Epistemological grouping of published articles on big data analytics

Abstract The era of big data is yet a reality for businesses and individuals. In recent year, the academic literature exploring this field has grown rapidly. This article aimed to identify the main fields and features of the published papers about big data analytics. The methodological approach considered was a bibliometric research at the ISI Web of Science platform, whose focus was given to the big data management issues. It was possible to identify five distinct groups within the published papers: evolution of big data; management, business and strategy; human behavior and the social and cultural aspects; data mining and knowledge generation; Internet of Things. It was possible to conclude that big data corresponds to an emerging theme, which is not yet consolidated. There is a wide variation in the terms used, which influences the bibliographic searches. Therefore, as a complimentary contribution of this research, the main keywords used in such articles were identified, which contributes for bibliometric research of future studies.