One of the main goals of bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics and webometrics is to analyze the history of scientific journals. Usually these studies analyze journals history, authors' profiles and how publications have evolved over time. In a broader view, a scientific journal can be thought of as a memory agent that promotes and disseminates knowledge in a science, technology and innovation system (STI). This brings other possibilities of understanding the role of scientific journals in STI systems. We address this challenge by combining informetrics with knowledge engineering and management techniques. In this article, we apply a multidisciplinary model to verify the knowledge base created by the Brazilian Scientific Journal called "Engenharia Sanitária e Ambiental" (ESA) in the Brazilian STI system. We analyzed the 333 articles published between August 2004 and December 2012. We also studied the national database of curricula in Brazil to analyze the profiles of the 816 authors and a national database, to check for public funding in subjects published in ESA. We concluded that both the knowledge published in ESA and the areas funded by national grant in Brazil have evolved in a similar way. This indicates that ESA plays a significant role as a memory agent in environmental and sanitary engineering in Brazil.
scientometrics; knowledge engineering; scientific journal analysis; science, technology ando innovation system; environmental and sanitary engineering journal
