Model for developing a search strategy for retrieving scientific and technological information: the case of 3D printing

Abstract

After the Second World War, science comes to be understood as a vital sector for the development and progress of a country and, consequently, nations invested more resources for research activities. The need to manage these resources and to understanding scientific and technological dynamics stimulated the development of areas related to metrics on science performance and impact, such as bibliometrics, scientometrics and patentometrics. Studies in these areas on a given topic have information retrieval as their initial stage, which requires the use of an efficient search strategy to retrieve the maximum number of documents of interest with the minimum number of false positives. OBJECTIVE To propose a model for developing a search strategy for retrieving scientific and technological retrieval of scientific and technological information on an emerging topic: 3D printing in quantitative metric studies. RESULTS For the case of 3D printing, the proposed model retrieved a quantity 70% higher than that identified in the literature for scientific documents and 44% higher for patents. CONCLUSION The use of the model may increase remarkably the amount of scientific and technological information retrieved, it may the identification of terms for emerging technologies before they become established, and it may improve the quality of the data, avoiding conclusions.