Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A profile analysis of the top Brazilian Computer Science graduate programs

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Analyzing the research productivity of a country, an academic institution or even a single research group contributes to understand how science evolves and discovers new research perspectives, since such efforts usually reveal key aspects that can be improved, avoided or even applied to other contexts. In this article, we present a detailed analysis of the top Brazilian Computer Science graduate programs. The analysis involves profile data on faculty members (e.g., career length and number of mentored students) and on the quality of their research efforts, assessed using the quality of their publications and collaboration patterns. The objective is to uncover factors that explain the strengths and weaknesses of graduate programs. Results show that the highest ranked programs include more experienced faculty members, who have mentored more Ph.D. students. We also show that programs target distinct publication venues, with the best ranked ones focusing on higher quality conferences and journals. By analyzing collaboration patterns, we show that intra-program relationships occur quite naturally whereas inter-program ones are still very incipient.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. CAPES Triennial Evaluation 2010–2012, http://www.capes.gov.br.

  2. Qualis: https://sucupira.capes.gov.br.

  3. DBLP: http://dblp.uni-trier.de.

  4. Qualis: http://qualis.capes.gov.br.

  5. Lattes Platform: http://lattes.cnpq.br.

  6. All statistical tests were performed with confidence level of 95%.

  7. The results for both time intervals (all time and last 10 years), for conference and journal publications, are similar.

References

  • Ancaiani, A., Anfossi, A. F., Barbara, A., Benedetto, S., Blasi, B., Carletti, V., et al. (2015). Evaluating scientific research in Italy: The 2004–10 research evaluation exercise. Research Evaluation, 24(3), 242–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arruda, D., Bezerra, F., Neris, V., Rocha De Toro, P., & Wainer, J. (2009). Brazilian computer science research: Gender and regional distributions. Scientometrics, 79(3), 651–665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bollen, J., Van de Sompel, H., Hagberg, A., & Chute, R. (2009). A principal component analysis of 39 scientific impact measures. PLoS ONE, 4(6), e6022.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delgado-Garcia, J. F., Laender, A. H. F, & Meira Jr., M. (2014). Analyzing the coauthorship networks of latin american computer science research groups. In Proceedings of latin American web congress, Ouro Preto, Brazil, pp. 77–81.

  • Digiampietri, L. A., Mena-Chalco, J. P., Vaz de Melo, P. O. S., Malheiro, A. P. R., Meira, D. N. O., Franco, L. F., et al. (2014). BraX-ray: An X-ray of the Brazilian Computer Science graduate programs. PLoS ONE, 9(4). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0094541.

  • Ferreira, A. A., Gonçalves, M. A., & Laender, A. H. F. (2012). A brief survey of automatic methods for author name disambiguation. SIGMOD Record, 41(2), 15–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freire, V. P., & Figueiredo, D. R. (2011). Ranking in collaboration networks using a group based metric. Journal of the Brazilian Computer Society, 17(4), 255–266.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, D., Wouters, P., Waltman, L., de Rijcke, S., & Rafols, I. (2015). The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics. Nature, 520, 429–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoppen, N. H. F., & Vanz, S Ad S. (2016). Neurosciences in Brazil: A bibliometric study of main characteristics, collaboration and citations. Scientometrics, 109(1), 121–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, J., Shi, P., An, B., Yu, J., & Wang, C. (2017). Measuring the social influences of scientist groups based on multiple types of collaboration relations. Information Processing & Management, 53(1), 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kato, M., & Ando, A. (2013). The relationship between research performance and international collaboration in chemistry. Scientometrics, 97(3), 535–553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laender, A. H. F., de Lucena, C. J. P., Maldonado, J. C., de Souza e Silva, E., & Ziviani, N. (2008). Assessing the research and education quality of the top Brazilian computer science graduate programs. SIGCSE Bulletin, 40(2), 135–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lane, J. (2010). Let’s make science metrics more scientific. Nature, 464(7288), 488–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lenzerini, M. (2002). Data integration: A theoretical perspective. In Proceedings of symposium on principles of database systems, Madison, USA, pp. 233–246.

  • Lewison, G., Kumar, S., Wong, C. Y., Roe, P., & Webber, R. (2016). The contribution of ethnic groups to Malaysian scientific output, 1982–2014, and the effects of the new economic policy. Scientometrics, 109(3), 1877–1893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lima, H., Silva, T. H. P., Moro, M. M., Santos, R. L. T., Meira Jr., W. & Laender, A. H. (2013). Aggregating productivity indices for ranking researchers across multiple areas. In Proceedings of joint conference on digital libraries, Indianapolis, USA, pp. 97–106.

