Abstract

Summary Introduction: Currently there is no record on Chilean scientific production in physical therapy (PT). Aim: To describe the scientific production in PT in Chile during the last decade. Methods: Descriptive observational study. A list with keyword in PT was made. An electronic and manual search was carried out in the main online databases. Selection criteria: research carried out by Chilean PTs and published in national or international scientific journals between 2006 and 2016. Exclusion criteria: congress summaries. Primary outcomes: number of articles, area and type of research, journal indexation, region, number of authors and references. The data was presented as frequencies, averages and standard deviation; lately it was analyzed in Excel. Results: 161 articles met the inclusion criteria. The most developed areas were musculoskeletal (M-E) with 44 (27.3%) articles, cardiorespiratory with 25 (15.5%) and neurorehabilitation with 19 (11.8%). 28.5% of articles were published in journals indexed by Thomson Reuters (ISI). The regions with more scientific production were Metropolitana and Maule with 45.9% and 21.7% respectively. The largest number of articles were published in Kinesiología, journal from the Chilean association of PTs (16.7%), followed by the Revista Médica de Chile (14.9%). The highest percentage of articles corresponded to observational studies (49.6%). The average number of authors and references was 3.8 (SD: 2.2) and 31.06 (SD: 16.2) respectively. Conclusions: Publications in PT in Chile are scarce in comparison to other disciplines and are published mainly in journals not indexed in ISI. This bibliometric revision presents this information in an organized and synthesized way, which gives clarity to the scientific community and guides research work to future.