Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze hackathon contributions as an instrument for innovation in collaborative networks. Methodology: A bibliometry was performed in the Scopus and Web of Science bases through the Bibliometrix packages and the R Studio software. Publications analysis techniques were used describing the year and the group of origin (by Bradford Law), authorship analysis by the authors' relevance and their productivity (by Lotka Law), scientific contributions by country and collaboration between countries, Quotations of document with the cloud of word, as well as a thematic description of the hackathons universe. Results: An exponential increase in scientific hackathon publications from 2019 has been verified. Hackathon studies address and connect the theme mainly with innovation, collaboration, open data, education and covid-19. The increase of hackathon studies occurred during the pandemic period. Limitations: The study was delimited in two databases (Scopus and Web of Science), and in the English language. The expansion to other bases and languages ​​can produce different results from the above, and represents a limitation of this study. Originality: The analyzes performed in this study made it possible to structuring the scientific literature on hackathon.