Cuban clinical trials published in international impact journals: bibliometric study of the period 1991-2001

Abstract

The aim of this work is to assess the scope of the clinical research performed by Cuban scientific institutions. A retrospective search about clinical trials published by journals indexed in MEDLINE and Science Citation Index was carried out, and 172 references to works published with the participation of Cuban research centers were retrieved. A group of 653 Cuban and 175 foreign authors were identified. The average of authors by article was 7,16, and the most common author groups were made up of more than six specialists. A total of 82 clinical trials were the result of collaborations between scientific institutions; 83 research centers took part in the trials, 36 of them from others countries. The reports about the 172 clinical trials were published in 96 journals from 17 countries, and the 74,4 % of the articles were written in English. Sixty-three therapeutic roducts, technics and procedures were tested in different types of patients, and 41 disorders were treated. Human adults, with a relative balance between women and men, were the subjects most frequently studied. The bibliometric study made possible to confirm the cuban advances as regards to the clinical trials execution for the authentication of products reached by the medical©pharmaceutical industry, as well as to define the research centers in the vanguard regarding this subject.