DISSEMINATION OF ICT RESEARCH IN IBERO-AMERICA: AN APPROACH TO TRENDS IN EDUCATION

Objective: The aim of this study is to identify some patterns in the publication of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) articles on education in Ibero-America. Theoretical Framework: This theme presents the main concepts and theories underpinning ICT research in the field of education, identifying predictive biometric studies in education. Method: The methodology adopted for this content research comprises bibliometric methods commonly used in the field. Data collection was carried out by consulting the SCOPUS database. Results and Discussion: The results obtained revealed an increase in production and more so after the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in collaboration between authors and the emergence of research topics associated with social networks is evident. Research Implications: The results indicate that academic institutions and researchers need to further foster collaborations to maximise research opportunities and to address global challenges more effectively. Originality/Value: This study contributes to identify patterns of production in the ICT area. It offers a list of descriptions that will provide guidance on those aspects that are less researched and that can be addressed in the future.


INTRODUCTION
Today, education is being profoundly transformed by the integration of advanced digital technologies.Traditionally, the textbook has been the predominant pedagogical resource; however, recent advances in educational research and technology have allowed the development and adoption of new teaching methodologies.These methodologies incorporate 3 innovative digital tools that seek to improve the quality of learning and teaching (Telenchana et al., 2024).The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this process by forcing a rapid adaptation of educational resources and a greater reliance on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), underlining their importance and promoting an increase in research on their application in the educational field (Immanuel & Hameed, 2024).
The implementation of digital educational platforms has become a common practice in higher education, facilitating access to materials and promoting interaction between students and teachers.Although this trend is also beginning to spread to secondary education, the pace of adoption is slower compared to higher education.Moreover, while some areas of knowledge, such as mathematics didactics, have shown significant integration of ICT, other disciplines, such as physical education and social sciences, have experienced more gradual adoption.
Continuous evaluation of scientific production in this context is essential to understand the impact of these technologies and guide future development in the educational field.The SCOPUS database, with its wide coverage of journals in various languages, offers a valuable tool for analyzing and evaluating the dissemination of scientific knowledge, especially in specific linguistic and regional contexts such as Latin America.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The health emergency forced governments and institutions to rapidly adapt existing educational resources and develop new digital solutions to ensure continuity of learning.This urgent need fueled a boom in research and development of technologies applied to education, with a renewed focus on improving educational quality through digital tools (Sánchez, 2024).
As technology continues to evolve, its presence in the educational arena is expected to expand further, providing students and teachers with new opportunities for more dynamic and personalized learning and teaching.
In certain areas of knowledge in education, ICT tools were already well accepted and implemented before COVID.For example, in the field of mathematics didactics the use of dynamic geometry software was a frequent occurrence.Thus the GeoGebra and the Cabri Geomtre were of known use and used by mathematics teachers (Teófilo de Sousa et al., 2022;Majerek, 2014;Gülburnu, 2022), and in higher education the Maple or the Mathematica to mention a few.However, in other areas they have not had the same implementation as for example in physical education or social sciences.et al., 2022;Majerek, 2014;Gülburnu, 2022).In higher education, other specialized software such as Maple and Mathematica were also in use to address complex mathematical problems and perform advanced analysis.

In various areas of educational knowledge, ICT (Information and Communication
However, the adoption of ICT has not been uniform in all areas of knowledge.In disciplines such as physical education and the social sciences, the integration of digital technologies has been less pronounced.This may be due to the specific nature of these disciplines, which often require different pedagogical and methodological approaches, and where available technologies may not have been as adapted to the specific needs of these areas. On the other hand, the evaluation of scientific production in any field of knowledge is essential for the development of research and for the orientation of future research.This evaluation allows to measure the quality and impact of science in society and provides crucial information for decision-making in terms of research policies and strategies.To carry out an accurate assessment of scientific output, various mechanisms and tools are used that provide a comprehensive view of the impact and quality of research.Among the most common at the international level are: the citation count, the impact factor of journals, the analysis of citation and co-authorship networks, the impact on social networks, metrics made by databases (WoS, SCOPUS, Scimago Journal Rank, etc.).Likewise, patterns based on bibliometric laws (Price, Bradford, etc.) or bibliometric indicators (Degree of collaboration, coefficient of collaboration, etc.) are sought.These methods provide a comprehensive view of scientific production and are critical to ensure advancement and continuous improvement in any field of study.
Scientific journals are periodicals that present original research articles, reviews, and other types of academic content related to a specific field of knowledge.These journals play a crucial role in communicating and advancing science.In the scientific field Bibliometric studies of journals in relation to educational research are frequent (Huang et al., 2020;Diem et al., 2013;Maz-Machado et al., 2022).The most extensive international study of journals in the field of education was conducted by Fairbairn and others. (2009) This study included a detailed analysis of 1,042 journals specialized in education, selected from 15 renowned international databases.The main objective of this analysis was to provide a comprehensive and systematic view of the editorial landscape in the educational field.Its comprehensive approach and detailed classification of educational journals provide a solid basis in general (Maz-Machado et al., 2023) or some specific ones such as gamification (Swacha, 2021), flipped classrooms (Çakir et al., 2021) or active methodologies (Segura-Robles et al., 2020).
Other studies have focused attention on education levels, from primary education (Blanco-Chamorro et al., 2023) to higher education (Sudakova et al., 2022) to secondary education (LeTthi Thue et al., 2021).Specific fields within education have also been analyzed, such as mathematical education (Rodríguez-Faneca and others, 2021), musical education (Vicente-Nicolás and Sánchez-Marroquín, 2024), education in foreign languages (Yilmaz and others 2022) or scientific production in certain countries such as Colombia (Muñoz-Ñungo and others, 2022) or regions such as Ibero-America (Maz-Machado and others, 2022) among other studies.
The SCOPUS database is recognized for its wide coverage of scientific and academic journals, including a significant number of publications in languages other than English.This feature makes it a particularly suitable tool for the study of the dissemination of scientific knowledge in diverse linguistic and regional contexts.In the case of Latin American scientific literature, SCOPUS offers a valuable window to analyze how knowledge is distributed and disseminated in this region.
The inclusion of journals in languages other than English in SCOPUS is crucial to gaining a more complete view of global scientific output, especially in areas where English is not the primary language of publication.In Latin America, many important research papers are published in Spanish, Portuguese and other local languages.SCOPUS's ability to index these journals allows for a more thorough assessment of the impact and visibility of scientific research produced in this region.

