Scientometria

Scientometria, or scientometrics, is the quantitative study of science. It applies statistical, bibliometric, and network analysis methods to measure and interpret the production, dissemination, and impact of scientific knowledge. The field aims to support research policy, institutional decision making, and the evaluation of researchers, journals, and funding programs.

Core techniques include bibliometrics and citation analysis, co-authorship and co-citation networks, bibliographic coupling, and text mining of publication records. Common indicators are citation counts, the h-index, journal impact factors, and more sophisticated measures such as eigenfactor scores and article-level metrics. In recent years, altmetrics have expanded the view of impact to social media, policy documents, datasets, and downloads.

Data often come from bibliographic databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions, PubMed, and field-specific repositories. Analyses rely on network science, statistical modeling, and visualizations to reveal collaboration patterns, field structure, and knowledge flows.

Applications include research evaluation, benchmarking, identifying emerging research fields, and informing science policy and resource allocation. The field also faces methodological and ethical challenges, such as field and citation biases, data quality, and the risk of metric gaming. Responsible metrics movements advocate transparency, normalization across disciplines, and the use of qualitative assessment alongside quantitative indicators.

Historically, scientometrics has roots in the work of Derek de Solla Price and Eugene Garfield, and it has grown with the availability of large digital databases and advanced analytics. In Portuguese and Spanish, the term scientometria is commonly used to refer to the same discipline.