Delimitation of a multidisciplinary area for bibliometric analysis of scientific production: study case in the area of Bioprospecting

Abstract

The bibliometric indicators in science and technology were born from the need for evaluating the research productivity of the scientific institutions, departing from the premise that knowledge produced in any scientific area is, to a large extent, incorporated in its literature. However, science is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary, and one of the main difficulties in performing the bibliometric analysis has been to construct indicators that would match up with the characteristics of a given multidisciplinary area. This occurs because the scientific databases adopt a classification of knowledge that is specific to each of the scientific areas, sub-areas and disciplines, attributing as well the same classification to the scientific periodicals . This study, developed within such context, contributes specifically to the delimitation and construction of indicators for an area of multidisciplinary scientific activity, the bioprospecting. In the last years this area of knowledge has burgeoned in the economical and political spheres. This study demonstrates that bioprospecting has been also important in the academic milieu. Herein, the findings indicate a markedly growing interest on the subject, made evident by the number of published articles, academic disciplines, main periodicals and research institutions that distinguished themselves in the knowledge production of such multidisciplinary area.