The current knowledge of the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve (CBR), Tamaulipas, Mexico was identified from scientific publications between 1993 and 2019.Objective: Analyze, synthesize and categorize the published research on the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve (CBR), Tamaulipas.Design/methodology/approach: The methodology focused on searching, classifying and reviewing existing sources in the SCOPUS database from a knowledge base perspective. The assessment recovered 37 publications that were analyzed and mapped in four dimensions: size, time, space, and composition. The analyzes were performed using the Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny software tools.Results: The reviewed publications addressed biodiversity studies from a disciplinary approach and from an ecological perspective, which produces a fragmented knowledge of this territory and its problems.Limitations on study/implications: There may be publications not appearing in the Scopus database.Findings/conclusions: The knowledge of the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve is fragmented, with a disciplinary approach and from an ecological perspective. The lack of a critical mass of researchers to generate useful knowledge is observed. A weak intellectual structure is also found, which generates a reduced contribution to the conservation of biodiversity. The original contribution of this paper is the synthesis of the current state of the knowledge regard biodiversity and conservation of the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, which had not been performed previously.
