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Misjudgments and shortcomings in the measurement of scientific activities in less developed countries

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Abstract

The bibliographic database widely used for measurement of scientific production either for developed or developing countries isScience Citation Index. So then, in the case of LDCs only their negligible contribution to the “mainstream” of science is evaluated. Eight LDCs productivity as obtained fromSCI is compared to that from some international specialized or multidisciplinary databases, most of which give more information than SCI for each country. In the case of Cuba,Biosis and CA supply 17 and 15 times respectively more information than the SCI in the same period. The use of Cuban local database and its comparison with international ones is also discussed.

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Sancho, R. Misjudgments and shortcomings in the measurement of scientific activities in less developed countries. Scientometrics 23, 221–233 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020924

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