This article aims to describe the methodological approach used by the Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation (OCTI) of the Center for Management and Strategic Studies (CGEE) to map the national scientific production. Through different methods, in particular applying the network analysis framework, OCTI has invested in understanding the flows and new patterns of scientific production in Brazil and worldwide. From the formation of supernodes and the application of scientific metrics, it was possible to understand the confluence between more than 150 research areas and how semantics are included among the more than 320,000 publications on the Web of Science, in the period from 2015 to 2020. This technique is significant in identifying the main thematic domains, trends and strengths in Brazilian production.