Analysis of the Brazilian Scientific Production in Vocational Guidance: An Invitation to New Directions

Abstract This article presents an evaluation of the scientific production in vocational guidance in the period from 2011 to 2015, continuing the work previously performed by several researchers. The search was performed in Brazilian database BVS-Psi and Index-Psi using the terms Vocational Guidance, Professional Choice, Professional development and Career Choice, and the last analysis corpus was composed of 70 papers. Among the findings are: an incipient trend of reduction in the number of annual publications on the subject; reduction in the number of theoretical publications over analyzed period, as well as reduction of studies about the quality of counseling techniques; maintenance of high school and college students as the most studied target audiences. The research agenda proposed in previous reviews has not been fully met. This study reinforces earlier suggestions and adds an invitation to other possibilities not yet focused by researchers.