This article aims to characterize innovation based on the evolution it has had over time, and emphasizing the measurement criteria used between 2016 and 2018. In the first instance, elements are needed to understand the phenomenon and its different meanings, and then carry out a comparative review between sources and existing proposals. Data mining and qualitative analysis of the categories selected in the study were applied, supported by information from databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and Scielo. The exercise was carried out with the support of the Technological Surveillance and Competitive Intelligence Program of the Center for Research for Development and Innovation of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, supplemented with specific searches. The main findings show trends compared to authors and types of metrics used in our context, which allows showing the growing importance of social innovation and its measurements at the level of results, effects and impacts, as part of the scientific work in the Latin American social field. © 2020, Universidad del Zulia. All rights reserved.