A Bibliometric Analysis of Mexican Bioinformatics: A Portrait of Actors, Structure, and Dynamics

SIMPLE SUMMARY: This work analyzes the development of Bioinformatics research in Mexico through articles published in the last 25 years, as they have been stored in a field-specific database (PubMed). The main findings reveal that the main themes identified are strongly related to the research of outstanding researchers, the outstanding collaborations of Mexican institutions with foreign countries and institutions are influenced by the geographic proximity and binational agreements as well as philanthropic and academic programs that promote collaborations, and there is an inclination for health issues promoted by public health financing and philanthropic organizations. It is identified that publications in the field had an explosion since 2012 due to the maturity of nucleic acid sequencing technologies and the high availability of this information in public databases. Overall, this work suggests both the necessity to improve funding in this informatic discipline and promote academic collaboration inside and outside the country. Finally, the strategy used in this work allows us to make a diagnostic of the strengths and weaknesses of bioinformatics research development that can be applied in other countries. This is worth it because bioinformatics is a tool that can boost several economic sectors. ABSTRACT: Bioinformatics is a very important informatics tool for health and biological sciences, focusing on biological data management. The objective of this work was to perform a bibliometric analysis regarding the development of Mexican bioinformatics. An exhaustive revision of the literature associated with Mexican bioinformatics in a period of 25-years was performed. Bibliometric tools, such as performance analysis and science mapping were included in the analysis. We identified the main actors as well as the structure and dynamics of Mexican bioinformatics. Some of the main findings were as follows: the thematic structure in the field is defined by the research lines of outstanding authors; the outstanding collaborations of Mexican institutions with foreign countries and institutions are influenced by the geographic proximity and binational agreements, as well as philanthropic and academic programs that promote collaborations, and there is an inclination for health issues promoted by public health financing and philanthropic organizations. It is identified that publications had an explosion since 2012, we consider that this growth may be influenced by the democratization of data, derived from the mass sequencing of biological molecules stored in public databases.