Research Article Scientometric analysis: Five years of genetic polymorphisms

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Scientometrics is a quantitative evaluation of scientific and technological activities. The main objective is to point the number of methodologies used in scientific studies or even the structure of several research centers. This type of metric study belongs to the area of sociology of scientific knowledge. It covers quantitative analyzes of scientific activities through the use of mathematical and statistical techniques for the development of the study. A literature review was conducted using the Genetics and Molecular Research (GMR) database. GMR is a fully electronic journal available at no cost to readers through the Internet at http://www.geneticsmr.org. We performed a quantitative analysis regarding genetic polymorphisms on the GMR scientific production between 2009 and 2013. We used the keywords polymorphism AND genetics OR molecular marker in order to conduct the literature survey. We found 423 articles related to genetic polymorphism and 87% were original articles. Six countries account for about 89% of publications and China is responsible for 56% of all publications. Moreover, the number of papers grew each year, from 3.8% in 2009 up to 35.5% in 2013. The organisms most studied in those articles were humans (61.2%). Techniques such as sequencing, RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism), SSCP (single-strand conformational polymorphism), RAPD (random amplified polymorfic DNA) and Multiplex were used, and these methods and their validation are efficient in the study of gene polymorphisms. Moreover, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the technique most used in the field of genetic polymorphisms (74%).