Introduction:

In contrast with other tropical countries, Cuba has been frequently studied from the point of view of scientometrics. It has been reported that Cuban researchers often failed to cite other Cuban researchers or to collaborate with them and that 78 % of the Cuban scientific output is published in Cuban journals and mostly missed by Scopus and the Web of Science. However, there are no recent comprehensive studies of science in Cuba.

Objective:

To quantify the Cuban scientific output, in all disciplines, until the beginning of 2021.

Methods:

We analyzed publications from Cuba, dated 1900 to 2021, that reached the index Science Citation Index Expanded.

Results:

We retrieved a total of 23 576 publications, mostly articles. In this particular database, English is the dominant language, and, over time, articles have become longer and increased the number of authors and references. Numerically, the leading institution is Universidad de La Habana. Research is strongly concentrated around medical subjects. Collaboration teams led by foreign authors have more citations recorded by the database, where the number of Cuban articles has decreased strongly since 2008.

Conclusion:

Our conclussions only apply to the fraction of Cuban science covered by the Science Citation Index Expanded (under 22 %). We recommend three main improvements: to increase collaboration among Cuban scientists; to expand research areas beyond medical subjects; and to improve the quality of Cuban journals.