Desenhos metodológicos: os métodos, técnicas e instrumentos utilizados nas dissertações do PPGCI/UFPB

Abstract

This research analyzes the methodological strategies of the scientific production of the PostGraduate Program in Information Science of the Federal University of Paraíba - PPGCI / UFPB. Where each step of the specific objectives established, such as: to categorize, by line of research and thematic area, the dissertations; To classify, in terms of the types of approach used, the sources of information and the intended objectives, the dissertations; To identify the techniques and instruments of data collection used in the dissertations and to specify the methods and techniques of analysis used in the dissertations, were fulfilled. For that, the abstracts and the methodological procedures of each one of the dissertations were analyzed. Thus, the present research can be classified as descriptive, as regards the objectives, quantitative qualitative, regarding the approach and documentary, regarding the sources of information that will be used. The research corpus comprises a total of 146 dissertations, analyzed in the period from 2010 to 2016. The categorization technique was used in the content analysis method. The research through the data analyzed and quantified, demonstrates that there is a tendency in the thematic area of studies of representation and information retrieval. The predominance of the qualitative nature, the descriptive research, the deductive approach and the set of 6 methods (interview, questionnaire, documentary analysis, bibliographic analysis, statistical analysis and categorization technique) was predominant, representing 76% of the total uses. However, the production of the dissertations, when compared to the objectives of the lines of research existing in said Program, presents coherence between the studied subjects and the interests of the lines. It is important to highlight the performance of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - CAPES, which has contributed to the performance of the Brazilian Postgraduate Programs based on their evaluation criteria.