The colors of biotechnology in Venezuela: A bibliometric analysis

Technology in Society 42 (2015) 123e134

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The colors of biotechnology in Venezuela: A bibliometric analysis
n De la Vega a, b, c, d, **, 1, Jaime Requena a, e, f, g, Iva
ndez-Go
mez a, h, i, j, *, 1 Rodolfo Ferna a

Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), Venezuela Policy and Management of Technological Innovation CENDES-UCV, Venezuela c Social Studies of Science, IVIC, Venezuela d Department of Economics and Administrative Sciences Universidad Simon Bolívar, Venezuela e Physics and Chemistry of the University of Cambridge, England, UK f Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of Venezuela, Venezuela g Metropolitan University Foundation, Venezuela h Life and Health, University of Science and Technology of Lille and the Pasteur Institute of Lille, France i Prometeo Program, Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas, IASA 1, SENESCYT, Quito, Ecuador j
n Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, Venezuela Fundacio b

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 30 May 2014 Received in revised form 12 March 2015 Accepted 16 March 2015 Available online

The background of biotechnology and its different specialty fields is assessed from a bibliometrics perspective, in a developing country within the Latin American region; Venezuela. As methodology we adopted a specialty coding by colors, a technique referred to as ‘rainbow’ proposed by DaSilva in 2004. The study was limited to publications from Venezuelan institutions in the period comprised within 1970 and 2010. The documentary information was retrieved from a database built for studies of this kind, referred to as Biblios. This database consolidates most bibliographic references related to Venezuelan publications spread among major international and domestic databases. Strengths shown by this database include, among others, the fact that each entry has been assigned the relevant code as set by the UNESCO nomenclature for fields of science and technology. By correlating the rainbow coding against the UNESCO coding we have been able to evidence that although biotechnology represents a third of national capacities in sciences and technology, current Venezuelan capacities only include 5 of the 15 colors in rainbow. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Biotechnology Biotechnology colors code Bibliometrics analysis Biotechnological publications Venezuela

1. Introduction

* Corresponding author. Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas, IASA 1, Ecuador. Tel.: þ593 968 912824. ** Corresponding author. Department of Economics and Administrative Sciences USB, Venezuela. Tel.: þ58 4126066126. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (I. De la Vega), jrequena@ unimet.edu.ve (J. Requena), [email protected], rodfergom@
ndez-Go
mez). gmail.com (R. Ferna 1 Both authors contributed equally. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2015.03.007 0160-791X/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biotechnology penetration in multiple productive activities is generating a significant impact on new areas of exchange at scientific, technological, productive and social levels. Thus, influencing minimum knowledge thresholds, technical and productive facilities, intellectual property rights, activities developed in “downstream” production activities, and on the control of complementary assets, which generate new areas of exchange favoring creation for potential markets, making it feasible to yield additional

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profits [1]. So, building capacities and infrastructure for biotechnology is seen as a key factor for economic development in the 21st century, as it provides an opportunity for converting biodiversity into an economic and social factor through the appreciation, sustainable use, and preservation thereof. Biotechnology is understood, in its broadest concept, as “technologies which support is provided by living beings”. By such definition, human beings have been biotechnologists, as of the Neolithic Revolution times (about 10 thousand years ago) up to this date. By then, they started to domesticate plants and animals becoming farmers and cattle-breeders; selecting specimens showing those features deemed as more interesting; performing empiric hybridization practices, and learning about genetic improvement of species. Human beings did also discover and developed fermentations; with bacteria and yeasts …” [2]. In such sense, and for purposes of this study, the definition from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shall be used as the conceptual framework of reference. This definition describes biotechnology as the “application of science and technology to living organisms as well as parts, products and models thereof, to alter living or non-living materials for the production of knowledge, goods and services” [3]. 1.1. Biotechnology in the Latin American sphere In Latin America, biotechnology had a vigorous start, by the 70's in the last century. In the late 80's, biotechnological materials and byproducts were used in pharmaceutical industries in Brazil (Biobras), Argentina (BioSidus), Cuba (human Interferon) and Chile (Bios) [4]. By 2014, from the 28 countries producing agricultural materials resulting from biotechnological designs, 11 were Latin American countries. Brazil stood out when ranked as the second country in the world, with 42.2 million hectares, while Argentina ranked as third with 24.3 million hectares [5]. In such sense, the highest density of biotechnology driving factors can be found in Brazil and Argentina, where public policies fostered in science, technology, and innovation fields are coherent and permanent over time, and focused on encouraging staff-training and skill-building, as well as on promoting innovation and technological transfer processes and bio-prospecting. 1.2. Biotechnology in Venezuela In Venezuela, biotechnology started at the agricultural industry, by adapting plant tissue culture techniques, specifically by cloning cells from plant tissues and organs. This technique has a deep theoretical basis and had a significant impact on agricultural research by the early second half of the last century with its contribution to the improvement of harvesting plants. In Venezuela, the pioneering work on tissue culture was published in the Agro journal by researchers from the School of Agronomics of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in 1958, and addressed the embryo culture as phytotechnology aid [6]. Those researches were consolidated in the country as of the 70's, when Venezuelan professionals began to return from

