This study presents the analysis of articles published in Brazilian periodicals between 1997 and 2015 that used the content analysis method by author Laurence Bardin. That is an exploratory methodology  with a longitudinal temporal perspective, employing the documentary, quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. Fifty-two papers published in the Portuguese language, available on the Scientific Periodicals Electronic Library (SPELL) and SCIELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) journal databases, were analyzed. Atlas.ti and Microsoft Office Excel software were used for organization and tabulation. Those works were analyzed using the bibliography method, quantifying, describing and predicting the process of written communication according to the Bradford Law, Lotka Law and Zipf Laws (GUEDES, 2012). In addition, they were qualitatively explored according to the application of the method, and classified as partial, minimum or total. The results show that there has been an improvement in the articles published in recent years from the perspective of application and description, considering the three phases: pre-analysis, material exploration and treatment of results. Some studies use content analysis neglecting key steps, others only mention the method in the methodology, but do not apply it in practice. The analyses indicated that 39 (75%) of the articles did not clarify the steps defined by Bardin, in addition, 24 papers used an auxiliary analytical method in conjunction with the content analysis.