Scientific production about biofertilizer in Cuba in the 2008-2012 period: a bibliometric analysis of cuban journal

Abstract

The study aims at characterizing the process of the scientific research about biofertilizers in scientific magazines of Cuba during the period 2008-2012, by means of the analysis of bibliometric indicators, in order to determine the regularities of the scientific production by authors and institutions, as well as, the collaboration between provinces, institutions and other nations, in addition to the microorganisms and the crops more often investigated in this subject. As source of information, the author consulted the published in 14 scientific magazines certified by CITMA, as scientific and technological publications. For the analysis of the data Excel, ToolInf and Ucinet 6,0 were used. The year 2008 resulted to be the most productive; thought there was a decrease on the issue of articles about biofertilizers in this period. The Cuban provinces of Mayabeque, Havana and Villa Clara, are the productive centre of these researches. And the most active institutions were: INCA, INIFAT and the Faculty of Biology in the University of Havana, establishing strong collaboration links toward the western region of the country. Concerning international collaboration, Brazil and Mexico, were the countries which contributed the most to the scientific results with Cuban institutions through national publications. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor and Sorghum vulgare), rice (Oryza sativa), cabbage (Brassica oleracea), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum), maize (Zea mays), papaya (Carica papaya) and canavalia (Canavalia ensiformis) were the main agricultural farmings in which a greater number of biofertilizing microorganisms were evaluated; among which, the genus most frequently studied are: Glomus, Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, Azotobacter, Gluconoacetobacter and Pseudomonas.