universities abroad, upon graduating from specialty courses in this field. As of that date and up to the present, approximately 90 centers have been created in universities and public entities [7]. Historically, the Venezuelan Government has mainly been the sole supporter for Science, Technology and Innovation activities (S þ T þ I) in the country. As for biotechnology, the government hires 78.4% professionals in this field and provides funding for 95% biotechnology programs and projects [6,8]. The Venezuelan biotechnological sector has gone through several stages, differing by funding issues, nature of the relevant research programs and projects, and the National Biotechnology Commissions created. Such commissions -formed in 1982, 1984, and 1996- were intended to advise the government in office on scientific and technological policies related to the biotechnology sector, particularly in the agriculture, industrial, biomedicine, oil and environmental fields. Even though never deemed as a national priority, the life of such commissions has always been quite short and with a secondary influence on public policies. In 1982, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones
gicas2 - CONICIT) set an AdeHoc Científicas y Tecnolo Commission for the “Study of Biotechnology and Alternatives for its Development in Venezuela”. This group identified several initiatives for defining national programs related to biotechnology, which would be accompanied by the creation of the relevant advising commission. Here we must point out that one of the recommendations issued was to create a National Biotechnology System [8]. The National Commission for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CNIGB) was created in 1984 [9], which deemed as important those remarks and suggestions made by the commission in 1982. By this time, priority areas for research and development were proposed, including: agriculture, biomedicine and industry; also considering creating a system intended to enable the confluence of universities and research institutes and industries based on biotechnological processes, in a harmonic and articulated manner. In 1989 a global development strategy was initiated in Venezuela, based on the guidelines set by the VII National Plan as fundamental axis. A main goal for this plan was to develop competitiveness for the international sphere. This is how CONICIT concreted the design, organization and promotion for the New Technologies Program focused on activating, mobilizing, and modernizing the National Scientific and Technological Sector. Such Program would be carried out with funding from the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), which gave raise to the first Framing Agreement executed in 1992. Biotechnology was deemed one of the priority areas identified among cutting edge technologies. Other areas under consideration were informatics, electronics, fine chemistry and new materials. The program did also include fostering talent development and

2
gFormer “Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnolo icas” (CONICIT) has been renamed and is currently known as “Fondo
n” (FONACIT). Nacional Ciencia, Tecnología e Investigacio

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strengthening research and development laboratories and centers. However, even though some results were attained, such were just incipient, as the country failed to have a consolidated National Science, Technology and Innovation System (SNCTI) where those public policies and scientific and technological guidelines that the country needed for fully exploiting such results could be designed. In 1996, the National Biotechnology Commission [10] was created, as advising body for assisting the President of the Republic. The main goal thereof was to plan and formulate policies intended to promote a national strategy for developing biotechnology in the country, as well as the opportunities offered by it, and the scientific, technological, and productive capacities needed to favor biotechnology development and exploitation. The new Commission set, as its goal, to “Have influence on the economic and social development of Venezuela, through the effective use of biotechnologies in projects of public and private interest, within the Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Environment and Oil fields”. For such purpose, studies on assessments in such sub-fields as biomedicine, oil and petrochemical were undertaken, as well as on how to protect intellectual property with patents. In addition, a “Program for Strategic Associations” was designed, providing that each association should include a researcher and a businessman, and that their fundamental goal should be to raise the technological level of the company and the research institute involved in the project, so as to ensure results were transferred within the short term. This commission's activities ended by 1999, failing to concrete the goals set. In parallel, an “Agenda Program” had been proposed within the CONICIT (3), intended to generate answers for specific demands from society through research and development. By mid 1998, 226 projects had been set in thirteen Agendas, which co-financing agent was the same CONICIT. Such “Agendas” addressed specific topics, such as oil, education, cocoa, biodiversity, agro-environment, health and rice, among others. Some agendas included projects related to biotechnology. Results from those agendas failed to be satisfactory. One weakness identified was the lack of theme networks, which had negatively impacted their development, as well as their applicability, ownership and the transfer of knowledge and technologies that could arise from the various projects. As of 1999, the Government started negotiations to carry out a second IDB-FONACIT program, summing up to 200 million US$, thereby considering potentials for performing the Special Biotechnology Project summing up to approximately 20 million US$. The Special Biotechnology Project would be intended to promote, encourage, and implement biotechnological processes and products developed in the country, generate scientific-technological capacities in Venezuela, share and cooperate at interinstitutional levels, and spread, disseminate and make use of biotechnology in the I þ D þ I filed for cooperating with agricultural producers, communities, and agroindustry and food companies. In 2004 the modus operandi for the IDB-FONACIT II Program and the fundable items were proposed. Such items were selected by considering a descriptive study of the agricultural behavior within 1992 and 2002, as well as the

