Cross-sectional study of citations from Brazilian Vascular Journal and Brazilian authors between the years 2016-2024

Although the overall volume of Brazilian scientific research has increased over the past decades, for years there has been a noticeable lack of prestige attributed to national publications in favor of foreign journals. This dynamic has limited their influence and the development of Brazilian lines of research.

To analyze the references used by the Brazilian Vascular Journal (BVJ), in relation to its own journal of origin, in order to identify the representativeness and relevance of national journals.

A cross-sectional observational study was carried out, examining 13,633 bibliographic references cited in 582 articles from the BVJ, published between 2016 and 2024 and indexed in PubMed. The references were extracted and organized in a Microsoft Excel^® spreadsheet, in which the origin of each citation was verified, with an emphasis on identifying which were Brazilian and/or from the BVJ, in addition to searching for self-citations by the first author.

A total of 1,300 (9.5%) citations of articles from Brazilian journals were identified in the BVJ. The BVJ was the most frequently cited national journal, with 613 references (4.5%). It was observed that 189 (32%) of the articles analyzed did not include any national reference. The percentage of self-citations was 8%, showing a downward trend over time.

The low number of citations is consistent with what has been previously described in the national literature, which has warned of the same issue for 30 years. The decreasing percentage of self-citations may suggest greater diversity of sources used over the years. These findings highlight a culture of disregard for national journals, which hinders original research and compromises the development of research lines focused on the Brazilian population.