Introduction:

the dissemination of scientific knowledge happens when intellectual production reaches the user; that is, it goes beyond research work, and requires making its results visible.

Objective:

to characterize the scientific production of the teachers of the University of Medical Sciences of Villa Clara, from the perspective of their visibility.

Methods:

a qualitative and quantitative descriptive research was carried out on the development of scientific production, during the period January-December 2017. The universe was constituted by all the scientific publications declared: 3140 (books, CD-Room, journal articles, monographs, among others).

Results:

a survey was designed to ask questions related to publication practices. A total of 600 teachers were surveyed; the most represented teaching category was assistant one, 312 (52); 447 of them (74.5%), expressed having 1 to 5 publications; 238 (39.66%) published systematically as co-author and lead author interchangeably; the Virtual Health Library was the most used resource for the search of scientific research; the most published language is Spanish, 582 (97%); the journal in which they have published the most is Medicentro Electrónica, 238 (39.66%); the visibility option they have used the most is social networks, 294 (49%); and 100% of those interviewed are unaware of the institutional policy on visibility of the University.

Conclusions:

the presence of articles by Cuban authors in the area of health in prestigious databases has increased in relation to the last 10 years; however, it is still insufficient, which undermines the visibility of the scientific productivity of our professionals.