The objective of this article is to examine the participation of Mexican researchers in the state of Tamaulipas who are members of Mexico's National Researchers System (SNI) and are working in academic groups. The paper also seeks to understand their perceptions in relation to the usefulness of this structured System to their individual research projects and expertise. Based on a quantitative approach to research, a survey was answered by 46.19% of the total number of researchers in Tamaulipas who were affiliated to the SNI from December 2012 up to date. Data found indicated that an important minority (24%) believed that the work dynamics of the research groups identified are not necessarily more useful than individual academic work to increase research productivity. Additionally, researcher participants pointed out several negative aspects of these structures of knowledge production.