- In 2019, 64,368 scientific papers were published1 and indexed by the World of Science base with at least one author based in Brazil, representing an increase of 6.9% over 2018, when there were 60,203.
- This number accounts for 2.8% of global scientific output, which totals 2.33 million papers per year
- Authors based in São Paulo were involved in 26,463 articles, representing 41% of Brazil’s total. The states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, and Paraná are next on the list, ranked by number of papers published by authors based in the state2
- In terms of population, Brazil publishes 30.6 articles per 100,000 inhabitants. This is the same as the global rate, at 30.3 per 100,000 people in the world in the same year, based on 2.33 million papers from a global population of 7.67 billion
- Among the BRICS countries3, Brazil is behind Russia, China, and South Africa, but well above India, which is lower than all the Brazilian states
- The Federal District leads the rate per inhabitant (98.2), followed by Rio Grande do Sul (72.6) and São Paulo (57.6), with São Paulo state universities playing a major role
- These states, in addition to Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Rio Grande do Norte, Santa Catarina, and Minas Gerais, publish more papers per inhabitant than the BRICS countries