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relevant trend analysis, where consultations made to professionals, specialists and producers from the agrobiotechnological sector were implemented, also allotting an importance level to each item as per such criteria as production, job generation, social base, consumption, biotechnological capacities and potentials. This is how items comprised in the Vegetal biotechnology were selected, including rice, corn, beans, potato and cassava; as well as items in the animal one, including bovine (meat and milk), porcine, ovine and caprine species, poultry and aquiculture, and other items, based on the transversal axes, as resulting from strategic studies, bio-informatics analysis, among others, as prospective studies relevant for the future of this specialty field on Venezuela (Table 1). The IDB-FONACIT II Program was completed in 2008. In spite of the investment, the technical-administrative structure having relevant information for the decision making process was not kept, thus failing to provide any continuity to the program for its consolidation, and therefore resulting in the impossibility to concrete the National Biotechnology Network, as originally foreseen. Likewise, no ex post follow-up was made on projects, or the Program as a whole, thus hindering to gain any actual knowledge about long term results. 2. Methodology 2.1. Conceptual framework Each of the different specialty fields of biotechnology can be associated to a color, through a methodology referred to as ‘Rainbow’, proposed by DaSilva [11] in 2004 and summarized below in Table 2. This methodology allows reducing the complexity inherent to all action areas related to biotechnology. With the categorization of biotechnology by colors, the creators intended to obtain “… a sorting independent from scientific e technological aspects, but which has allowed promoting public perception in a favorable way and understanding biotechnology applications for the cause of science, development and the current and future of mankind” [11]. The importance of this approach to biotechnology is observed in the acceptance thereof, and its use by multiple experts in events of worldwide significance, such as the Cordia-EuropaBio Convention 2003 held in Vienna during such conferences as ‘Blue Biotechnology - Exploitation of Marine Resources focused on the ‘Ocean of Opportunities’ y ‘Europe's catalytic role in ‘Green Biotechnology in Africa’ resides in collaborative biotech education, research, development, and market ventures'. Likewise, in January Table 1 Items financed by the IDB-FONACIT II Programme. Amounts of financing by type of item Strategic items

Number of projects

Amount in US $

Animal Plant Others Totals

14 17 6 37

9,148,141.56 12,018,897.67 2,612,388.25 23,779,427.48

Source: Authors.

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Table 2 Colors that describe the different areas of biotechnology.

Color Type

Area of Biotech Activities

Red

Health, Medical, Diagnostics

Yellow

Food Biotechnology, Nutrition Science

Blue

Aquaculture, Coastal and Marine Biotech

Green

Agricultural Biotechnology, Environmental Biotechnology – Biofuels, Biofertilizers, Bioremediation, Geomicrobiology

Brown

Arid Zone and Desert Biotechnology

Dark

Bioterrorism, Biowarfare, Biocrimes, Anticrop warfare

Purple

Patents, Publications, Inventions, IPRs

White

Gene-based Bioindustries

Gold

Bioinformatics, Nanobiotechnology

Gray

Classical Fermentation and Bioprocess Technology

2004, in a meeting held by the European Commission at the Biosciences ‘Technology Facility’, members acknowledged that any biotechnology platform developing products of biological base would have a marriage concerted among the “white, “green, and “blue” biotechnology sectors. In 2005, in the 12th European Congress on Biotechnology, 4 categories were used: ‘white’ (industrial); ‘red’ (pharmaceutical), ‘green’ (food and agriculture) and ‘blue’ (environment) in ‘Bringing Genomes to Life’ at Denmark (as per DaSilva in Ref. [11]). 3. Data analysis This study is limited to the presence of scientists and technologists engaged in biotechnology that have carried out their research in Venezuela and reported the relevant

results in periodical publications or specialized conferences, and which have been arbitrated by their peers. The database used is the one referred to as Biblios that gathers bibliographic information reported by the major global databases, such as the ‘Web of Science’ from the ‘Institute for Scientific Information’ (WoS/ISI-Thompson-Reuters3) or regional databases such as Revencyt, Bireme, Lilacs, Latindex or Redalyc, plus the one provided by major Venezuelan journals of academic relevance and acknowledged background. BIBLIOS was developed on Microsoft FOX 9 by one of the authors (JR) and runs on computers using Microsoft Windows operating system. This software is proprietary of

3

Formerly “Thomson Scientific”. http://scientific.thomson.com/isi/.

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Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas Foundation and its use is allowed to field researchers. Biblios is an informatics software with editing, analysis and simple graphics capacities based on SQL language commands able to yield results related to the national, institutional or personal bibliometric production, both indexable and filtrable (or segmentable), by fields as journal name, year of publishing, or the author's academic affiliation. In addition, it sorts journals as per their nature, either national or international, indexed or not. Its main advantage is the sorting of each bibliographic or personal reference entry by scientific discipline as per the UNESCO nomenclature. In such sense, when setting a correspondence between colors assigned to each biotechnology specialty against the relevant sorting code of theme areas in the Unesco nomenclature for specialties [12], the product yield has a higher added value. Using this software without verifying data directly retrieved from the major databases, with no further checking, can be a source of error. In the specific case of Venezuela, for instance, there is a considerable number (~10%) of entries wrongly allotted to the country; therefore, records must be carefully checked to avoid them. For example, entries correspondent to works performed at the cities of Merida in Mexico or Spain (particularly those related to biotechnology or the psychiatric field, respectively) are automatically allotted to the city of Merida in the Venezuelan Andean region. The same happens with works related to social sciences or mathematics performed in research institutes located at streets including the name of Venezuela in their address, at countries as Peru and Brazil. Another source of error to be taken into account is the authors' identification and academic affiliation. Biblios solves this issue by crosschecking its bibliographic information against the academic information stored in an individuals' database built for such purpose. In this sense, Biblios is a set of databases related among them. The auxiliary authors' database includes academic data about Venezuelan researchers initially derived from the Census made by the then called CONICIT in 1983 [13] and further increased with academic data of those included in the Venezuelan Researchers' Promotion System (PPI) and available through the Internet by that time. The auxiliary authors' database has 36,632 valid entries, of which 11,054 correspond to the PPI. Crosschecking information between Biblios and authors, assisted by the appropriate algorithms, allows on one hand to fully identify by name(s) and surnames (2) each author for published works included in Biblios, while on the other hand enables building cooperation networks as well as obtaining indicators and quantitative parameters with very low uncertainty (2%) when properly allotting the academic affiliation or publishers. In favor of using very large databases as academic production indicators, we can say that a database as the one kept by WoS/ISI covers approximately 90% of the internationally referenced scientific bibliography, with about 6200 works dedicated to science and technology. They have served as basis to demonstrate that a core of approximately 3000 journals does currently represent near 80% published articles and 95% cited articles [14]. By this date, over 7500 source journals are recorded in this base.

