Terminology used to refer to individuals of Latin American and Hispanic descent has shifted over time. These linguistic shifts affect the discoverability of research concerning Latino populations, which can have downstream policy, clinical and academic implications. We aimed to analyze trends in the usage of these terms in academic literature to determine the most effective search terms to improve research discoverability for these populations. Conducted a structured search of PubMed ranging from January 2000 and December 2022. We quantify the frequency of publications that used the terms "Hispanic," "Latin", "Latino," "Latina," "Latinx", "Latine" in titles and abstracts or the "Hispanic and Latino" MeSH term. We searched for individual and combination use of these terms. The total number of publications identified per term and extent of overlap between terms was described. We focused on documenting article counts without assessing content and quality of publications. We found a 9-fold increase in the number of articles referencing Latino population over the study period. No individual term captured the entire body of literature available in PubMed; rather, different combinations of terms were used across studies. Shifts in terminology used over time were observed with new terms such as "Latine" and Latinx" rising in the last 10 years. Our study underscores how evolving terminology used in Latino-focused research can affect the discoverability of publications, which has practical implications for policymakers, researchers, and health providers. Scholars should adopt diverse terminologies and strategic keyword integration to promote engagement with Latino-oriented research.
Keywords: Academic literature trends; Health disparities in latino populations, keyword optimization in research; Hispanic research discoverability; Latino terminology; Latinx and latine usage.
© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.