The scientific and academic development of Ecuador has accelerated remarkably in recent years, as demonstrated by a growing body of literature that spans diverse themes, ranging from higher education to seed sovereignty in university contexts (Guerrero-Quiñonez et al., 2023; Lyon et al., 2021). Within the global academic space, Ecuadorian institutions have expanded their focus to include issues of educational quality and the intersection of policy and teaching (Bonilla Carchi et al., 2022; Guerrero-Quiñonez et al., 2023), reflecting a commitment to continuous improvement and academic excellence. Efforts to increase scientific productivity have targeted both the quantity and quality of research, evidenced by Ecuador’s growing inclusion in international indexed databases and benchmark comparisons with other South American countries (Araujo-Bilmonte et al., 2020; Jaramillo et al., 2023). Studies on human capital and performance in educational institutions highlight the intersection between research and national development policies (González Cisneros et al., 2021), while investigations in fields such as agriculture underscore the pivotal role of specialized research centers like the National Institute of Agricultural Research (Viera-Arroyo et al., 2020).

Collaboration and knowledge exchange within academic networks are essential for advancing science in Ecuador (Luque González et al., 2022). Analyses of trends and collaborative publication patterns confirm a country’s deeper integration into global scientific dialog (Bindu et al., 2019; Sekhar et al., 2022). Despite these positive developments, persistent challenges remain, including the need for broader international collaboration and the more direct relevance of research outputs to labor markets and national development (Carrión and Figueroa, 2023; Toapanta Toapanta et al., 2023). A detailed bibliometric analysis can identify these gaps, inform policy decisions, and project future research trajectories (Quincho-Lopez and Pacheco-Mendoza, 2021; Tang et al., 2022).

The present study addresses these challenges by applying a multivariate statistical tool, the HJ-Biplot, to Ecuadorian research output. Traditional bibliometric methods often isolate indicators rather than examining them concurrently; in contrast, the HJ-Biplot permits a simultaneous view of multiple variables, revealing nuanced relationships and clustering patterns that might otherwise remain obscured. Citation counts, open-access publications, and subscription-based publications are especially relevant to Ecuadorian universities because citations illustrate the visibility and impact of research. Open access facilitates broad dissemination in resource-constrained contexts, and subscription-based publishing, despite increasing shifts toward open-access models, still confers substantial academic recognition.

The HJ-Biplot, introduced by Galindo-Villardón (1986) as a generalization of Gabriel’s classical biplot, projects observations and variables onto the same Euclidean plane, while jointly maximizing their representation quality. This dual-scaling property preserves interinstitution distances and variable contributions in a single diagram, providing a concise picture of multivariate relationships. Applications in university ranking analysis and network studies show that the HJ-Biplot reveals clusters and dominant indicators more intuitively than principal-component biplots, multidimensional scaling, or hierarchical clustering (Frutos Bernal et al., 2020). These strengths make it well-suited for mapping research performance across institutions with many correlated bibliometric metrics. Although there have been analyses of Ecuador’s scientific production, no study has yet applied this type of multivariate examination to the selected timeframe. The present research aims to fill this gap by exploring how Ecuadorian public universities have adapted their research strategies from 2019 to 2021, focusing on the Web of Science database and examining publication output, citation impact, and publishing models. By providing a pioneering example of multivariate bibliometric analysis in an emerging research context, this study offers insights that can guide policymaking, bolster strategic planning, and optimize resource allocation across Ecuador’s public universities.

This study examined trends in research output among Ecuadorian public universities between 2019 and 2021, focusing on the most productive areas, publishing models, and citation performance. The four most prominent research areas during this period were education, social sciences, engineering, and multidisciplinary science. The dominance of education, with 986 published articles, aligns with the recognition that education is a critical driver of social and economic development in emerging economies (Zoido, 2008).

Social Science research in Ecuador is particularly relevant, contributing to an understanding of societal transformations and supporting development-oriented policies (Thuy, 2022). Engineering reflects national priorities related to infrastructure, technology, and human capital development, particularly in resource-constrained environments (Murad et al., 2017; Zarog, 2022). The integration of open-source technologies and e-learning has further facilitated growth in this field (Onime and Uhomoibhi, 2012; Forcael et al., 2022). Multidisciplinary research has also emerged as a significant focus, offering evidence of growing institutional commitment to knowledge production that transcends disciplinary silos (Chavarro et al., 2014).

In this analysis, we relied primarily on the HJ-Biplot technique because it offers two decisive advantages over more familiar multivariate tools, such as principal component biplots, multidimensional scaling, and hierarchical clustering. First, HJ scaling jointly maximizes the quality of representation for both rows (universities) and columns (bibliometric indicators); thus, inter-university distances and variable contributions remain in a single low-dimensional map (Galindo-Villardón, 1986). Second, its metric properties allow the simultaneous visual interpretation of clusters and indicator vectors without separate graphs or post-hoc rotations, which simplifies communication in institutional assessments (Frutos Bernal et al., 2020). These features are especially valuable for small systems with many correlated indicators, such as the 24 Ecuadorian public universities analyzed here, because they condense complex covariance patterns into one intuitive display. Among the 24 institutions analyzed, only one-third exhibited notable strengths in terms of specific indicators. The University of Guayaquil and the Technical University of Machala were prominent in Social Sciences, subscription publishing, and citation counts. The State University of Cuenca and Technical University of Manabí performed strongly in engineering and open-access publishing. Others, including the Higher Polytechnic School of the Army, the National University of Chimborazo, and the National Polytechnic School, stood out in Multidisciplinary Sciences and Engineering. Polytechnic University of Santa Elena was the leader in education-focused output.