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For this study, a sub set of the large Biblios database was prepared, including those entries correspondent to the biotechnology field and comprised within 1970 and 2010, where the academic address of any author shows the word “Venezuela”. The Biblios base contains over 60 thousand publications and encompasses the entire 20th century and this century to date. The aggregate (all knowledge fields) of entries in the BIBLIOS base for the period within 1970 and 2010 is of 23,747 publications from 25,532 different authors. Of those publications, 12,578 correspond to the biotechnology field. The versatility and quality of the information collected by Biblios may be evidenced through studies in the various dimensions of the Venezuelan research activity, such as dynamics [15], chemistry [16], scientific investigation [17], technological development [18] or biology [19]. 4. Results Fig. 1 allows evidencing the evolution of Venezuelan publications in WoS/ISI and match it against selected countries in the Latin American region, and in this manner determine the behavior shown by research results within the last twenty (20) years. Data in this chart are the only data in this study that have not been retrieved from the Biblios Database. In Fig. 1 we can observe that, within the period under study, the five countries grow at different paces, with slight fluctuations within some years, except for Mexico showing a significant deceleration and drop within 2003 and 2006, which improved in the subsequent years enabling it to attain sustained growth. When making analyses of this kind, each country's population size must be taken into account, in order to standardize data, and divide by 100 thousand inhabitants to see the resulting coefficient. An aspect brought to focus by this chart is the start and end data shown for each country (years 1990 and 2011). When comparing them, we can evidence publications in Colombia grew by 15.22 times, in Mexico by 6.59 times, in Argentina by 3.78 times, in Chile by 3.65 times, and in Venezuela 2.27 times. Clearly, this growth on such item

Fig. 1. Historical Time series of publications in the WoS/ISI in some Latin American countries in period 1990e2011. Source: Red Iberoamericana de Indicadores de Ciencia y Tecnología -RICyT(2013). ttp://www.ricyt.org/indicadores [Visited on 01e04e2013].

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concerning research results is related to their successful public policies related to S þ T þ I (investment, training, and ongoing support to infrastructure, laboratories, materials input, projects, trips to congresses and apprenticeships). In the specific case of Venezuela, data shows that in the base year for the analysis (1990) Venezuela published 519 articles in Wos/ISI, exceeded by Colombia by more than twice as 208 works were accepted from that country. However, in only 20 years, they exchanged roles; in 2011 Venezuela published 1180 articles in total while Colombia published 3167 works. These results evidence how public policies intended to support SIT in each country have worked. Fig. 2 evidences the importance had by biotechnology in Venezuela, as it represents, in average, one third of the aggregate number per year. When examining the track record by decade, data shows a fluctuating growth in publication totals within 1970 and 1979, and that biotechnology represented more than one third in each year's totals. Within that period, the aggregate of publications in the country ranged between 200 and 400 indexed articles; a fact showing the extremely small size of the Venezuelan scientific community by that time. In the decade within 1980 and 1989 we can observe a significant growth in publication totals. The first data drawing our attention is the increase within 1980 and 1981 summing up to more than 200 articles, which may be related to the return of the first “Fundayacucho” scholarship holders who mainly went to study abroad within 1975 and 1976 and some of them came back with a doctorate degree. As of that leap, a fluctuating growth is evidenced, keeping the ranges between 550 and 700 publications per year. Within this period the biotechnology ratio drops as per the country's totals, ranging near one third for each year, in average. The decade within 1990 and 1999 evidences a more significant growth as for the number of Venezuelan publications in the period under study, including those concerning biotechnology. In 1990 a total number of 675 articles were published by researchers based in Venezuela while the total number in 1999 had increased up to 1375

Fig. 2. Total Venezuelan publications in national and international peer reviewed journals and what biotechnology represents in that total. Source: Biblios database.

