The macro-environment for liquid Biofuels in Brazilian science and public policies

The purpose of this study is to identify the macro-environmental dimensions through which Brazilian scientists and government officials have framed issues surrounding liquid biofuels over a period of time. This study analyzes scientific papers published by researchers affiliated with Brazilian institutions and official documents of the Brazilian government related to liquid biofuels. Documents published during a ten-year period (1997--2006) were collected from electronic sources. Text-mining procedures were applied through a framework of macro-environmental dimensions and their corresponding d-words in order to extract high-quality content. Results indicate that the macro-environment developed by Brazilian scientists differs from the one created by the government. Variations in describing macro-environmental dimensions existed for both the Brazilian government and for scientists during the period of analysis. Similarity tests reveal significant differences between the scientific documents and the government documents, indicating that Brazilian public policy regarding liquid biofuels is dissociated from the scientific findings of Brazilian researchers. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.