Impact of COVID-19 pandemic to EDUCON: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

In recent years, bibliometrics has been widely used as a methodology for the analysis of scientific production, proving to be an excellent instrument for supporting scientific policy decisions. In this paper, we present a bibliometric analysis of the 12 editions of the Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON). Several indicators were used, namely number of submitted articles, the rate of accepted submissions, number of article citations, and the number of references per article, among other indicators. We also intend to add the comparison of the results obtained in the ten first editions held in-site and the last two editions, which have the particularity of having been carried out fully online, evaluating, by this way, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis to EDUCON. The results show an increase in the number of papers submitted and published over the years, evidencing a growing notoriety of the conference. The same growth tendency is visible regarding the number of authors involved in the conference. Regarding the impact of the online editions, data from the next edition is still required to establish better comparisons and conclusions.