articles, i.e. 700 more publications, doubling the number of works indexed in national and international journals. In this period, biotechnology shows a sustained growth curve, although keeping the same near one third average as per the aggregate of Venezuelan publications. When examining the decade within 2000 and 2010 we can observe a growing number in the first 4 years which drops during the following 2 years, thus generating an inflexion point leading 2006 to be the year with the highest number of indexed articles published in the Venezuelan history. 2007 and 2008 show a slight drop in scientific production, to then decline in a sustained manner in 2009 and 2010 up to bringing article production to 1251, i.e., 460 fewer articles than in 2006. In the specific case of the production of works in biotechnology, the fact that its ratio is always kept near one third of the country's totals draws the attention, as it shows a similar behavior during years of growth and decline. Table 3 shows colors used for identifying the different disciplines and specialties of biotechnology with its respective description. In their turn, each color is merged to equivalences in the UNESCO nomenclature. Results allowed determining that biotechnology in Venezuela only includes competencies in five sectors or colors, to wit: Marine (blue), Agriculture (green), Classical (gray), Medical (red) and Nutritional (yellow). Nevertheless, other sectors might also be included but no data related to any other sector could be found. Fig. 3 shows those areas where Venezuela has biotechnology strengths, as follows: agricultural sciences (green) with 43%, followed by life sciences (red) with 38%, to reach 81% in aggregate. This means that the highest research and investment capacities in the country are in those two areas. If we add health sciences (yellow) with 13% to such percentage, we should be talking about 94% of the total number concentrated in 3 three of knowledge (colors). The three gross areas are congruent with the profile shown by scientific activities that have been carried out in Venezuela as of the ’60 in the last century. Here we must point out that those sectors are the ones which have received the highest investments from the Venezuelan government, specifically the FONACIT. In Fig. 4 we can observe the historical track record of biotechnology in Venezuela, from such perspective as the five rainbow colors on which research is carried out in the country. Year to year we can evidence the fields spread, where the first one to outstand is agricultural sciences, and the second one is life sciences. In the first decade (1970e1979) both areas mentioned above are the ones to prevail, although never reaching 170 publications in any given year. In the second decade (1980e1989) the number of publications increased, always within the range between 190 and 250. In this period, we can observe an incipient growth in other colors, with health sciences as the outstanding one. In the decade within 1990 and 1999, the number of publications increased in a sustained manner, except in 1995 and 1999 when such number shows a slight drop. The other three colors also show very small increase, where medical science is the outstanding one. In the last decade under study (2000e2010) the growth behavior shown is sustained with certain fluctuations concerning

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Table 3 UNESCO codes assigned to the different colors of biotechnology.

Color

Area

Description

UNESCO Code

Marine (Aquatic)

Aquaculture, coasts and sea, fish health and nutrition, aquatic animals reproduction, cloning and genetic modifications, aquaculture and fisheries pests and disease control

2510, 241704, 241705, 241707, 3105, 240119, 240190, 240191, 240199, 240881

Green

Agricultural

Biotechnologies for the production, processing, and storage of agricultural, biofertilizers and agrobiochemicals, disease control, ecology and rational wildlife management, preservation of biodiversity, plant, pet and farm-animal disease, health, nutrition, reproduction, cloning, and genetic modification, plant micropropagation and plant tissue culture, bioremediation & environmental biotechnology, sustainable design, renewable energy generation: resource saving and energy efficient; bioremediation & environmental biotechnology; bio-fuel production and sustainable biotechnology development; biotechnology for competitive production; new material; and new energy sources

240108, 240990, 240992, 241502, 2417, 250203, 251101, 251102, 251109, 251199, 31

Gray

Classical (Fermentation)

Classical fermentation and bioprocess technology

Blue

Red

Medical

Human health and disease, novel medical diagnostics and tissue engineering

Yellow

Nutritional

Food, nutrition science and neutraceuticals

Fig. 3. Percentage distribution of Venezuelan author publications in national and international peer reviewed publications in Biotechnology for the period 1970e2010. Source: Biblios database.

2415, 3302, 3309

2302, 402, 2403, 2404, 2406, 2407, 2409 (Not considering 240990, 240992), 2410, 2411, 2412, 2414, 2420, 2490, 32, 320603, 320605, 320611, 3314 230690, 230692, 241793, 3206, 3309 (Not considering 320603, 320605, 360611, 330901, 330904, 330905, 330992)

biotechnology publications. This behavior is similar to the behavior shown by the total number of publications in Venezuela. Publications related to all five colors grew in a proportional way. All colors show a significant drop within the last three years, yet such drop was also proportional. Fig. 5 shows the spread of research activities in biotechnology by Venezuelan institution. When comparing the total number of publications in the country against the number of publications in biotechnology within the period under study, the evolution found, on a year to year basis, is similar; evidently each of them within its scale (see Fig. 2). When analyzing the track record by decade, we can observe that within 1970 and 1979 researches in biotechnology were mainly carried out at 3 institutions (UCV, IVIC, and INIA) with some initial efforts at LUZ. In the decade within

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I. De la Vega et al. / Technology in Society 42 (2015) 123e134 Table 4 Percentage distribution of the 12 journals, both nationally and internationally, where a significant number of Venezuelan authors have published aspects related of biotechnology (1970e2010).

Fig. 4. Historical time series of articles by Venezuelan authors in various fields of biotechnology grouped according to the Rainbow colors methodology. Source: Biblios database.

Fig. 5. Total publications in Biotechnology in national and international peer reviewed journals by authors from Venezuela, by institution. Source: Biblios database.

