Costa Rican scientific output in health sciences indexed in Scopus, 2006–2025: a bibliometric study

Abstract

Objectives. To describe Costa Rican scientific output in health sciences indexed in Scopus between 2006 and 2025, and to explore bivariate associations between citation counts and international collaboration, publication language, and document type. Methodology. Observational bibliometric study with bivariate analyses. An advanced search was performed in Scopus on 01/10/2026 using: AFFILCOUNTRY("Costa Rica") AND (SUBJAREA(MEDI) OR SUBJAREA(NURS) OR SUBJAREA(DENT) OR SUBJAREA(HEAL)) AND PUBYEAR > 2005 AND PUBYEAR < 2026 AND (DOCTYPE(ar) OR DOCTYPE(re) OR DOCTYPE(le)). A total of 4,952 records were retrieved; 4,813 records with “Costa Rica” explicitly stated in affiliations were included, and 123 were excluded due to inconsistencies in affiliation metadata. Temporal trends and distributions by document type and language were described. Citations (Cited by) were summarized using medians and interquartile ranges. Bivariate analyses were stratified by five-year periods using nonparametric tests (Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis) with effect sizes (Cliff’s delta and epsilon-squared). Analyses were conducted in R. Results. Across all five-year periods, international collaboration was associated with higher citation counts (p<0.001). English-language documents had higher citation counts than Spanish-language documents (p<0.001). Reviews showed higher citation counts than articles and letters (p<0.001). Conclusions. In Scopus-indexed Costa Rican health sciences publications (2006–2025), citation counts were consistently associated with international collaboration, publication in English, and the review document type in five-year period–stratified bivariate analyses.