Results of a Bibliometric Search about Longcovid and Zika Virus in Brazil

In recent decades there have been frequent spates of emergent diseases becoming health emergencies. Diseases such as Zika virus and COVID-19 became international health emergencies, with the latter turning into a global pandemic. In both of these cases, at some point Brazil was the epicentre of the disease spate. Besides, in both of these diseases there have been long-standing consequences that are not completely grasped by scientific knowledge. While science about these diseases have produced a substantial amount of knowledge, the role of the scientific community in the response to these public health emergencies and the related knowledge profile has been scantly studied through the lens of bibliometrics. This paper will examine the scientific output in relation to these diseases in Brazil, querying the Dimensions database. Dimensions is a data base centred on documents that present a Digital Object Identifier. For this reason it is particularly well suited to study the scientific production o intermediate countries like Brazil. We will pay particular attention to issues dealing with the co-production of knowledge. We expect to identify how widespread is the phenomenon of disease topic migration from the original disease, to long-term variants and in different emergencies from the perspective of Brazilian scientists. Within these patterns, we also wish to clarify with whom Brazilian scientists collaborate in terms of co-authorship, country of origin and institutions. We will pay particular attention to co-production with patients and patient association. We should also be able to identify what are the disease topics and the underlying fields of science across the different emergencies and whether changes occurred during or after disease outbreaks.