In the present paper, the evolution of publication activity and citation impact in Brazil is studied for the period 1991-2003. Besides the analysis of trends in publication and citation patterns and of national publication profiles, an attempt is made to find statistical evidences of the relation between international co-authorship and both research profile and citation impact in the Latin American region. Despite similarities and strong co-publication links with the other countries in the region, Brazil has nonetheless a specific research profile, and forms the largest potential in the region.

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Brazilian science has increased fast during the last decades. An example is the increasing in the country's share in the world's scientific publication within the main international databases. But what is the actual weight of international publications to the whole Brazilian productivity? In order to respond this question, we have elaborated a new indicator, the International Publication Ratio (IPR). The data source was Lattes Database, a database organized by one of the main Brazilian S&T funding agency, which encompasses publication data from 1997 to 2004 of about 51,000 Brazilian researchers. Influences of distinct parameters, such as sectors, fields, career age and gender, are analyzed. We hope the data presented may help S&T managers and other S&T interests to better understand the complexity under the concept scientific productivity, especially in peripheral countries in science, such as Brazil.

That English is the lingua franca of today's science is an indisputable fact. Publication in English in international journals is a pre-requisite for a research paper to gain visibility in academia. However, English proficiency appears to be taken for granted in the scientific community, though this language can be a hurdle for a number of authors, particularly from non-native English-speaking countries. The influence of English proficiency on the publication output of Brazilian authors has never been assessed. We report our preliminary data on the relationship between the English proficiency of 51,223 researchers registered in the CNPq database and their publication output in international journals. We have found that publication rates are higher for those authors with good command of English, particularly written English. Although our research is still underway and our results are preliminary, they suggest that the correlation between written English proficiency and research productivity should not be underestimated. We also present the comments of some Brazilian scientists with high publication records on the relevance of communication skills to the scientific enterprise. Correspondence

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A definição de hospital universitário (HU) pressupõe a integração de ensino, pesquisa e assistência. Considerando essas atividades componentes da missão dos HUs, buscou-se analisar, na perspectiva dos gestores, como se configuram nessas instituições, na fundação e no presente. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com gestores de 13 dos 31 HUs gerais de universidades federais. Como material complementar, foram coletadas e analisadas informações oficiais extraídas dos sites dos 31 HUs. Por meio da técnica de análise de conteúdo, foi observado que, apesar de a maioria dos HUs já ter introduzido formalmente a atividade de pesquisa junto às missões de ensino e assistência, na prática, o binômio ensino–assistência prevalece como marca dessas instituições.