An Assessment of Scientific Productivity: Review in the Area of Agricultural and Biological Sciences in Ecuador Using Scientometrics and Lotka’s Law

Scientific production is a key indicator of a country’s academic and institutional development. This review followed a quantitative and descriptive bibliometric design using Lotka’s Law, aimed at analysing Ecuador’s scientific production in the area of Agricultural and Biological Sciences from 2014 to 2024. The bibliographic data were obtained from the Scopus database, which offers comprehensive coverage of the peer-reviewed literature and standardised metadata. Data (2881 documents) revealed publication patterns, collaboration networks and impact indicators. Lotka’s Law was applied to evaluate and describe author productivity among researchers affiliated with Ecuadorian universities and the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP). The model yielded an average n-parameter of 2.56, indicating a moderate concentration among a small group of researchers. There was a sustained growth in scientific publications, especially after 2018, with a high proportion published in Q1 and Q2 journals. The institutions with the most relevant affiliations included PUCE, UTM, USFQ, INIAP, ESPOL and UDLA, all maintaining consistent contributions to scientific output. The keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed a thematic focus on biodiversity, taxonomy and conservation. The limitations of this study were related to the fact that the analysis was based only on data retrieved from the Scopus database and that the use of Lotka’s Law assumes a theoretical distribution that does not fully account for contextual factors. Overall, Ecuador’s scientific system shows progress in terms of research productivity; however, it requires further development and the strengthening of institutional and human research capacities to generate more equitable scientific production in terms of the number of researchers.