The dynamics of Brazilian protozoology over the past century

Brazilian scientists have been contributing to the protozoology field for more than 100 years with important discoveries of new species such asTrypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp. In this work, we used a Brazilian thesis database (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) covering the period from 1987-2011 to identify researchers who contributed substantially to protozoology. We selected 248 advisors by filtering to obtain researchers who supervised at least 10 theses. Based on a computational analysis of the thesis databases, we found students who were supervised by these scientists. A computational procedure was developed to determine the advisors’ scientific ancestors using the Lattes Platform. These analyses provided a list of 1,997 researchers who were inspected through Lattes CV examination and allowed the identification of the pioneers of Brazilian protozoology. Moreover, we investigated the areas in which researchers who earned PhDs in protozoology are now working. We found that 68.4% of them are still in protozoology, while 16.7% have migrated to other fields. We observed that support for protozoology by national or international agencies is clearly correlated with the increase of scientists in the field. Finally, we described the academic genealogy of Brazilian protozoology by formalising the “forest” of Brazilian scientists involved in the study of protozoa and their vectors over the past century.

O envelhecimento na Sociologia brasileira contemporânea: notas preliminares / Aging in contemporary Brazilian Sociology: preliminary notes

Este artigo propõe caracterizar algumas contribuições bibliográficas da Sociologia brasileira contemporânea sobre envelhecimento. Tendo por questões norteadoras: quais são os grupos de pesquisas e o que priorizam em suas investigações sobre o tema envelhecimento, realizou-se um estudo exploratório sobre os dados disponibilizados no Diretório de Grupos de Pesquisa do CNPq. A partir dos descritores envelhecimento e gerontologia, na grande área de Ciências Humanas, identificaram-se 53 grupos (Antropologia n=9; Educação n=13; Filosofia n=1; Psicologia n=25; Sociologia n=5). Utilizou-se o software Script Lattes para caracterização dos grupos de pesquisa. Ao todo, identificaram-se 440 pesquisadores entre líderes e membros. Observou-se que 20% desses pesquisadores atuam em mais de um grupo. A análise dos resultados aponta aspectos relevantes para refletir o espectro da sociologia e sua capilarização nas Ciências Humanas, com indicadores expressivos nos recursos humanos, nas produções científicas, bem como a localização geográfica dos pesquisadores e redes de coautoria.

This article proposes to characterize some bibliographic contributions of contemporary Brazilian Sociology of aging. Having as guiding questions: hat are the research groups and to prioritize in their investigations on the topic aging, there was an exploratory study on the data available in the CNPq Research Groups Directory. From the descriptors aging and gerontology, in the area of Humanities, they identified 53 groups (n = 9 Anthropology, Education n = 13; n = 1 Philosophy Psychology n = 25; Sociology n = 5). We used the Script Lattes software for characterization of the research groups. Altogether, they identified 440 researchers between leaders and members. It was observed that 20% of researchers working in more than one group. The results point to reflect the relevant aspects of sociology spectrum and its capillarity in the Humanities, with significant indicators of human resources, scientific productions, as well as the geographical location of researchers and co-authorship networks.