  • Lima, H., Silva, T. H. P., Moro, M. M., Santos, R. L. T., Wagner, Meira J., & Laender, A. H. F. (2015). Assessing the profile of top Brazilian computer science researchers. Scientometrics, 103(3), 879–896.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, P., & Xia, H. (2015). Structure and evolution of co-authorship network in an interdisciplinary research field. Scientometrics, 103(1), 101–134.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Lopes, G. R., Moro, M. M., da Silva, R., Barbosa, E. M., & de Oliveira, J. P. M. (2011). Ranking strategy for graduate programs evaluation. In Proceedings of international conference on information technology and application, Sydney, Australia, pp. 253–260.

  • Menezes, G. V., Ziviani, N., Laender, A. H., & Almeida, V. (2009). A geographical analysis of knowledge production in computer science. In Proceedings of international world wide web conference, Madrid, Spain, pp. 1041–1050.

  • Ribas, S., Ribeiro-Neto, B., Santos, R. L., de Souza e Silva, E., Ueda, A., & Ziviani, N. (2015a). Random walks on the reputation graph. In Proceedings of the 2015 international conference on the theory of information retrieval, New York, USA, pp. 181–190.

  • Ribas, S., Ribeiro-Neto, B., & de Souza e Silva, E., Ueda A. H., & Ziviani, N. (2015b). Using reference groups to assess academic productivity in computer science. In Proceedings of international conference on world wide web, Florence, Italy, WWW Companion, pp. 603–608.

  • Russell, J. M., Hernández-García, Y., & Kleiche-Dray, M. (2016). Collaboration dynamics of Mexican research in Chemistry and its relationship with communication patterns. Scientometrics, 109(1), 283–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silva, T. H. P., Moro, M. M., & Silva, A. P. C. (2015a). Authorship contribution dynamics on publication venues in computer science: an aggregated quality analysis. In Proceedings of ACM symposium on applied computing, Salamanca, Spain, pp. 1142–1147.

  • Silva, T. H. P., Rocha, L. M. A., Moro, M. M., & Silva, A. P. C. (2015b). Research contribution across communities as an influence indicator. Journal of Information and Data Management, 6(3), 192–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silva, T. H. P., Laender, A. H. F., Davis, C. A., Silva, A. P. C., & Moro, M. M. (2016a). The impact of academic mobility on the quality of graduate programs. D-Lib Magazine, 22(9). doi:10.1045/september2016-silva.

  • Silva, T. H. P., Penha, G., Moro, M. M., & Silva, A. P. C. (2016b). A performance indicator for academic communities based on external publication profiles. Scientometrics, 107(3), 1389–1403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, V. K., Uddin, A., & Pinto, D. (2015). Computer science research: The top 100 institutions in India and in the world. Scientometrics, 104(2), 529–553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tukey, J. W. (1949). Comparing individual means in the analysis of variance. Biometrics, 5(2), 99–114.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Uddin, A., Singh, V., Pinto, D., & Olmos, I. (2015). Scientometric mapping of computer science research in Mexico. Scientometrics, 105(1), 97–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrettas, G., & Sanderson, M. (2015). Conferences versus journals in computer science. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(12), 2674–2684.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, I. (2016). Gender and performance in computer science. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 16(3), 11:1–11:16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wainer, J., Xavier, E. C., & de Lima Bezerra, F. (2009). Scientific production in computer science: A comparative study of Brazil and other countries. Scientometrics, 81(2), 535–547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Z., Yuan, D., Treeratpituk, P., & Giles, C.L. (2014). Science and ethnicity: How ethnicities shape the evolution of computer science research community. CoRR arXiv:1411.1129.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Thiago M. R. Dias from CEFET-MG for his invaluable help with collecting and processing data from the Lattes Platform. This work was supported by projects InWeb (Grant MCT/CNPq 573871/2008-6) and MASWeb (Grant FAPEMIG/PRONEX APQ-01400-14), and by the authors’ individual Grants from CNPq and FAPEMIG.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Thiago H. P. Silva, Alberto H. F. Laender, Clodoveu A. Davis Jr., Ana Paula Couto da Silva & Mirella M. Moro

Authors
  1. Thiago H. P. Silva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alberto H. F. Laender
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Clodoveu A. Davis Jr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ana Paula Couto da Silva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mirella M. Moro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alberto H. F. Laender.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Silva, T.H.P., Laender, A.H.F., Davis, C.A. et al. A profile analysis of the top Brazilian Computer Science graduate programs. Scientometrics 113, 237–255 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2462-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2462-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation