PRODUÇÃO CIENTÍFICA DE FARMACOVIGILÂNCIA: PERFIL E TENDÊNCIAS.

Introduction: The scientific field of pharmaceutical care following an upward trend in the number of publications and citations exponentially. Within this scientific field, pharmacovigilance deserves attention because it is an indispensable activity to health regulation in any country. The aim of this article is describe the characteristics of scientific production of pharmacovigilance in journals of global significance, in timeline and citations. Materials and Methods: Using Scopus database and the descriptor pharmacovigilancy, the analysis of absolute and relative frequency were used to the following variables: author, year, journal, and country of origin, type of document, Impact Factor, thematic area and number of citations. Results: We found 3,410 documents in the 1973-2012 period, with a predominance of the 2001 to 2012 period, representing 77.1%. The average quote was 256.4 and median was 218.5. Discussion: Although the production has an Impact Factor and a significant number of citations, it was observed that the influence of journals and their articles is relatively low in the world scientific community. Conclusions: This study presents an initial discussion of the scientific concepts that may be guiding the thematic area of pharmacovigilance. Production details and implications of these characteristics can be useful as resources to public health practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]