The transformation of medical research in Mexico

A structural analysis of thematic domains, institutional affiliations, authors’ cohorts, and possible correlations

Bibliographic Data

ID21255792
AuthorsMatías Federico Milia (0000-0001-8474-5373, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México), Claudia González-Brambila (0000-0001-7633-5091, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México), Ángel Lee (0000-0002-2301-3598, Hospitales Regionales de Alta Especialidad), José Ignacio Ponce (0000-0001-8560-4556, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México)
Year2023
Volume4
Issue1
Pages262-282
Publication date2023-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuantitative Science Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2641-3337 • E-ISSN: 2641-3337
PublisherMIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/qss_a_00239
OpenAlexW4316014986
LanguageEN
References cited38

Global research on medical and health-related issues has experienced a profound reconfiguration over the last 30 years. The rise of new areas of inquiry has transformed the medical research landscape as staff with medical training gradually relinquished their prominence and specialists from other disciplines raised their profile within research teams. Given this, research priorities seem to be shifting increasingly towards laboratory-based and innovation-oriented research lines. The unfolding of these shifts in nonhegemonic countries such as Mexico is still to be understood. This paper surveys structural changes in Mexican medical research from 1993 to 2021 by observing temporal aggregation of authorships, emerging thematic features, and institutional affiliation patterns. It also explores correlations between these findings and their possible explanations. The results allow us to empirically describe significant changes in medical research done in Mexico. We detected periods of stability in authorship allowing us to describe stages in the accumulation of research and development (R&D) capabilities. The identified semantic patterns allowed us to characterize this transformation, observing subsequent stages of an accumulation and specialization process that began in the mid-1990s. Moreover, we found divergent thematic and institutional patterns that point towards a growing gap between research conducted in health institutions and scientific ones

Cartography · Geography · Medical research · Political science · Qualitative research · Regional science · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Thematic map · Health and Medical Research Impacts · Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life · Medicine · scientometrics and bibliometrics research

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access