The Participation of Ca2+ Channels in Epilepsy: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Literature in Latin America.

Background: Bibliometric analysis allows us to quantify and evaluate scientific activity, and it has become increasingly important in all areas of scientific literature. Thanks to these analyses, we can infer where science should put greater efforts into elucidating the underlying mechanisms of diseases that have yet to be fully described or investigated.

Objective: This paper delves into published articles related to the involvement of calcium (Ca²⁺) channels in epilepsy, which is a condition with a high prevalence in Latin America.

Methods: We followed the scientific publication on SCOPUS and analyzed the impact of publications from Latin America in the field of epilepsy and the study of Ca²⁺ channels. We identified the countries with the largest number of publications and found that 68% of them were experimental (animal models), while 32% were clinical. We also identified the main journals, growth over time, and citation numbers.

Results: We found a total of 226 works produced by Latin American countries from 1976 to 2022. The countries that have contributed the most to the topic are Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, with occasional collaborations between them to make contributions to the study of epilepsy and Ca²⁺ channels. Additionally, we found that the journal with the most citations is Nature Genetics.

Conclusion: The number of authors per article ranges from 1 to 242, and neuroscience journals are the preferred target for researchers, with a predilection for publishing original articles, although 26% of the publications are review articles.