Profiling Brazil’s research elite: Insights from a cluster analysis of a large database
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12 giu 2025
INFORMAZIONI SU QUESTO ARTICOLO
Categoria dell'articolo: Research Papers
Pubblicato online: 12 giu 2025
Pagine: 183 - 198
Ricevuto: 05 mar 2025
Accettato: 14 mag 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2025-0033
Parole chiave
© 2025 Cristian Rogério Foguesatto et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Figure 1.
Scores of the final centers of clusters_
| Cluster | Sample | % of sample | ASAP | BOF | MUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The advanced supervisors | 3398 | 0.244 | 0.200 | -0.235 | 1.30 |
| The book publisher/organizer | 1141 | 0.081 | -0.043 | 2.57 | -0.013 |
| The generalists | 9464 | 0.675 | -0.06 | -0.22 | -0.46 |
The science fields of the elite researchers_
| Absolute (relative) frequency | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Field | AS | BP | G |
| Agricultural | 761 (41.56%) | 71 (3.88%) | 999 (54.56%) |
| Applied Social | 368 (36.22%) | 183 (18.01%) | 465 (45.73%) |
| Health | 357 (23.91%) | 86 (5.76%) | 1050 (70.33%) |
| Biological | 421 (18.19%) | 19 (0.82%) | 1875 (80.99%) |
| Humanities | 261 (15.71%) | 559 (33.65%) | 840 (50.57%) |
| Linguistics and Arts | 53 (11.67%) | 167 (36.78%) | 234 (51.54%) |
| Exact and Earth | 466 (14.44%) | 30 (0.93%) | 2731 (84.63%) |
| Engineering | 711 (35.43%) | 26 (1.30%) | 1270 (63.28%) |
| Relative proportion | 24.2% | 8.1% | 67.5% |
The science fields of the super-elite researchers_
| Absolute (relative) frequency | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Field | AS | BP | G |
| Agricultural | 114 (37.38%) | 19 (6.23%) | 172 (56.39%) |
| Applied Social | 21 (17.21%) | 32 (26.23%) | 69 (56.56%) |
| Health | 46 (14.6%) | 22 (6.98%) | 247 (78.41%) |
| Biological | 64 (12.96%) | 7 (1.42%) | 423 (85.63%) |
| Humanities | 7 (2.36%) | 128 (43.1%) | 162 (54.55%) |
| Linguistics and Arts | 3 (3.95%) | 21 (27.63%) | 52 (68.42%) |
| Exact and Earth | 36 (7.0%) | 4 (0.78%) | 474 (92.22%) |
| Engineering | 91 (25.56%) | 11 (3.09%) | 254 (71.35%) |
| Relative proportion | 15.4% | 9.8% | 74.7% |
Descriptive statistics of elite researchers by clusters_
| Variable | Mean | Median | Standard deviation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS | BP | G | AS | BP | G | AS | BP | G | |
| Years of PhD | 20.19 | 23.33 | 26.88 | 20.00 | 23.00 | 26.00 | 6.22 | 8.02 | 9.30 |
| Published books | 0.06 | 0.37 | 0.04 | 0.03 | 0.27 | 0.00 | 0.10 | 0.35 | 0.07 |
| Published book chapters | 0.61 | 2.38 | 0.36 | 0.41 | 2.05 | 0.19 | 0.63 | 1.52 | 0.43 |
| Edited books | 0.06 | 0.52 | 0.03 | 0.00 | 0.42 | 0.00 | 0.11 | 0.45 | 0.07 |
| Amount of citations | 24.66 | 8.26 | 23.96 | 7.86 | 0.26 | 7.40 | 97.77 | 41.20 | 76.63 |
| Mean of citations by publications | 14.02 | 6.63 | 20.39 | 9.75 | 2.00 | 13.04 | 30.74 | 42.58 | 50.15 |
| Minimum of citations by publications | 1.41 | 1.09 | 2.02 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 3.49 | 2.76 | 15.07 |
| Maximum of citations by publications | 87.03 | 45.18 | 135.51 | 37.50 | 3.00 | 47.00 | 261.76 | 296.54 | 438.83 |
| Number of scientific papers | 5.25 | 3.92 | 3.43 | 4.29 | 2.76 | 2.71 | 3.85 | 3.72 | 2.85 |
| Proportion of first author | 0.82 | 1.72 | 0.71 | 0.58 | 1.41 | 0.52 | 0.85 | 1.33 | 0.68 |
| Mean of authors by publication | 5.64 | 2.77 | 7.13 | 5.20 | 2.10 | 4.88 | 6.03 | 2.66 | 35.86 |
| Proportion articles in English | 2.88 | 0.98 | 2.35 | 2.14 | 0.20 | 1.79 | 2.99 | 2.26 | 2.46 |
| Proportion articles in Portuguese | 2.34 | 2.85 | 1.06 | 1.68 | 2.19 | 0.70 | 2.18 | 2.47 | 1.13 |
| Proportion articles in Spanish | 0.02 | 0.06 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.08 | 0.15 | 0.04 |
| Master’s dissertation supervisions | 1.53 | 1.17 | 0.65 | 1.40 | 1.04 | 0.61 | 0.70 | 0.63 | 0.39 |
| Doctoral thesis supervisions | 0.77 | 0.73 | 0.45 | 0.67 | 0.67 | 0.41 | 0.52 | 0.43 | 0.30 |
| Undergraduate thesis supervision | 1.48 | 0.82 | 0.26 | 1.20 | 0.52 | 0.12 | 1.28 | 1.05 | 0.34 |
