can be an aid in decision-making with regard to research management. This study aims to characterize scientific performance in a domain (Public Health) by the institutions of a country (Cuba), taking as reference world output and regional output (other Latin American centers) during the period 2003–2012. A new approach is used here to assess to what extent the leadership of a specific institution can change its citation impact. Cuba was found to have a high level of specialization and scientific leadership that does not match the low international visibility of Cuban institutions. This leading output appears mainly in non-collaborative papers, in national journals; publication in English is very scarce and the rate of international collaboration is very low. The Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kouri stands out, alone, as a national reference. Meanwhile, at the regional level, Latin American institutions deserving mention for their high autonomy in normalized citation would include Universidad de Buenos Aires (ARG), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (BRA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (ARG), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (BRA) and the Centro de Pesquisas Rene Rachou (BRA). We identify a crucial aspect that can give rise to misinterpretations of data: a high share of leadership cannot be considered positive for institutions when it is mainly associated with a high proportion of non-collaborative papers and a very low level of performance. Because leadership might be questionable in some cases, we propose future studies to ensure a better interpretation of findings.

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Notes

  1. The EPHF includes a methodology that allows countries to evaluate their public health capacity through a collective survey. Each indicator has a standard model and a series of measurements that describes in detail the capacities necessary for optimal performance of the function, in terms of structure, processes, and specific outcomes associated with performance. The specific indicators of the EPHF 10 are: development of public health research plans; development of the institutional capacity for research and advisory services and technical support for research at the sub-national public health entities.

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Acknowledgments

This work was made possible through financing by the scholarship funds for international mobility between Andalusian and IberoAmerican Universities and the SCImago Group. The authors appreciate the comments of the reviewers, which served to improve the quality and clarity of the manuscript, as well as the support in translating/editing of the manuscript by Jean Sanders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIC, Institute of Public Goods and Policies, Albasanz 26-28, 28037, Madrid, Spain

    Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Félix de Moya-Anegón

  2. Department of Teaching and Research, National Medical Sciences Information Centre-Infomed, Calle 23 No. 654 entre D y E, Vedado, CP 10400, Havana, Cuba

    Grisel Zacca-González

  3. Department of Information and Communication, University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Benjamín Vargas-Quesada

  4. SCImago Research Group, Madrid, Spain

    Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Benjamín Vargas-Quesada & Félix de Moya-Anegón

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  1. Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez
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  2. Grisel Zacca-González
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  4. Félix de Moya-Anegón
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Correspondence to Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez.

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Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., Zacca-González, G., Vargas-Quesada, B. et al. Benchmarking scientific performance by decomposing leadership of Cuban and Latin American institutions in Public Health. Scientometrics 106, 1239–1264 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1831-z

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