It is relevant, interesting and current to know what are the focus of attention in Latin
American publications on ICT, so we propose a bibliometric study on the publications on ICTs in the educational field carried out in Ibero-American countries and indexed in the SCOPUS database.Therefore, we propose a series of objectives to be achieved: 1.To know some characteristics of the scientific production in ICT in the Ibero-American countries.
2. Identify the most productive institutions and countries.

METHODOLOGY
This is an exploratory and descriptive research using bibliometric techniques.In May 2024, the SCOPUS website was accessed.A search was performed using the descriptors: "Digital Media" OR "Digital Literacy" OR "Digital Inclusion" OR "E-learning" OR "Online learning" OR "Educational Technologies" OR "Adaptive Technology" OR "Digital Citizenship" OR "Digital Ethics" OR "ICT" OR "MOODLE" OR "digital education platform" OR "Online learning" OR "MOOCs" OR "E-learning" OR "Educational software" OR "Web 2.0" OR "Videoconference" OR "Emerging Technologies" OR "Educational Social Simulators" OR "Educational Social Networks" OR "Open Educational Resources" OR "Virtual Reality" OR "Educational Platforms" OR "Educat* Multimedia" OR "M-media" "Digital Inclusion" OR "Digital Assessment" OR "Digital Content" OR "Digital Competence" OR "Virtual Classrooms" in the years 2000 to 2023.Later it was filtered by "Social Sciences" and "Article" and by each of the 22 countries of Ibero-America.This yielded a total of 10510 records that have constituted the study sample.
Processes of standardization of the names of the institutions to which the authors of the documents belong were carried out, in order to prevent fragmentation in the attribution of production at the institutional level.In addition, the names of the signatory countries were standardized to ensure a consistent and accurate allocation of scientific output.
With the previously standardized field of institutional affiliation, the data corresponding to the country and institution of each author, as well as the institutions and countries associated with each document were extracted.Frequency analysis of scientific production was carried out considering several variables, such as the year of publication, the type of document, the institutions involved, the participating countries and the number of authors per document.In addition, the number of annual citations for each document was counted and the relationship between the number of citations and the number of corresponding authors was examined.To identify the patterns of collaboration in scientific production, we proceeded to count the number of authors involved in each document.The Degree of Collaboration (GC) for co-authorship was calculated, both at the total and annual level, using the index proposed by Subramanyam (1983).This index is defined for a set of published documents and is expressed by the formula:  where: • Nm = Number of articles with multiple authors.
• Ns = Total number of articles with single authorship.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The diachronic analysis reveals that from 2000 to 2023, there is a sustained growth in the number of articles on ICTs and education in Latin America.The number of articles went   1).The 10510 scientific articles on ICTs have generated 35260 citations.As shown in Table 2, 16.7% of the articles have not been cited, indicating a low visibility or impact on the scientific literature on ICTs.The category of 0 to 5 citations covers 51.08% of the total number of articles, indicating that more than half of the articles have a limited presence in the scientific literature.
This may reflect high competition in the field or the lack of dissemination of certain works.
Only 7.56% of articles have more than 30 citations, and the percentage drops significantly as the citation range increases.Articles with more than 500 citations are extremely rare, representing only 0.10% of the total.This indicates that a small percentage of works receive most citations, reflecting a "peak citation" effect in the field.The distribution of citations follows a Pareto-law distribution pattern, where a small percentage of articles receive a disproportionate proportion of citations.This suggests that more influential articles have a much greater impact on ICT literature.Over the years, there has been a steady increase in the number of authors per article.In 2000, articles with single authors were predominant, while, as of 2010, the number of articles with multiple authors has increased significantly (Table 3).This points to a growing trend towards collaboration in ICT research in Latin America.However, the number of articles with a single author has shown a decreasing trend over time, going from 6 in 2000 to 149 in 2023.
Although still a significant category, the proportion of articles with a single author has declined in favor of broader collaborations.On the other hand, the years with the largest increases in articles with seven or more authors (2020-2023) coincide with a boom in the total number of articles, suggesting that collaboration in large research teams has become more common in recent years.From the data of the _ Table, the values of the Degree of Collaboration in the period were determined, this is: GD = 0.8513.The minimum value was given in 2000 and the maximum in 2001 (Table 4).

