This study examined different facets of scientific mobility, including local, regional and global mobility, as well as international cooperation through an analysis of co-authorship among researchers publishing in the Scopus database. The study focuses on three selected South American countries, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, for the period between 2000 and 2022. The analysis is based on the use of metadata available in the Scopus database for the period 2000 to 2022, the affiliation of the authors of each identified paper was used to analyze scientific mobility flows and also international collaboration, in order to determine the dynamics of internal and international mobility and its impact on peripheral South American countries. This process was analyzed for Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, the main destinations of each country were geolocated and recognizable patterns were established for each of them in the period studied. The analysis indicates that concepts such as brain drain or brain gain, depending on the specific case and historical moment, are more appropriate than brain circulation (scientific mobility), which is applied to the central countries.
