THE CRITIQUE OF SCIENTOMETRICS AND ACADEMIC COLONIALISM: CHALLENGES OF SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION IN THE BRAZILIAN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This article, structured as a bibliographic review study, critically analyzes the relationship between scientificity, academic productivism, and epistemic colonialism within the Brazilian university. The main objective is to investigate how the submission to quantitative metrics of scientific evaluation, imposed by hegemonic centers of global power, impacts the intellectual autonomy and social relevance of national academic production. Methodologically, the research is configured as a theoretical and bibliographic study with a qualitative approach, based on the critical analysis of seminal works. The analytical path intersects the perspectives of Renato Ortiz and Nildo Ouriques regarding the fetishization of scientometrics with the contributions of the social and decolonial thought of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Florestan Fernandes, and Álvaro Vieira Pinto. The results show that the absolutization of productivist indicators acts as a control mechanism that devalues local epistemologies and promotes a monoculture of knowledge. This dynamic consolidates an epistemic, technological, and cultural dependence, distancing the researcher from the real needs of their community. It is concluded, therefore, that overcoming this scenario of subordination requires a profound reconfiguration of evaluation policies and the reaffirmation of the university's social role, in order to build a decolonized science, oriented towards social emancipation and capable of responding to the complex challenges of Brazilian society.