From brain drain to brain circulation: International researcher mobility in Brazilian health and life sciences (2005–2020)

Abstract International academic mobility is associated with higher research productivity, collaboration, and impact, but national-level evidence from low- and middle-income countries remains scarce. This study presents a large-scale bibliometric analysis of international mobility among Brazilian researchers in health and life sciences, using Scopus data (2005–2020). We analyzed over 1.3 million publications by 214,263 researchers with at least one Brazilian affiliation. Researchers were classified into five mobility categories (Nonmobile, Emigrants, Returnees, Immigrants, Visitors) using longitudinal affiliation data. We mapped mobility patterns and disciplinary variation, then applied propensity score matching to compare research performance across groups on citations, journal prestige, and international collaboration. Although only 15% of researchers exhibited international mobility, they contributed 59% of total publications. Mobile researchers consistently outperformed nonmobile peers across all performance metrics. Notably, 68% of mobile researchers returned to Brazil, with Returnees showing citation impact comparable to Emigrants. Immigrants demonstrated lower performance than Emigrants, suggesting a limited compensation effect for outbound talent loss. These findings provide the first large-scale mapping of researcher mobility in Brazil and demonstrate how bibliometric methods can inform national strategies. We argue that shifting from a “brain drain” toward a “brain circulation” framework can better leverage international experience to strengthen national research capacity.