1980 and 1989, the total number of publications increased, when the number of articles published by the UCV raised, while those published by the IVIC dropped in a proportional way, and the number of those published by INIA was similar. Likewise, a growth in research works carried out in other institutions can be evidenced. In the decade within 1990 and 1999, the total number of publications increased in an almost sustained manner, where aggregate of the 3 aforementioned institutions kept an average near 50%. In its turn, the number of works published by LUZ showed a significant increase, as well as the number published by ULA, yet the latter only as of 1994. In the last decade (2000e2010) a fluctuating growth can be evidenced up to 2007, and then a significant and progressive drop until 2010. The important fact in this decade is the growth of works carried out in other institutions not included in the chart. An element to assess is the declining curve through the last 3 years under study, within a five year term while resources from the Organic Law for Science, Technology, and Innovation (LOCTI) were being received, considering

Journal

Percentage

AGRONOMIA TROPICAL REVISTA CIENT
IFICA, FCV, LUZ REVISTA DE LA FACULTAD DE AGRONOMIA, LUZ ACTA CIENTIFICA VENEZOLANA REVISTA DE LA FACULTAD DE AGRONOMIA, UCV ZOOTECNIA TROPICAL, INIA INTERCIENCIA REVISTA DE LA FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS VETERINARIAS, UCV
ACTA BOTANICA VENEZUELICA, FUNDACION
INSTITUTO BOTANICO DE VENEZUELA REVISTA CIENT
IFICA VETERINARIA TROPICAL, INIA KASMERA, LUZ
ARCHIVOS LATINOAMERICANOS DE NUTRICION,
(SLAN) SOCIEDAD LATINOAMERICANA DE NUTRICION

21 14 14 10 8 7 6 6 5 4 3 2

that collection from this law reached up to 2.69% GDP in 2007. Table 4 above shows main journals where Venezuela based authors have published their works throughout the period under study. Evidently, most journals listed above belong to national organizations, as resulting from two basic aspects. Figures shown above include a 40 year accrual, and such is a determining factor for balancing the scale toward national journals, because authors recur to the national universe which is limited in number. The second aspect is that, at international level, the journals offering includes a wide range when compered to the national one, thus allowing authors to reach a better distribution for their works. The table shows all journals with 2% or more percent of the total number of articles published throughout the 40 years under study. The spread shows that 8% from the total number relates to international journals, where ARCHIVOS
and INTERCIENCIA LATINOAMERICANOS DE NUTRICION (2%e6%, respectively) because we are based in Venezuela but is a regional journal. The remaining 92% related to national journals. We can evidence that UCV and LUZ are the organizations with the highest number of journals and

Fig. 6. Total per year and overall percentage of Venezuelan publications on Biotechnology national and international indexed journals. Source: Biblios database.

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articles, a fact granting them a comparative strength with regard to other organizations. As they have the products to disseminate their knowledge, we can say that they include the entire research chain. Fig. 6 shows the national and international publications made throughout the period within 1970 and 2010. This data is in contrast to the global accrual of Venezuela based authors who published more in international journals. An argument to publish abroad is the visibility gained, and in most cases they refer to journals indexed in the ISI SCI. An interesting issue arising from watching the record track by decade is that within the first one (1970e1979) the higher percentage of publications relates to national journals. The percentage changed in the second decade (1980e1989), when the search for international journals came to be focused on those with preponderance in SCI, which might be attributed, among other factors, to requirements set in the organizations and the return of professionals with Doctorate degrees coming, to a great extent, from developed countries. In the 90's decade (1990e1999) we can evidence the highest increase in publications within the 4 decades under study, as well as the key factor driving such increase, the Researchers' Promotion Program (PPI) created in 1990. During that decade, an equal spread among national and international journals was kept (almost a 50e50 spread) in each year. The pattern of Venezuelan authors toward international journals shows a slight change in the decade within 2000 and 2010, basically in the last years under study. On the other hand, the influence and incidence from commissions and programs as for the formulation of policies focused on generating knowledge, products, process enhancement and service implementation had a significant impact on the publication of results, thus giving raise to the upturn observed within 1990 and 2007. The drop in the number of articles published evidenced, mainly in national journals, as of 2008, lead to think it would be noteworthy to analyze circumstances and conditions for the maintenance and periodicity in publishing such journals, as publications in international journals, although showing a drop, has not been so significant. In Fig. 7 we can observe efforts accrued throughout the 40 years under study from Venezuela based authors that

Fig. 7. Interaction network of Venezuelan authors in the field of biotechnology between 1970 and 2010. Source: Biblios database.

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cooperate in researches related to biotechnology topics with researchers from other countries. Evidences show that, with a great difference, USA is the country with the highest collaboration and this is due, among other reasons, to the fact that 72% scholarship holders from CONICIT (1970 through 1999 esee SIBIC Bulletin from the CONICIT-) and a high percentage of FUNDAYACUCHO scholarship holders that went abroad studied in that country, and therefore built contacts with tutors, researchers and classmates who nowadays are scientists. In second and third instance, Brazil and Spain are two other major collaborators, closely followed by the United Kingdom (UK) and France. Those 4 countries have capacities for research in biotechnology, and in this case of Spain, language plays as differentiating factor in its favor. In their turn, UK and France are developed countries that have housed Venezuelan students and with which Venezuela collaborates in all knowledge areas and Brazil due to the nearness and its strength, specifically in biotechnology. 5. Discussion Institutions related to national science, technology and innovation systems from countries with the highest development invest time in preparing statistics and indicators allowing them to improve decision making processes related to those areas they deem as strategic, and value the fact of having appropriate databases available for building their policies, both public and institutional. In this line, we must take into account the worldwide trends moving forward in developed countries, and a clear example is the one referring to technological convergence where biotechnology is one of the key disciplines. Three initiatives in technological convergence topics leading to orient the strategic decision making process are currently present in the globalized world. The first one originated in the United States of America (USA) in 2002, and was called NBIC (Nanotechnology. Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science) [20e22]. The second one originated in Canada, in 2003, and was called ‘Bio-Systemics Synthesis: Science and Technology Foresight Pilot Project’ [23]. A year later, in 2004, Europe released one of its own: ‘Converging Technologies-Shaping the Future of European Societies (Nano-Bio-Info-CognoSocio-Anthro-Philo)’ (CTEKs) [24]. Such initiatives were intended to allow countries and regions to keep their hegemony as for the multiplicity of new products to be launched in the global market, and are covered under the cloak of public policies designed to address, within the medium and long terms, issues inherent to science, technology and innovation. Such initiatives served as basis for this new knowledge on cross fertilization that can be added by other disciplines, as per the criterion of experts related to each project to be developed [25]. The global society of knowledge is relentlessly progressing by leveraging on technoscience. In this line, a tool that has been refloated and enhanced by new technologies for defining priority areas in the medium and long term is the prospective tool. The most developed countries in the world are using this tool in a sustained way and results from several studies show technological convergence shall

