Figure 1.
Evolution of publications by Brazilian authors on the seven neglected diseases covered by the DECIT/CNPq Program.
Publications were retrieved from Thomson Reuters' ISI Web of Knowledge using the queries described in Methods. The recent increase in the scientific productivity occurs in all diseases with the exception of schistosomiasis, which was not included in phase I of the Program.
Table 1.
Publications by disease and year by Brazilian authors for the 2001–2008 period.
Figure 2.
Components, dengue co-authorship researchers network, 2001–2008.
Each square represents one author and each line connecting two authors indicates the presence of at least one publication they have co-authored. Components are defined by the observed co-authorships for the period under analysis; authors in one component have no publication in collaboration with authors of other components. This dengue network includes 174 authors with 2 or more papers published during the 2001–08 time span and contains nine components (labeled I–IX). The areas of work of the minor components can be inferred from the analysis of the most frequent keywords listed in their publications: Component II: blood donors; Brasil; dengue virus nucleic acid test; dengue virus RNA; detection; development; high-throughput blood screening; Honduras; prototype transcription-mediated amplification assay. Component III: social representations; control activities; dengue vectors; plant vases; relationships; residents; Sao Paulo State. Component IV: classical dengue fever; dengue shock syndrome; liver transplant recipient; liver transplantation. Component V: antiviral activity; algal-derived DL-galactan hybrid; carrageenans; chemical structure; Meristiella gelidium; sulfated polysaccharides; virus serotype; vitro dengue virus infection. Component VI: high dosages; dengue hemorrhagic fever; gamma globulin; immunoglobulin; serious thrombocytopenia; treatment. Component VII: apoptosis; dengue virus fusion peptide; dengue virus infection; energy charge; HepG2 cell; lipid membrane; membrane fusion; metabolism; mitochondrial dysfunction; oligomerization; partition. Component VIII: Aedes aegypti; dengue Control Program; dengue transmission; environmental variables; health agents' work; population adherence; spatial analysis; spatial correlation.
Figure 3.
Cut-points, tuberculosis co-authorship institutions network, 2006–2007.
Each node represents an institution that published at least one article in the biennium 2006–07. Nodes in red are institutions that function as cut-points in this network: the Oswaldo Cruz Institute at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz/IOC) in Rio de Janeiro; the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine or Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp; the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES); the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG); the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); the University of Campinas (UNICAMP); the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto (USP/Ribeirão Preto); and the University of São Paulo in São Paulo (USP/São Paulo). The role of ITM as a cut-point derives from the article by da Silva et al, co-authored by seven authors from ITM, the Federal University of Rio Grande, RS, Brazil (FURG) and the Instituto Venezolando de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela (IVIC) [36]; in a similar way the paper by Pasqualoto et al links the University of Illinois to the TB network through the cut-point UNICAMP [37]. The large agglomerate of nodes is due to the article by Brudey et al [38] which has 66 authors from 42 institutions, two of them acting as cut-points (Fiocruz/IOC and ITM).
Table 2.
Geographic distribution of key network institutions conducting R&D on the neglected diseases of the DECIT/CNPq Program, 2001–2007.