COMPILATION OF REGIONAL BIBLIOMETRIC DATA USING THE CLASS AND PERIODIC DATABASES

Abstract

Traditionally, in order to know about scientific production in Latin American countries, bibliometricdata has been harvested using mainly international databases where Latin American journals arescarcely represented. At the National University of Mexico -UNAM-, two regional databases: Claseand Periodica, have been systematically compiling data from author’s affiliation of each articleindexed since its creation in the mid seventies. Both databases compile information from a selection ofLatin American journals with a multidisciplinary coverage. Currently, this data represent a criticalmass that allows knowing about the scientific productivity of Latin American institutions as well astheir works based on international cooperation. From the experience of producing these two databasesa reflection is made about the importance of having regional databases, with a long lifespan, as wellas the use of all the information compiled as a source to generate regional bibliometric indicators