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be a core issue in the immediate future of mankind. Therefore, those countries design public policies with strategies oriented to project funding, while training personnel, investing in centers, laboratories, equipment and materials in such specialty fields as nanotechnology TIC's, cognitive sciences and biotechnology. When comparing leading countries in biotechnology within the Latin American region, those showing the highest capacities are Brazil and Argentina, because they have centers, institutions, and a minimum basis of qualified staff and focused on different specialty fields, all elements with significant influence in getting results. Both countries have moved forward by building alliances with the private sector, and nowadays have a series of industries engaged in developing biotechnological products, not only in the agricultural area but also in human health, animal health, environmental products, molecular and chemical products and similar, and in the last ten years they have been able to increase activities related to biotechnology [26]. In Venezuela, however, very few private companies are engaged in research works or using biotechnological materials, thus not making easier to have a link/demand relation between the scientific-technological sector and the industrial sector, therefore, the knowledge created is mainly intended for the academic sector. Actually, when examining Fig. 1 in this study we can evidence that Venezuela is, among the 5 countries selected within the region, the country showing less growth as for the total number of scientific publications in SCI throughout the 20 years under study, even surpassed by Colombia over the way. Indicators shown in Fig. 2 allow understanding the relative importance had by biotechnology in Venezuela, as defined within the framework of this bibliometric study. In such sense, we must point out that the total number of publications arbitrated and indexed in the country, per annum, is below the number set by multilateral agencies for developing countries. This statement is based on the fact that countries like Venezuela should show a ratio of one researcher per each one thousand inhabitants; thus meaning that the country should have about 28 thousand researchers. By 2009, the Researchers' Promotion Program (PPI) included 6842 accredited researchers, i.e. a human capital deficit near 75%. Nowadays, the new Program for Encouraging Investigation (PEI) evidences that by 2012 there were 16,722 researchers enrolled, still entailing a 41% deficit. The paradox found in this 144% increase - as for the number of people engaged in research activities according to the new criterion used by the government - is the contrast with the resulting products. International manuals designed for comparing tangible goods acknowledge the arbitrated and indexed articles and patents as the result, par excellence, from activities related to S&T. As for that concerning this bibliometric study we can point out that by 2009 the total number of publications indexed in the WoS/ISI was of 1400 articles. If we divide such result by the 6842 researches accredited by the extinct PPI, the resulting balance is 0.21 works per researcher, an actually very low figure. If we make the same division for 2012, such would be: 16,722 researchers enrolled in the PEI divided by the 900 articles indexed in the same data base within that year; thus resulting in 0.05 articles per

researcher/innovator. This means the country has suffered a dramatic drop both in the number of articles published in one year, and in the ratio of the N of researchers (even more affected by the change in the PEII definition) to the number of publications arbitrated. This study demonstrates the current gap between Venezuela and those countries making sustained investments in biotechnology. The rainbow methodology and the Unescto Codes allowed determining the country's strong and weak areas. Table 3 shows the 15 colors used for determining biotechnology specialty fields in the international sphere, and Venezuela is only involved in 5 of them with tangible products. Among colors in which the country has capacities, the two showing highest strengths are green and red, as well as yellow to a lower extent. This means there is a desperate need for developing public policies, both clear and specific, on biotechnology, beyond the efforts made by a group of researchers who have tried to develop such specialty fields deemed as strategic for the future of the world. When crossing the five colors with the institutions where biotechnology researches are carried out in Venezuela, we can evidence that such efforts are concentrated in just a few institutions, and that the UCV, IVIC, INIA and LUZ are the ones centralizing 50% articles, in average. The other outstanding aspect found when crossing those variables is the sustained drop of publications occurred within the last three years; a fact with not quite clear connotations for the country, as such might show Venezuela would be losing capacities. The activity profile measured by the type and number of journals where biotechnology articles are published in Venezuela evidences that, as for national and international journals, efforts are near 50%. This item allows determining that the type of publications used for spreading knowledge created in the country do have visibility. The fact of having national journals where such articles can be published, tells about national strengths, even though expressed is different areas or disciplines comprised in biotechnology. Two core aspects arising from knowledge networks generated by co-authorships involving Venezuela based researchers and related to biotechnology are the following: 1) the country with the highest connectivity is the United States of America (USA) and this is a logical result. The Venezuelan government's efforts, for more than 40 years, to sent students to get their doctorate degree with Scholarships granted by CONICIT and Fudayacucho, were mainly focused on that country, by 72% [14]. This means that contacts, the type of knowledge acquired and the scientifictechnological cooperation networks were set, to a great extent, through such path. 2) The other pole of contact includes European countries (Spain, UK, and France) and three countries in the Latin American region (Brazil,
xico). Those links make sense, as such Argentina, and Me are the countries where the other percentage of researchers have gone to get their degrees, and are also included among those countries showing high development in biotechnology. This relationship map gives a picture on the interaction network context, where Venezuela has high capacities for exchanging and sharing knowledge, as well as for interacting and working with peers, in those

