Pointers of scientific production yielded by traditional methodologies are questioned when used as exclusive parameters for evaluation of scientific research done in countries, regions or even knowledge areas. For this reason, it is necessary to seek theoretical and methodological alternatives to map scientific research in various contexts fully and reliably. To face this challenge, a working hypothesis is presented, based on the idea that the repositories of dissertations and theses can be reliable sources of the science produced in Brazil. By means of theoretical grounds that associate Science Social Studies, the Organization and advanced Representation of the Knowledge and bibliometric Methods, new approaches can be glimpsed as social and cognitive institutionalization of the scientific research in Brazil. The graphical visualization of this information by means of dynamic cartography is useful due to its functionality, providing a global vision of sets of information and evidencing relations and structures among them. In addition, it is a powerful interface, which is used in information recovery systems.
institutionalization of scientific research; organization of knowledge; thematic cartography; bibliometric pointers; dissertation; theses