Research about conducting research: a citation analysis on information science literature

• Autor(a) principal: Freitas, Juliana Lazzarotto
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Bufrem, Leilah Santiago, Oliveira, Ely Francina Tannuri de, Grácio, Maria Cláudia Cabrini
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: AtoZ (Curitiba)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.ufpr.br/atoz/article/view/41332
• topic: Ciencia de Información: procesos de comunicación; Ciencia de Información: métodos cuantitativos, bibliometría; Ciencia de Información; Análisis de la producción científica; Análisis de citas; Acoplamiento bibliográfico; Metodología de la Investigación; Information science: communication processes; Information science: quantitative methods, bibliometrics; Information Science; Scientific production analysis; Citation analysis; Bibliographic coupling; Research methodology; Ciência da Informação: processos da comunicação; Ciência da Informação: métodos quantitativos, bibliometria; Ciência da Informação; Análise da produção científica; Análise de citação; Acoplamento bibliográfico; Metodologia da pesquisa

Introduction: This paper considers that information science (IS) literature covers a diversity of thematics with low emphasis on researches about conducting research. The study analyzes the scientific production of authors who investigate about research methodology in the information science (IS) literature, and the references used to lay the foundation of the methodological issues regarding the area. It discusses the methodological and epistemological positions of the leading researchers highlighted as the most productive investigators on the subject in the country. Method: The research adopts the content analysis coupled with metric studies to contextualize the indicators related to productivity, to the types of authorship and citation analysis. The bibliographic coupling method is considered an analysis mode which analyzes concomitant citations. It develops a theoretical framework about the importance of scientific production analysis in different knowledge fields. The study investigates, from a theoretical perspective, the concepts about research methodology and the complementarity between methodology and epistemology in conducting research. Results: The results of the analysis showed that the production of the highlighted authors presents the methodology as a thematic focus to be applied to IS contexts, as well as a research object in the field. The prominent productivity of the authors is justified especially by deepening the meta studies about the ways to conduct research in IS. This study also identifies a trend to single-authored studies about the theme. Conclusions: The research considers that meta studies and applied and methodological studies are important to recognize a consistent theoretical and practical core in the IS area. Regarding the epistemological influences identified by the citation analysis, the study observes that the critical rationalist epistemology and the social and political epistemology are highlighted in the construction of the theoretical framework of the most productive authors.