Trends of microalgae research in Brazil

Resumo

Microalgae is a generic term to classify microscopic algae and have been studied in many countries for a variety of applications, but no research about microalgae trends in Brazil was found. Thus, this study aimed to assess the interests of microalgae research in Brazil through a scientometric approach. The research was performed on the Web of Science choosing “microalga” on title and Brazil as author’s address. A total of 605 documents were found, whereas 83.8% were articles and English was the predominant language (93.6%). Brazil has collaborated with 35 countries and the most-collaborative was the United States. The most-productive institutions and authors were from the South and Southeast of Brazil, while women sum 45% of the most-prolific authors. In total, 371 research funding bodies were cited, Biotechnology Applied Microbiology was the most indexed Web of Science category, while Algal Research was the most-prolific journals. The most-cited keywords were biomass, biodiesel and wastewater. It is concluded that microalgae research in Brazil follow the trends of microalgae studies worldwide, there are national and international collaboration and even though the investments in research have decreased the number of publications keeps on growing.