Scientific production of Bolivian universities

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.