The Brazilian dilemma: increased scientific production and high publication costs during a global health crisis and major economic downturn

Between 2002 and 2014, Brazil experienced tremendous growth in its production of scientific knowledge as a consequence of major increases in research funding (1). The economic performance of Brazil steadily improved during this period, which resulted in record growth in 2007 and 2008 (2). Large capital inflows into the scientific infrastructure contributed to a rapid modernization of labs that expanded capacity in many areas of science throughout Brazil (3). According to the SCImago database (http://www.scimagojr.com), in 1996 Brazil was ranked 21st among all countries worldwide in the publication of citable documents (8,652 articles, reviews, and conference papers) across all areas of science. The most recent SCImago analysis (2015) ranked Brazil in 13th place based on the generation of 61,122 citable documents, which represents a 7.0-fold surge in productivity. Over the last 2 years, Brazil has been immersed in a major political and economic crisis that has directly affected funding …