A frente de pesquisa sobre preservação digital no Brasil: produção e colaboração científica em rede

Abstract

The transformations that took place in the activities of production, communication and use of information fostered by digital technologies, led to significant changes in the processes of scientific communication now streamlined and organized in the form of networks. In this context, collaboration between researchers, institutions and organizations is encouraged, culminating in the emergence of scientific collaboration networks based on the exchange and sharing of information, skills and knowledge about common problems or needs. Therefore, reflecting on the relationships and connections that are established in the co-authorship of the scientific production of a specific theme can fill a gap in the scientific field that is studied. We start from the hypothesis that researchers who participate in research networks, structured by collaborative actions in the construction of a body of knowledge form the research front in this field. In this sense, the objective of this study is to analyze the front of research on digital preservation in Brazil, seeking to understand how collaboration networks are configured in scientific production on the subject in the area of Information Science. The research method comprised a quantitative and qualitative approach of a descriptive/exploratory nature in the publications available at BRAPCI from 2000 to 2021. Bibliometrics, Citation Analysis and Social Network Analysis were used as analysis techniques. Thus, 182 articles written in co-authorship were raised, which enabled the elaboration of a set of indicators involving the characterization of scientific articles, authors, journals and institutions that form the Brazilian collaboration network on digital preservation, as well as the formalized relationships and connections, the institutional links and nature of the relationships of the actors that form the network. The results point to a research field fragmented into subgroups that are not connected to each other, but are representative in scientific production and in the conjunction of collaborators in their research networks. It highlights the mentor-student relationship as the one that most produces connections in the network and the bonds were both intra-institutional and inter-institutional, pointing more to proximity relationships and to the research group as an intellectual locus that harbors social ties. In short, we conclude that institutionalized research networks are formed by collaborative actions of collective projects and it is these collaboration networks that characterize the scientific community that produces on digital preservation in Brazil.