The diversity and (dis-)similarity of Brazilian universities’ research portfolios

The research portfolio, (dis-)similarity, and collaboration pattern of leading research institutions condition a country’s ability to create new knowledge and promote socioeconomic development. However, little is known about the research diversity and (dis-)similarity of the publication outputs of leading research institutions in Brazil. With the objective of constructing and comparing research portfolios and analyzing the collaboration patterns of over 200 Brazilian research institutions from 2000 to 2017, we use a large dataset from the Lattes Platform on individual research outputs, along with metrics such as DIV, DIV*, and others from scientometrics. Research diversity is associated with the number of postgraduate programs and has increased over time. Prominent public universities such as the University of São Paulo (USP), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) lead the diversity rankings and show similar research portfolios. However, also clusters of specialized research institutions can be observed, such as institutions focusing on medicine or agricultural research. Collaboration patterns appear to be mainly driven by geographic proximity. Our results imply that beyond internal diversity also dissimilarity and collaboration patterns across universities should be considered by STI policies. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents one of the pioneering works addressing the theme of diversity in Brazilian universities.