Análisis bibliométrico de las revistas latinoamericanas de Business, Management and Accounting en SCOPUS

El desarrollo constante de la ciencia hace necesario realizar estudios que permitan conocer su desarrollo global y por campos o sectores geográficos. Se presenta un estudio bibliométrico sobre la producción científica publicada en las revistas latinoamericanas de la categoría Business, Management and Accounting (BMA) del Scimago Journal Rank y con información almacenada en la base de datos SCOPUS. Para llevar a cabo este estudio, se descargaron de SCOPUS los datos relativos a los documentos indexados en dicha base de datos; posteriormente, y a partir del recuento de frecuencias, se identificaron los patrones de producción de documentos por revista y por año, los países más productivos, los indicadores de colaboración en la autoría y el tipo de colaboración. Se halló un incremento en la coautoría y los índices de colaboración, así como en la colaboración internacional. La producción ha tenido un considerable aumento en el periodo comprendido entre los años 1996 y 2010. Si bien los índices de colaboración han aumentado, esta colaboración se efectúa, principalmente, entre países latinoamericanos.

Science's constant development makes it necessary to carry out studies that allow us to understand its global development, as well as the level of development of each field and the scientific production of a certain geographical area. The bibliometric study presented focuses on the scientific production published in Latin American journals within the Business, Management and Accounting (BMA) category of the Scimago Journal Rank and the information stored in the SCOPUS database. Thus, the information regarding the documents indexed in the SCOPUS database was downloaded. The patterns of document production per journal and per year were identified based on a frequency count. The most productive countries, the degree of collaboration and the type of collaboration were also identified. An increase in co-authorship and collaboration rates was pointed out, as well as an increase in international collaboration. There has been a considerable increase in the production between 1996 and 2010. Although the collaboration rates have increased, this collaboration is mainly maintained between Latin American countries.

Measuring attitude towards mathematics using Likert scale surveys: The weighted average.

In the research on mathematics education, numerous Likert-type instruments estimating attitudes toward mathematics are sometimes composed of factors with a high correlation, which can make it difficult to assign the statements from the scale to each estimated factor. Further, the measurement of attitudes is usually done by adding the scores but ignoring the existence of possible differences in the importance that each item can have in its factor estimation. A revision of the methodology for the study of attitudes toward mathematics for the correct validation of the instrument is carried out in this research, and an estimation of the factors of attitude is proposed using the calculation of the weighted average of scores based on the importance that each item has in the explanation of its factor, which is given by a structural equation model. This methodology has been applied to Auzmendi's scale of attitudes toward mathematics measurement in a sample of 1293 university students. The factors were estimated using simple and weighted averages; significant differences have been obtained in the measurements, as well on those shown with the organization proposed by Auzmendi.

Analysis of attitudinal components towards statistics among students from different academic degrees.

Despite its important position in academic and scientific fields, as well as in daily life, statistics is a subject that generates negative attitudes within most t disciplines in the college curriculum. This paper proposes a method for analysing different students' attitudes toward statistics using paired ANOVA tests for comparing components and groups, and discriminant analysis application for measuring the discriminant power of different components. This method was applied to a sample of 145 teachers in training from the University XXX who were studying for degrees in Spanish, English, social sciences, and mathematics during the 2016-2017 academic year. Pedagogic and anthropologic components were established using Estrada's Scale of Attitudes toward Statistics (EAEE). All the students were characterized on such a scale. The results show higher scores, mainly in instrumental components (and, to a lesser extent, cognitive and social components) from students majoring in mathematics. Furthermore, the cognitive component that most strongly characterizes students working toward a degree in social sciences, which suggests that they perceive statistics as a reliable subject but are not as aware of its utility when facing problems in everyday life. The information obtained in this study can be used to devise strategies that can lead to an improvement in future teachers' attitudes toward statistics, which would, in turn, improve the performance of their future students.