Brazilian scientific output on CNPq research productivity grants (2002-2025): Paths and stages of knowledge

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the state of the art of Brazilian scientific production on the research productivity grant from CNPq. Reflecting on the output in this field enables a broader understanding of thematic trends, paths, and stages of knowledge, which contributes to the institutional organization of research. This is a bibliographic study that adopts state-of-the-art research strategies, which we applied to various aspects related to the PQ scholarship. Based on the analysis of thirty-four studies on PQ published in national journals, we identified eight thematic areas: Profile of researchers with PQ scholarships; various studies on scientific production performance; higher education, evaluation, and financing policies; gender issues; influences and academic genealogy of PQ scholarship recipients; specific studies by areas of knowledge; impacts on academic production and hierarchies; studies addressing multiple aspects of PQ scholarships. Between 2002 and 2025, there were almost uninterrupted publications on PQ scholarships, most of which were theoretical-empirical articles in Portuguese, distributed in journals from twelve areas of evaluation, with most of the journals classified as consolidated. As for institutional affiliation, most institutions were public (federal and state), mainly universities, and in terms of regional distribution of production, the Southeast and South regions predominated, respectively. Based on the identified trends, an analytical typology, in Weberian terms, of scientific production on the PQ scholarship is proposed, organized into three ideal types: consolidated axes, intermediate or emerging axes, and peripheral or residual axes.