Internationalization of researchers in Oral Pathology/Oral Medicine area from Latin America

The aim of this study was to evaluate the internationalization of researchers in Oral Pathology (OP)/Oral Medicine (OM) in Latin America (LATAM). This scientometric study was conducted with public domain data from eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay), collected from January to July 2025. The Scopus database was the source for collecting the variables. Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test were performed to analyze the mean and median citations of scientific articles classified as having international collaborations and open access (OA) publications. Binary logistic regression was performed to predict the probability of international collaboration and OA status based on citation counts. International collaborations were present in 27.4% of the publications, and 39.9% of the scientific articles were published under OA. Publications with international collaborations received significantly more citations than non-collaborative articles (p<0.001). OA showed no association with the mean/median citations. International collaboration is the main driver of scientific impact in LATAM OP/OM, while OA status shows no independent benefit for citations. The low prevalence of collaborative articles reveals structural barriers that limit regional science, suggesting that strategic networking is more critical for visibility than publication accessibility alone.