Scientometric analysis of bibliometric studies published in brazilian library and information science journals (1990-2005)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the theme “bibliometric studies” published on five Brazilian journals, from 1990 to 2005, particularly the aspects of geographic origin, chronological evolution and thematic orientation. The methodology used was the quantitative-description analysis, using articles published on the following journals: Ciência da Informação, Transinformação, Perspectivas em Ciência da Informação, DataGramaZero - Revista de Ciência da Informação, Revista da Escola de Biblioteconomia da UFMG. Twenty-one articles were used as the sample. They were written by Brazilian authors from Brazilian academic institutions. The results point out that the theme bibliometrics published in articles published over the period of 16 years (1990 to 2005) was presented in anti-symmetrical form, varying between the minimum of one to a maximum of six articles/year; Ciência da Informação was the journal with the greatest number of articles (71.4%) followed by Transinformação and Revista da Escola de Biblioteconomia of UFMG. One characteristic of this production is the nature of the authors, with a predominance of single authorship, even though a large number of authors publishing about bibliometrics was not observed. The citation analysis thematics, one of the styles of bibliometric studies, is what promotes Brazilian studies on this area since the beginning of the 21st century.