Abstract
This research analyzes the coverage of Latin American and Caribbean journals in Google Scholar Metrics. It has identified the number of indexed journals by country and compared them with other databases (Scopus, Journal Citation Reports, and SciELO). The characteristics of publications are described based on research areas and subjects, impact (h5-index and h5-median), languages, periodicity, and productivity. Data from 8,205 journals from 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries were downloaded from Latindex. A Python script was used for automated titles search at Google Scholar Metrics, and 3070 (37.42%) journals were found. The journals from Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Cuba account for 88% of the total, and those in the arts & humanities, social sciences, and health & medicine account for 72%. Approximately 71% of journals are published by educational institutions and 75% have a periodicity of less than three issues per year. The impact is influenced by productivity and language, and the h5-index average is higher in the more productive journals and those published in English. Google Scholar Metrics is a relevant source for Latin America and Caribbean, since the broad coverage allows impact analysis for a larger number of journals. The limited resources for searching and filtering data and the lack of bibliographic control make it difficult to use for bibliometric purposes. Google Scholar Metrics is useful as an alternative source, and its limitations can be overcome with other tools.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their important comments and contributions. We are also grateful for the support of Thiago Magela Rodrigues Dias, professor at the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG), Heloísa Costa, adjunct professor at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), and Alexandre Ribas Semeler, data librarian at the Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFGRS).
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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.
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do Canto, F.L., Pinto, A.L., Gavron, E.M. et al. Latin American and Caribbean journals indexed in Google Scholar Metrics. Scientometrics 127, 763–783 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04237-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04237-x