Research Trends on Pathogenic Cryptococcus Species in the last 20 years: A Global Analysis with Focus on Brazil

Abstract

Aims: Recent data demonstrates that cryptococcosis caused by Cryptococcus neoformans or Cryptococcus gattii kills approximately 600,000 people per year in the world. In Brazil, cryptococcosis has recently been identified as the most fatal mycosis in AIDS patients. In this study, we aimed to map research into C. neoformans and C. gattii in the world, with a focus on the Brazilian contribution to this area. Methods: The parameters used for this analysis were based on publication records, including number of articles published, citation indices, journal impact factor and distribution of authorship in the last two decades. Results: Our global analysis of publications demonstrated that, in the last 20 years, the USA was the country that produced the highest number of scientific articles in the Cryptococcus field, while Brazil occupied the third position. Brazilian productivity, however, showed a steady tendency to increase, in contrast to the USA and other countries. The average impact factor of journals at which articles authored by Brazilians were published was 2.58, which represented approximately half the value found for papers of American authorship. Studies authored by Brazilian scientists showed relatively low averages of citations per article, in comparison to papers published by researchers from the USA, France, Australia, The Netherlands and Germany, among others. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the contribution of Brazilian scientists to the Cryptococcus field is continually growing, although papers produced in Brazil apparently have poor repercussion in comparison to those generated in developed countries.

Keywords:

• Brazil
• Cryptococcus gattii
• Cryptococcus neoformans
• publication records

Acknowledgement

We are thankful to A Casadevall, J Nosanchuk and M Del Poeta for continuous stimulation of cryptococcal research in Brazil. We are also grateful to L Nimrichter and A Schrank for their enthusiastic comments during development of this study. Finally, we especially thank the Brazilian agency CAPES for supporting the use of the Web of Knowledge database. We dedicate this work to LR Travassos, who pioneered studies on fungal pathogenesis in Brazil.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

ML Rodrigues is supported by grants from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil) and Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ, Brazil). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

ML Rodrigues is supported by grants from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil) and Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ, Brazil). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.