Key words of Brazilian science

Word clouds formed by the 50 most frequent words in the titles of the 87 thousand doctorate dissertations

approved in Brazil between 1996 and 2008

Roberto Dantas de PinhoMinistry of Science, Technology and Innovation

Eduardo ViottiUniversity of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development

Development Challenges in Brazil and the Role of the UniversitiesColumbia University, New York, November 18, 2011

Viotti 1

• The size of the font is proportional to how frequent and particular to a field a word is

• The most frequent words in all fields received relatively smaller weights in the analysis of each field in particular.

• Words without semantic meaning were naturally suppressed (e.g., the, and, for, study and analysis).

• This filter was not applied in the multidisciplinary field.

• Source of data: Coleta Capes.

Viotti 2

Fields’ weight = (A/B)β

Frequency adjusted by fields’ weight = (A/B) β x A

Where:

A = word’s frequency in the field;

B = word’s frequency in all fields;

β set to 2.

Viotti 3

Exact and earth sciences

Viotti 4

Biological sciences

Viotti 5

Engineering and computer sciences

Viotti 6

Health sciences

Viotti 7

Agricultural sciences

Viotti 8

Applied social sciences

Viotti 9

Human sciences

Viotti 10

Linguistics, literature and arts

Viotti 11

Multidisciplinary

Viotti 12

All fields

Viotti 13

Viotti 14