Degree of collaboration
Percentage of collaboration Of the Ibero-American countries, Spain has published the most on the subject of the study, with 60.39% (Table 6), followed by Brazil and Portugal.As for the descriptors that each author assigns to his article, 22897 different descriptors have been found.Table 7 presents the most common.The predominance of descriptors such as "ICT" and "e-learning" suggests a priority focus on how digital technologies are transforming education.This reflects the relevance and high investment in research on how these technologies can improve teaching and learning methods, and the emergence of descriptors such as "virtual reality" and "MOOC" indicates a growing interest in new technologies and innovative educational methods.Among these descriptors, two emerging issues are COVID-19 and Social Networks that reflect the rise of these issues after the pandemic.The analysis of descriptors in articles on ICT in education revealed a strong focus on ICT and e-learning, with a significant presence of topics related to educational technology and Web 2.0.However, it also reveals emerging and niche areas that are gaining attention.As Mometti (2024) points out, understanding these patterns is crucial to identifying current and future trends in educational technology research.
For future research, it might be useful to monitor the factors that influence peaks and changes in the growth rate, such as funding policies, academic initiatives, and technological developments, to better understand the dynamics behind ICT science production in the region.
Dissemination of ICT Research in Ibero-America: an Approach to Trends in Education ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.9 | p.1-16 | e08568 | 2024.4 Technologies) tools were already accepted and significantly implemented before the COVID-19 pandemic.A notable example is the didactics of mathematics, where the use of dynamic geometry software was well established.Tools such as GeoGebra and Cabri Géomètre were commonly used by mathematics teachers to facilitate the teaching of geometric and algebraic concepts (Teófilo de Sousa ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.9 | p.1-16 | e08568 | 2024.5 for the evaluation of scientific output and the identification of key research areas within this vast field.The publication patterns of finished educational methodologies have been analyzed 3. Determine the type of collaboration between authors 4. Identify the most productive journals.___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.9 | p.1-16 | e08568 | 2024.6 Dissemination of ICT Research in Ibero-America: an Approach to Trends in Education ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.9 | p.1-16 | e08568 | 2024. 7 from 17 in 2000 to 1,370 in 2023.This gradual increase indicates a growing interest in the field of information and communication technologies over the years.The annual growth rate has varied over the years.Since 2005, there has been a sharper increase in the number of articles, with notable increases in recent years, such as 2020 and 2021, which could be related to increased investment in ICT research or the growing relevance of the field in the current context or as a result of the momentum following the COVID pandemic as dependence on digital technologies intensified globally.The highest percentage growth in production occurred in 2009-2010, this remarkable 31% increase in the number of articles, from 187 in 2009 to 245 in 2010 (Figure 1), signals a significant advance in the field or an expansion in research and publication capacity.The number of items shows a production pattern with a polynomial growth trend.(R=0.9798).The accelerated increase in recent years, particularly after 2015, indicates an increase in production and academic interest in ICTs in Latin America.Although the overall trend is for growth, the pace of the increase has shown variations.In the most recent years, the pace of annual growth has moderated compared to previous peaks, which could indicate a stabilization phase in the field or a partial saturation in the number of publications.It is noted that, in the last five years, 56.1 per cent of all documents have been produced.

Figure 1
Figure 1Diachronic evolution of articles on ICT in education in Latin America.
. Soc. Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.9 | p.1-16 | e08568 | 2024.14 dominate the field, which could be influenced by the quality, relevance, or novelty of those studies.It would be interesting to study and understand what makes these works so influential can offer valuable insights for future research.The increase in the number of authors per article reflects increased collaboration and focus on interdisciplinary and multicenter projects.This may indicate that topics in ICTs are becoming more complex and require the combined expertise of multiple researchers.Analysis of the type of collaboration in ICT and education articles shows a wide range of collaborative approaches, from individual research to national and international collaborations.While individual research remains prevalent, national and international collaboration also plays a crucial role.Institutions and researchers should continue to promote and facilitate various forms of collaboration to maximize the impact of research and address challenges in the field of ICT and education.

Table 2
Frequency of citation

Table 5
Language of publication