Globalization can be defined as "an objective process of joint structure", which affects economy, societies, institutions and cultures; it does not mean a uniform or undifferentiated whole, but rather the global articulation of local processes. Within this context, the meaning of global economy does not imply that all economic activity is global, but rather that it may operate from globalized command centers, inevitably involving local economy.  As regards global issues that cannot be managed at the national level, a crisis of national State representation arises, unless the State builds its identity on plural principles, as there must be a balanced relationship between globalization and the personality of the subjects, which, when ignored, means a risk for the local identity itself. Global economy is characterized by activities on a global scale and in real time, among which we highlight innovation strategies and the importance of knowledge, "highly portable",  which makes it especially suited for globalization, given the fact that globalization generated an acceleration in production, dissemination and exchange of scientific knowledge (Castells, 1999; Carnoy, 2006; Lucchesi, 2009/2011). In order for the global/local economic, political and cultural integration to succeed, it requires the exchange of knowledge produced in different countries and continents so as transform education and society. "One of the key effects of globalization on education is a clear shift from a predominantly national education system to a more fragmented, multi-scale and multi-sector distribution of activities which now involve new players new ways of thinking about the production and distribution of knowledge and new challenges in terms of ensuring the distribution of opportunities for access and social mobility” (Dale; Robertson, 2007). In this globalized scenario, times of transition and change, the production of scientific knowledge and innovation become crucial for countries, especially developing ones. Recent public policies in Latin America and especially in Brazil have encouraged research funding and consequently the dissemination of knowledge produced by universities in international and local journals. Despite all the effort, there are significant differences in the results regarding the dissemination of knowledge production. This study aims to compare the publications in indexed journals in Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Brazil, particularly in the state of São Paulo, in the period from 1996 to 2014. Moreover, the analysis aims to contribute to the planning and implementation of public policies, as well as to a better understanding of science by the scientific community itself. From a critical standpoint, these indicators are not sufficient to ensure the excellence of production and exchange of knowledge; however peer review, the corresponding publication of scientific papers and their impact on the academic community, along with its consequent results, have been the current way of legitimizing science, or the available method of analyzing and comparing what is being produced. The questions guiding the discussion proposed are: can the data from papers published in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Brazil, particularly the state of São Paulo, in indexed journals, and those published in partnership by researchers from different countries and its impact on the form of quotes contribute to the exchange of knowledge and researchers among these countries? What is the impact of such analyses on the creation of public policies for research funding in many countries, especially in Brazil ?

Although, the global and the regional are currently being re/constituted, to talk and research about education in a global era means that we are aware of the complex ways the processes of knowledge, which are represented as education, are being built/constituted at multiple scales - outside and inside national borders (Robertson, Dale, 2011), and from this point of view, when comparing continents, we adopted the comparison method in order to analyze the evolution of scientific production published in international journals.This study uses quantitative data regarding the scientific production in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Brazil, particularly in the state of São Paulo, published in indexed scientific journals, and the total citations, self-cites, documents with international collaboration (documents with more than one country). To that aim, we have selected the databases most used internationally as sources for building indicators of scientific production, namely Thomson Reuters, found on the Internet at Web of Science, as well as Scopus basis given its importance, interdisciplinary nature, global reach and the possibility of citation analysis. The data was analyzed quantitatively to allow for the comparison of scientific production, and qualitatively regarding public policies. A comparative method should not be superficial, depicting only the visible data, but should deepen the understanding of the systemic structures, including the historical, cultural and material aspects involved in the implementation of social beings, such as ideas, theories and educational concepts.

Preliminary analysis of available indicators, enable us to determine that Western Europe with its extensive experience in research and consolidated institutes has most of the indexed publications; Eastern Europe, given the recent opening to the international academic community, ranks second, although only slightly ahead of Latin America, where Brazil stands out, particularly the state of São Paulo. The citations that seek to reflect the interest of the academic community in the published articles bring visibility to researchers from Western Europe in a much larger scale than the other analyzed data and demonstrate the impact and influence of researchers on the other continents and countries under analysis. Regarding the use of specialized databases in collaborative studies, we highlight Scopus for the perception of one or more countries. Importantly, every analysis shows that Brazil, especially the state of São Paulo in its three state universities, holds a prominent position among Latin America countries.

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