Research in language therapy: An analysis of scientific literature 2005-2009

Background. There are few scientometric studies in speech pathology and audiology and therefore there is no evidence of the focus areas of research, as well as trends and behavior over time. Objective. Analyze the scientific production of clinical research in audiology, between 2005 and 2009, to characterize the bibliometric production and identify trends and growth in clinical research; to study the dispersion of the scientific literature and identify research cooperation. Material and methods. We analyzed the production of scientific literature clinical research in audiology areas, registered in PubMed-MEDLINE from the years 2005 to 2009. Results. We considered a total of 4127 publications. The analysis showed a higher number of publications for language and language disorders area, followed by hearing and hearing disorders and papers related to the swallowing and its disorders, in contrast to the fields stuttering and aural rehabilitation yielded the lowest values. No significant differences were comparatively in the number of publications between years. We noted an increased production of secondary epidemiological studies compared to clinical studies, however, clinical studies accounted for 42% of total publications and of these 42,4% were consistent with randomized trials. Most of the researchers were faculties affiliated, followed by health institutions and cooperation between both. Independent researchers and unconsolidated research networks presented the lower percentage of publications. Conclusions. The findings suggest that the capacity of audiologists to develop quality research, use, and transfer its results into clinical practice should achieve greater development.