This paper presents a contribution to the diagnosis of scientific research evaluation in Brazil, supported by a national database dubbed ‘‘Qualis’’. Capes is the governmental institution in charge of the development and management of this database, which presents the classification of journals and is an important tool for the improvement of Brazilian scientific research. The present paper identifies the major difficulties in research evaluation and provides an analysis of the latest changes regarding the criteria which are applied within the field of ‘‘Engineering III’’, which includes: Aerospace Engineering, Production Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering and Naval/Ocean Engineering. The analysis comprises a discussion of proposals for improvement and a conceptual map showing synthetically the interrelationships among the concepts utilized in the study. In addition, it presents some suggestions which are specific for the context of Operations Research.