REFLECTING ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT FIELD IN ACADEMIA: WHAT DO RESEARCHERS IN THE AREA THINK ABOUT IT?

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a descriptive qualitative study, based on data gathered from a previous quantitative study, which had raised several issues about the scientific development of the Information Management area in Brazil after the bibliometric analysis of all papers selected for presentation at the Enanpad conference during the last 10 years. Standout researchers in the field were invited to give their interpretations to the results of the bibliometric study and 39 agreed to do it. An attempt was made here to capture the critical look of these colleagues about authorship, the types of references used in the papers, the main events whose proceedings were referred by the authors of Enanpad papers, the main journals used in their research, the most frequently quoted foreign authors and the frequency of citation of authors in references. Capes role in consolidating research tracks and the level of maturity of the area were also assessed by the participants. In general, the participants have an optimistic perception of the way Information Management is developing in the Brazilian academia. They found encouraging explanations for several of the bibliometric study's findings about which they were invited to provide their opinion, which could have been considered negative by more pessimistic observers.