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Although systematic observation and interviews are the most common techniques in ethnography, a deep understanding requires research tools adapted to exploring beyond the observational scope. Nonconventional methods can support ethnography and complement observations and thus refine the construction of meaning. Qualitative research literature deals disproportionately more with some forms of data, typically text, lacking a structured method for visuals. This article arises from a case study using nonconventional methods, such as sociograms and participant-made drawings, and presents a structured method to attain enriched ethnographic analysis. Using this structured method, the research then draws on representation, visualization, and interaction as ports of entry into group dynamics. The aim being to open a way to discovery when visual and interactional representations do not easily translate into words. Spoken language presupposes an ability to capture and convey thought with precision and clarity and to know how the interlocutor may interpret words. A structured method to analyze images can fruitfully assist in the process. Since every research participant has a view on or a way of making sense of the research subject, the method is universal in application.

Internationalization pressures are omnipresent in the world of science. Scholars and administrators now often make use of international impact as a yardstick by which to assess the quality of national scholarship. However, little is hitherto known about the effects of the internationalization incentives at the level of specific national scientific communities. This article presents an analysis of the forms of internationalization in Chile over a period of four decades, from 1976 to 2015. Using Web of Science data, the article looks at the evolution for both publications and citations and examines the internationalization pressures on Chilean scholars and Chilean journals in relation to changes at the level of publication language and co-authorship. The article particularly focuses on the differences between the three cultures (humanities, natural sciences and social sciences). Building on the findings, the article concludes with some suggestions for research policy.

Drawing on the evolution of socio-geographical imaginaries of scholarly journals published in Chile, this article provides a picture of the socio-historical trajectories of internationalization of scholarly journals and communities in that part of the (semi-)periphery of science. In order to break with the presentism of many contemporary discussions, the analysis covers a relatively long period of time, from the end of the nineteenth century until the first decades of the twenty-first century. However, based on an inductive analysis of the journals, the article particularly focuses on the rise of nationalist and regionalist orientations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the intensification of the pressures for internationalization in more recent decades. Building on the findings, the article concludes highlighting key elements and making some general observations on the internationalization processes in the semi-periphery of science.

Peer‐reviewed journals are routinely monitored in the world of science, especially on the basis of their performance in international scholarly indexes such as Web of Science and Scopus. While critics have highlighted the bias and 'unintended consequences' of these instruments, it is not at all clear how these indexes are changing the ways in which research takes place. In this paper, we discuss the opportunities and problems facing scientific journals within this environment. By means of 12 qualitative interviews with editors‐in‐chief of WoS‐indexed journals edited in Chile, we analyse the editors' perceptions and strategies to surf within this environment. The article highlights the current tensions that indexation brings for the journals and some strategies to cope with them, the negotiation processes with their traditional audiences, and the conflicts that emerge in the current internationalization processes led by international scientific indexes. Finally, the paper concludes by reflecting on the possibilities and pitfalls that index‐led internationalization has for journals, especially in so‐called semi‐peripheral communities.

Nursing is possible owing to a series of intricate systemic relations. Building on an established tradition of sociological research, we critically analysed the nursing profession in Chile, with an emphasis on its education system, in the light of social systems theory. The paper's aim was to explore basic characteristics of nursing education as a system, so as to outline its current evolution. Drawing on recent developments in nursing, we applied an empirical framework to identify and discuss functionally differentiated systems that are relevant to nursing and observe communications between them. We found that the dynamics of nursing as a whole develop from communications with closely related systems, including the nursing profession and the education system more broadly. While the discipline (as a system of representations) strives to control the profession (as an applied occupational field), the necessities of practicing nurses imply other forces mediating the making of the profession, a process framed by market dynamics in education and health.

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