A emergência da análise de redes sociais como campo de pesquisa: perspectiva da análise da produção científica em português e espanhol a partir do Google Academico

摘要

The research and the use of social network analysis has grown over the last decade as a methodology for the study of informational problems. We identify how this growth has occurred through the analysis of scientific papers indexed by Google Scholar in Spanish and Portuguese. The results confirm the emergence of the methodology as a focus of interest of researchers, particularly since 2005, when their growth reaches more than 500% in Portuguese and over 400% from 1999 in Spanish. However, this growth in terms of debates, conceptual and practical use can be considered very early, since we could not identify even one significant community of researchers who were developing the theme and deepening their potential uses in Portuguese. The movement in the Spanish language seems to indicate another moment of maturity of the research. Other studies indicate that researchers are still starting their experiences with social network analysis, needs further conceptual development and use of resources available for more complex methodology.