The data also revealed a substantial shift toward open-access publishing. Institutions such as the Technical University of Manabí, the State University of Cuenca, and the Amazonian University of Ecuador saw significant increases in open-access output, some exceeding 200%. This reflects a broader movement toward open science, which appears to be associated with increased citation visibility (Khan et al., 2023). Conversely, subscription-based publishing declined in nearly all universities with the exception of ESPE and EPN.

Recent work reinforces these patterns. A bibliometric study of BRICS universities reported a parallel pandemic-era surge in online learning research and a marked tilt toward open dissemination models (Masalimova et al., 2024), while empirical reviews of open educational practices and online-learning effectiveness underscored that open access and digital participation were critical for maintaining instructional continuity during COVID-19 (Brandenburger, 2022; Meng et al., 2024). Our findings also support earlier studies on Ecuador’s rising scientific productivity (Bashir et al., 2021; Sweileh, 2022) and underscore its integration into international research communities, particularly through studies in the health and environmental sciences (Fei et al., 2021; Quincho-Lopez and Pacheco-Mendoza, 2021). Ecuador’s growing research visibility has been acknowledged in recent global analyses (Lancho-Barrantes and Cantu-Ortiz, 2021; Wani et al., 2023), although significant challenges remain, especially in enhancing international collaboration and aligning research agendas with national priorities (Guerrero-Quiñonez et al., 2023; Bonilla Carchi et al., 2022).

Our results are consistent with broader regional comparisons of scientific production in Latin America (Jaramillo et al., 2023; Araujo-Bilmonte et al., 2020), which have identified education, agriculture, and social development as priority areas (González Cisneros et al., 2021; Viera-Arroyo et al., 2020). The role of academic collaboration, both domestic and international, remains the cornerstone of Ecuador’s emerging research capacity (Luque González et al., 2022; Bindu et al., 2019; Sekhar et al., 2022). Latin American benchmarks sharpen the perspective on Ecuador’s gains. Brazil, the region’s principal knowledge producer, recorded 2,703 Web of Science indexed COVID-19 articles in 2020, with the University of São Paulo and Fiocruz accounting for a substantial share (Mateus and Berrío-Zapata, 2021). A complementary survey of SciELO identified 261 COVID-19 papers up to May 2020, two-thirds of which were published in Brazilian journals, underscoring Brazil’s hub role and the uneven distribution of output elsewhere in Latin America (Gallegos et al., 2020). Against this backdrop, Ecuadorian public universities produced 3,047 articles across all fields in 2020, a volume proportionate to national research capacity yet notable for its rapid shift toward open access.

Global bibliometric analyses have revealed a surge peak-plateau pattern in pandemic publishing. Hossain (2020) mapped a 26 percent rise in COVID-19 studies worldwide between 2020 and 2021, followed by a deceleration in early 2022, as research attention diversified. A scientometric review of 342,000 records confirmed this crest in late 2021 and its subsequent slowdown (Funada et al., 2023; Wang and Tian, 2021; Haghani and Bliemer, 2020). Ecuador mirrored the international upswing-public-university output that grew by 9.4 percent from 2020 to 2021, yet it did not exhibit the immediate downturn reported elsewhere, suggesting that the performance-based incentives introduced by the Higher Education Council in mid-2020 helped sustain momentum despite resource constraints.

This analysis relied on the Web of Science Core Collection, whose coverage of regional journals, conference proceedings, and non-English outlets is incomplete; therefore, the publication counts reported here should be considered conservative estimates. The study also focused solely on Ecuadorian public universities, excluding private institutions and specialized research centers that may follow different trajectories. Because the observation window spans only 2019–2021, it captures the immediate pandemic shock and early recovery but cannot reveal long-term shifts in research priorities. Moreover, the bibliometric indicators employed assess productivity and visibility, not research quality or societal impacts. Notwithstanding these constraints, the multivariate HJ-Biplot framework provides a replicable model for examining research dynamics in emerging systems where traditional evaluation metrics may be limited. Future work should extend the database coverage to Scopus or SciELO, incorporate altmetric and qualitative evidence, and compare public and private universities over a longer time horizon to assess the post-pandemic convergence or divergence.

The multivariate analysis presented in this study revealed that Ecuadorian public universities demonstrated resilience and adaptability in the face of COVID-19–related disruptions. Between 2019 and 2021, institutions not only maintained but, in many cases, increased their research output, particularly in the areas of Education, Social Sciences, Engineering, and Multidisciplinary Sciences. This trend reflects the critical role of higher education institutions as both learning centers and agents of national development.

The prominence of educational and social science research reflects a strategic orientation toward addressing national development priorities. The significant expansion of open-access publishing across multiple institutions highlights a deliberate effort to promote wider dissemination of academic knowledge, particularly in times of crisis where access to information is crucial.

Universities such as the Technical University of Machala and the State University of Cuenca have emerged as leaders, reflecting focused institutional strategies in response to global disruptions. Their example underscores the importance of sustained investment in research even during periods of uncertainty.

It is essential to continue supporting research capacity at Ecuadorian public universities, particularly in areas with high societal relevance. Efforts to broaden open-access publishing, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and align research agendas with local and global development needs are critical to ensuring the continued growth and impact of Ecuadorian science.

These findings are especially relevant because they illustrate how national systems of higher education, particularly in developing contexts, can adapt research priorities and publishing strategies to meaningfully contribute to both global knowledge production and local development goals.