Informação & Sociedade: Estudos - Mirror of Information Science in Brazil

Abstract

Descriptiveresearch, using the metricsofinformationand communication and thecontent analysis asmethodology with a qualitative and quantitative approach. It aims to analyze the journal Informação & Sociedade: Estudos through its papers’ thematic trajectories, inorder to verify howthey followthe Information Science development process and if they represent contemporary issues in the area. Data collected in the periodic editions from 1991 to 2019 are the basis to this research, focusing onpublicatedpapers,authorsand themes.Data collectionwasperformedin thejournal’sown system, extracting information related to the authorship (name, institutional affiliation, number of authors per article) and to thearticles (title). The analysis of the papers´ themes was carried out in a time frame from 2005 to 2019. With regard to authorship, there is acertainbalancebetween articles withtwo authorsand articleswith singleone. Overtheyears, they presentan increasing numberofauthors,aswellasalarger participationofinterinstitutionalpartnerships.Itisworthmentioningthecontributions of authors from foreign institutions, mainly from Spain, Portugal and other European countries. Inthe analysis of the prevalent themes among the articles, Competence in information, Libraries, Metrics of information and communication and Informationandknowledgemanagementarethemostfrequent.TheresultalsoshowsamixofbasicthemesofInformation Science, such as Information Retrieval with new approaches, Electronic Journals, Digital Libraries and Repositories, in addition to theoretical issues such as Epistemology of Information Science.

Keywords: Scientific journals. Scientific Communication. Scientific Productivity, Information and Society: Studies.