Construção e constituição de uma ciência: análise bibliométrica e arqueológica do periódico Ciência da Informação - Brasil

Abstract

The work herein presented has aimed the investigation and identification of the historically institutionalization of Information Science (IS) inBrazil, from the archaeological analysis of the elements found in the journal of Information Science (Ci Inf). It has been specifically proposed: to analyze citations contained in the articles and journal publications; the interpretation of the results obtained from the analysis of the material in the light of the authors presented in the theoretical foundations and, especially, Michel Foucault and his work, Archaeology of Knowledge. The analysis has been germinated by the presumption that the IS is formed by a set of discursive practices, enunciative games and institutional rules which are not solely restricted to the scientific discourses and their actions do not only steer themselves by the rules of the scientific process. The quantitative research that has guided the interpretation of this scenario was the bibliometric studies involving that journal articles and citations, which is the publishing editorial responsibility of the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT). The material for analysis was composed of thirty-six (36) volumes and eighty six (86) issues and, in total, 704 articles has been worked upon, with 772 authors, 13.423 references (10.682 excluding duplicates) and 8.804 referenced authors (ignoring repetitions ). The time frame covers the period from the 1950s, when there were the founding of the Institute in 1954 (since 1976, it has been called IBICT), until the year 2007, therefore, 45 years of historical analyzed context, and thirty-five years of publication. The data have been analyzed in an archaeological level, from the Foucauldian principle of externality, while the categories "be able and the truth, have guided the historical and contextual reflexions. Thus, we have sought to demonstrate the formation of research objects, places of enunciation; discourse emergencysurfaces and instances in which the knowledge of the area has emerged. The problem thathas been considered was caused by the necessity of historical studies, in the referring IS to its institutionalization and legitimization, as a discursive field in the country. It has not only been the description of a story of celebration, but it depicts the trajectoryof individuals, institutions, power games, their integration into society and their interrelationships. The journal was chosen as a source of analysis, as it was a journal of scientific publications, and it is the first emergency discursive surface in the area of SI in Brazil. As a result ofthese studies it has been showed that the IS is a discursive field of interwoven networks of knowledge that crosses through several instances, which are not only scientific, but belongs to the Social Sciences and has influenced many other fields of knowledge. In its process of institutionalization and legitimization as disciplinary field, it has featured institutional contributions coming from the government, as well as research and researchers inserted in this context of knowledge and power. Therefore, it was considered that the Foucauldian analysis of articles and quotes from the bibliometric material, has unveiled a major networks of relationships among texts, its polyphonic and inter-textual principle, beyond the contexts in which speeches have been made and the power of speech given to social actorsof these texts.