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discipline fields and areas of biotechnology associated to the five colors mentioned in this study. Organizations engaged in R þ D þ I are seen as “generators of technological knowledge susceptible to be transferred”. However, in some cases, they have limited their activities to create knowledge, yet failing to strive enough in translating such knowledge into economic value, both for their users and for the institution involved [27]. This economic value is defined as the protection of intellectual assets generated from knowledge set into practical use, which broadens the equity held, not only by the institution but also by the country. In such sense, intellectual property becomes a significant axis for the countries' development and progress, without detriment to the social responsibility had by the institution with its environment, and therefore with the citizen's quality of life. Even though Intellectual Property has become an important factor as for protecting assets, involving tangible and intangible elements in today's global society of knowledge, at the same time it contributes as a development factor. Venezuela has a governmental office for its control, the Autonomous Intellectual Property Service, which due to political-ideological reasons has not been granting any patent for several years now. 6. Conclusions The “Rainbow” methodology enabled determining the strong and weak areas of biotechnology in Venezuela, evidencing that current R þ D capacities in the country are related to only 5 of the 10 colors proposed by the methodology introduced by DaSilva and its correspondence with the code set by UNESCO. Thus showing the limited scope of action had by biotechnology in Venezuela, where more than 80% of the total number of publications are circumscribed to Agrobiotechnology (green) and Life Sciences a (red), as well as to the highest funding percentages. Another weakness found on the biotechnology field in Venezuela refers to the few institutions where R þ D activities are carried out, besides the scarce number of new organizations created with such a profile; the lack of enough national journals; low number of collaborative networks with countries where most researchers went to study, and the sustained drop in the total number of publications within recent years. In fact, scientific publications mostly come from small groups of institutions, which concentrate the highest number of articles published in the various periods defined, from 1970 up to 2010, and come to be the ones with broader background on this topic. In the last 3 years under study we can observe a dramatic drop in the total number of publications, which is actually near 50% if compared against total production in 2007. Such situation noted in this study could be useful for decision makers in the government for carrying a wider assessment in this area and find the determining factors for this negative behavior. Another way to measure a country's efforts on SCI activities is by examining investments made in a sustained manner. Venezuela has failed to fulfill this item allotting to it less than 1% GDP. As of 1970 and until 2005, governments

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allotted less than 0.5% GDP to STI, in average. Only during the period within 2006 and 2009, did Venezuela exceed 1% GDP upon the enforcement of the Organic Law for Sciences, Technology and Innovation (LOCTI). However, only 6% of that total reached the universities and research centers. In the case of biotechnology, such support can be deemed as marginal, except for the two periods when the InterAmerican Development Bank took part in the cofinancing project, by providing enough funds, considering the size of the Venezuelan scientific community. The background of biotechnology in Venezuela within the period under study (1970e2010) could be summarized by stating that -disregarding all efforts made for developing those techniques-such have been intermittent with short termed supporting intervals, not enabling the necessary continuity as for creating a true critical mass. The core hypothesis of this work is related to the loss of capacities in biotechnology occurred within recent years in Venezuela, caused by those intermittent policies that have given raise to low productivity rates, both in tangible and intangible outcomes. In contrast, most countries in the Latin American region evidence sustained progress with products derived from biotechnology. Such difference is due to a significant divergence in the quality shown by public policies, strategies, programs and instruments used beyond the Venezuelan borders. A first conclusion arising from those facts refers to the limited valid dialog capacities from Venezuelan political stakeholders as to understand the importance of technological convergence, comprising biotechnology therein, as for contributing to its development and progress. Notwithstanding the latter, the country does still have a significant number of specialists who have generated inputs and products. Likewise, processes have been enhanced and services have been created, all related to the biotechnology field. Expectations would be focused on a change to be occurring in the gravity center, with regard to the decision making process, in order to overcome currently standing restrictions for exploiting and implementing efforts made in the country up to this date. For such purpose, to be closely following the integral development in other countries within the region, as Brazil and Argentina for instance, would be important in order to merge their best practices related to staff training and updating; ongoing equipment and infrastructure maintenance and improvement; continuous support for research, development and innovation; promotion to create biotechnology based companies, as well as incubators and technological transfer entities; and emphasize on the regulatory and institutional framework on biosecurity, bioethics, and particularly on everything related to intellectual property. In this way, stakeholders related to biotechnology in Venezuela could be articulated and structured, in order to integrate into the process for the global Technological Convergence. Even though Venezuela was a pioneer in the use and treatment of biotechnology, by the early 70's of last century, the lack of public policies within the medium and long term did not allow institutionalizing such field, and therefore missed the opportunity to become a leader in the Latin American sphere.

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Acknowledgments This article was partially possible due funding by FONACIT (National Fund for Science, Technology, and Innovation) through the project LOCTI 201000443 assigned
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