“…It allows the analysis to acquire a heuristic value by itself; therefore, the theoretical interest shifts relationally to the most available sources of the field studied, in this case, STI policies. The second implication is more practical and consists in expanding the specific body of knowledge at the regional level on STI policies, adding a theoretical and methodological complementary to the most recent literature on STI policy analyses at the level of Central America and the Dominican Republic (Bonilla & Serafim, 2021;Casale & Buenrostro, 2014;Gómez-Valenzuela, 2020;Gómez-Valenzuela et al, 2020;Padilla-Pérez & Gaudin, 2014;Viales-Hurtado et al, 2021). Thus, this paper highlights one key aspect of STI policy analysis at the Central American level about the role of representations of STI policies in the economic integration process, considering the perspective of selected policymakers and related stakeholders.…”