IBERO-AMERICA IN MAINSTREAM SCIENCE (THOMSON REUTERS/SCOPUS): A FRAGMENTED REGION

In order to learn about the coverage of Ibero-American journals by the JCR 2012-Web of Science and SJR 2012-Scopus indexes, both indexes were examined during the first fortnight of September 2013, so as to find the number of Ibero-American journals, their field of knowledge and the quartile they are at. The number of Ibero-American journals in JCR amounts to 375, while in SJR it is 1044, there being an important concentration in Spain and Brazil. In order to observe the whole region in a horizontal perspective, we propose its division into three sub-regions: Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), Brazil and therest of Latin America. Iberian Peninsula and Brazil concentrate more than 60% of the publications, whereas in Latin America, the weight of Mexico, Colombia and Chile implies invisibility for other countries. The heaviest weight leans toward the natural sciences, with under-representation of social sciences and humanities, whose local/national journals are the most suitable channels to disseminate research results. Although some findings may be of interest to the international community, most of them are specific problems to their countries, where, the local media are the natural diffusion channel to disseminate its work, without being necessarily part of an worldwide scientific dialogue. At both indexes, the positioning of Ibero-American journals is very low, with only five Spanish journals in the first citation quartile in JCR, whilst in SJR there are 32 journals in the first quartile, of which 29 are edited in Brazil and Spain, and the rest are published in Mexico, Argentina and Peru.