Contributing for the discussion of the Qualis classification in occupational therapy in Brazil

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the bibliographic production of occupational therapy researchers who belong to research groups coordinated by occupational therapists affiliated with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development - CNPq (Directory of Research Groups, version 4.1). The latter account for most researchers directly involved in research activities in the country. METHODOLOGY: Complete articles written by master's and/or doctoral occupational therapists, published in national or international journals until the year 2000, were considered. These articles were researched at the CV database of CNPq. Bibliographic production was characterized according to journals (indexed or not in bibliographic databases), areas of knowledge (biology, health, education, social studies) and author's institution of origin. RESULTS: A total of 169 articles written by 46 authors were identified. These articles were written from 1985 to 2000, and published in 54 journals. National production accounted for 85% of the 169 articles. Master's and doctorate courses taken by occupational therapists had an impact on the bibliographic production only in the 1990s. In occupational therapy, an emerging field, the following was observed: authors are mainly distributed in the southeast, especially in the State of São Paulo; publication of articles is spread over various journals; there is a limited number of authors and production is low in absolute number. It was noted that the evaluation of bibliographic production of professors according to Qualis (classification of periodicals, journals, proceedings and magazines) overestimates bibliographic production indexed in English bibliographic databases. The need to establish more collective strategies to increase bibliographic production - of books and of articles - in absolute number was observed, as well as the need to urge discussion on the subject among researchers and professors.