| Scientific initiation supervision | 1.88 | 1.03 | 0.60 | 1.71 | 0.84 | 0.50 | 1.20 | 0.88 | 0.51 |
| Postdoctoral supervision | 0.14 | 0.17 | 0.11 | 0.08 | 0.11 | 0.05 | 0.19 | 0.21 | 0.17 |
Descriptive statistics of super-elite researchers by clusters_
| Variable | Mean | Median | Standard Deviation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS | BP | G | AS | BP | G | AS | BP | G | |
| Years of PhD | 26.81 | 31.16 | 35.63 | 27.00 | 30.00 | 35.00 | 5.25 | 7.54 | 8.76 |
| Published books | 0.09 | 0.41 | 0.05 | 0.05 | 0.33 | 0.03 | 0.11 | 0.35 | 0.08 |
| Published book chapters | 0.68 | 2.40 | 0.39 | 0.50 | 2.06 | 0.24 | 0.62 | 1.52 | 0.44 |
| Edited books | 0.05 | 0.47 | 0.03 | 0.00 | 0.36 | 0.00 | 0.10 | 0.40 | 0.06 |
| Amount of citations | 58.06 | 11.51 | 38.88 | 22.00 | 0.41 | 12.65 | 204.58 | 31.46 | 115.91 |
| Mean of citations by publications | 21.13 | 7.04 | 25.06 | 15.02 | 3.00 | 16.71 | 43.71 | 11.15 | 53.28 |
| Minimum of citations by publications | 1.41 | 1.09 | 2.02 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 3.49 | 2.76 | 15.07 |
| Maximum of citations by publications | 87.03 | 45.18 | 135.51 | 37.50 | 3.00 | 47.00 | 261.76 | 296.54 | 438.83 |
| Number of scientific papers | 5.25 | 3.92 | 3.43 | 4.29 | 2.76 | 2.71 | 3.85 | 3.72 | 2.85 |
| Proportion of first author | 0.82 | 1.72 | 0.71 | 0.58 | 1.41 | 0.52 | 0.85 | 1.33 | 0.68 |
| Mean of authors by publication | 5.64 | 2.77 | 7.13 | 5.20 | 2.10 | 4.88 | 6.03 | 2.66 | 35.86 |
| Proportion articles in English | 2.88 | 0.98 | 2.35 | 2.14 | 0.20 | 1.79 | 2.99 | 2.26 | 2.46 |
| Proportion articles in Portuguese | 2.34 | 2.85 | 1.06 | 1.68 | 2.19 | 0.70 | 2.18 | 2.47 | 1.13 |
| Proportion articles in Spanish | 0.02 | 0.06 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.08 | 0.15 | 0.04 |
| Master’s dissertation supervisions | 1.53 | 1.17 | 0.65 | 1.40 | 1.04 | 0.61 | 0.70 | 0.63 | 0.39 |
| Doctoral thesis supervisions | 0.77 | 0.73 | 0.45 | 0.67 | 0.67 | 0.41 | 0.52 | 0.43 | 0.30 |
| Undergraduate thesis supervision | 1.48 | 0.82 | 0.26 | 1.20 | 0.52 | 0.12 | 1.28 | 1.05 | 0.34 |
| Scientific initiation supervision | 1.88 | 1.03 | 0.60 | 1.71 | 0.84 | 0.50 | 1.20 | 0.88 | 0.51 |
| Postdoctoral supervision | 0.14 | 0.17 | 0.11 | 0.08 | 0.11 | 0.05 | 0.19 | 0.21 | 0.17 |
Factor loadings of the researchers’ variables_
| Variable | ASAP | BOF | MUS | Communalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Master’s dissertation supervision | .728 | .655 | ||
| Doctoral thesis supervision | .656 | .590 | ||
| Undergraduate thesis supervision | .786 | .655 | ||
| Scientific initiation supervision | .726 | .564 | ||
| Posdoctoral supervision | .653 | .461 | ||
| Published books | .750 | .596 | ||
| Edited books | .822 | .693 | ||
| Published book chapters | .851 | .771 | ||
| Amount of scientific papers | .873 | .796 | ||
| Proportion of scientific papers in English | .876 | .811 | ||
| Eigenvalues | 3.13 | 2.13 | 1.28 | |
| Explained variance (%) | 31.34 | 21.31 | 12.80 |
Descriptive statistics of elite researchers_
| Variable | Mean | Median | SD | Min. | Max. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Years of PhD | 24.97 | 24.00 | 9.02 | 3.00 | 69.00 |
| Published Books | 0.08 | 0.02 | 0.16 | 0.00 | 3.11 |
| Published book chapters | 0.58 | 0.28 | 0.84 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
| Edited books | 0.08 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 0.00 | 3.89 |
| Years PQ | 12.71 | 14.00 | 5.06 | 0.00 | 18.00 |
| Published scientific papers | 3.91 | 3.05 | 3.29 | 0.00 | 47.33 |
| Proportion of scientific papers in English | 2.36 | 1.73 | 2.62 | 0.00 | 46.33 |
| Master’s dissertation supervisions | 0.90 | 0.78 | 0.63 | 0.00 | 7.43 |
| Doctoral thesis supervisions | 0.55 | 0.48 | 0.40 | 0.00 | 5.65 |
| Undergraduate thesis supervisions | 0.60 | 0.26 | 0.91 | 0.00 | 19.50 |
| Scientific initiation supervisions | 0.95 | 0.71 | 0.94 | 0.00 | 15.56 |
| Postdoctoral supervisions | 0.12 | 0.06 | 0.18 | 0.00 | 3.33 |