Approaching bibliometrics and prosopography: The comprehensive publishing landscape of CNPq (Brazil) and CONICET (Argentina) and its coverage in global databases

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1518-2924.2025.e103528

Keywords:

Bibliometric Coverage, Brazil-Argentina, Wos-Scopus, National Publishing Databases, Prosopography

Abstract

Objective: Global databases such as Web of Science and Scopus have determined the standard indicators to measure the research output in national comparisons and its quality evaluation for decades. Already classic studies of science proved that this landscape of scientific production was distorted by using overly selective bibliographical indexes that were considered “international databases” while their coverage was severely limited. A relevant part of the bibliometric literature in the last 10 years has revolved around the limitations of these global data sources and the search for alternatives to explore more comprehensive universes of the scholarly output, considering all disciplines and languages.

Methods: Particularly relevant in this debate are some recently created bibliographic services and search engines that provide new opportunities: Dimensions, Lens, Open Alex, CrossRef and Google Scholar. Our specific contribution to these studies relies on a methodological shift based on a convergence between prosopography and bibliometrics. For that end, we selected two countries that can be considered “peripheral centers” in the Latin American region.

Results: Firstly, we determined a universe of national researchers of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET, Argentina). The target populations are composed of 10,619 tenured researchers at CONICET and 14,418 holders of the CNPq’s “research productivity fellowship”. Secondly, we built a database with their comprehensive publishing performance uploaded in the national curricular information systems, the Brazilian Lattes and Argentina’s SIGEVA, that includes metadata for all articles. After computational and manual data cleaning of this database, we retained a total 464,361 articles for Brazil and 81,005 for Argentina published in 2013-2020.

Conclusions: The comparative study shows that Argentina and Brazil have similar patterns of coverage in the global databases, although they differ in terms of collaboration practices and national publishing.

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Author Biographies

Luciano Digiampietri, University of São Paulo

He holds a degree in Computer Science from the State University of Campinas (2002), a PhD in Computer Science from the State University of Campinas (2007) and the title of Lecturer in Information and Technology from USP (2015). Since April 2008 he has been a research professor in the Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities of the University of São Paulo (EACH-USP) and since 2010 he has been an advisor in the Postgraduate Program in Information Systems at EACH-USP. He has experience in Computer Science, with an emphasis on Computational Biology, Databases and Artificial Intelligence, working mainly on the following topics: scientific workflows, bioinformatics, automatic service composition, image processing and social network analysis.

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Osvaldo Gallardo, Universidade Nacional de Cuyo

Osvaldo Gallardo has a degree in History (Universidad Nacional de Cuyo) and a PhD in Latin American Social Studies (Universidad Nacional de Cuyo). He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at CONICET and has been selected for the agency's scientific research career. He has worked on academic mobility, linguistic competences in the academic space and the structure of peripheral scientific fields. Currently, Osvaldo is focused on gender asymmetries, the impact of APCs and evaluation and publication practices in the scientific field.

Denis Baranger, Universidade Nacional de Misiones

Born on 04/14/1948. Konex Award 2016. Bachelor in Sociology (UBA), Master in Social Sciences (FLACSO, Mexico), PhD in Social Sciences (UBA). Regular Full Professor of the Department of Social Anthropology (FHCS-UNaM), and Director of the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPAS-UNaM) since 2014. Director of Avá Revista de Antropología Social, and member of the Consejo Asesor de Pensamiento Universitario. Author of Epistemología y metodología en la obra de Pierre Bourdieu, Buenos Aires: Prometeo, 2005 (2nd ed., 2012); Construcción y análisis de datos. Introducción al uso de técnicas cuantitativas en la investigación social, Posadas: Ed. Universitaria, 2001 (3rd ed. 2009); Tabaco y agrotóxicos, Posadas: Ed. Universitaria, 2007; and of articles published in scientific journals and books in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, USA, France, Italy and Mexico.He is currently working in sociology of social sciences in Argentina.

Fernanda Beigel, National University of Cuyo

Fernanda Beigel is a Sociologist with a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina). She did her postdoctoral studies at the Centre de Sociologie Européenne (EHESS, Paris). He chaired the Committee of Experts in Open Science of UNESCO (2020-2021) and the National Committee of Open and Citizen Science (MINCYT, Argentina, between 2021 and 2023). She received the Bernardo Houssay Award (2003), First Prize CLACSO Essay Contest (2004), and the Honorable Mention for Scientific Courage, Senate of the Argentine Nation (2017). She is a Senior Researcher at CONICET and Full Professor at the National University of Cuyo, where she directs the Center for the Study of the Circulation of Knowledge (CECIC).

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2025-09-25

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DIGIAMPIETRI, Luciano; GALLARDO, Osvaldo; BARANGER, Denis; BEIGEL, Fernanda. Approaching bibliometrics and prosopography: The comprehensive publishing landscape of CNPq (Brazil) and CONICET (Argentina) and its coverage in global databases. Encontros Bibli: electronic journal of library science, archival science and information science, Florianópolis/SC, Brasil, v. 30, p. 1–34, 2025. DOI: 10.5007/1518-2924.2025.e103528. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/eb/article/view/103528. Acesso em: 30 jan. 2026.

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Vol. 30 (2025): For diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible science

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Copyright (c) 2025 Luciano Digiampietri, Osvaldo Gallardo, Denis Baranger, Fernanda Beigel

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