A Review of Theory and Practice in Scientometrics

Scientometrics is the study of the quantitative aspects of the process of science as a communication system. It is centrally, but not only, concerned with the analysis of citations in the academic literature. In recent years it has come to play a major role in the measurement and evaluation of research performance. In this review we consider: the historical development of scientometrics, sources of citation data, citation metrics and the “laws" of scientometrics, normalisation, journal impact factors and other journal metrics, visualising and mapping science, evaluation and policy, and future developments

Scatter of Journals and Literature Obsolescence Reflected in Document Delivery Requests

In this paper we investigate the scattering of journals and literature obsolescence reflected in more than 137,000 document delivery requests submitted to a national document delivery service. W e first summarize the major findings of the study with regards to the performance of the service.We then identify the “core” journals from which article requests were satisfied and address the following research questions: (a) Does the distribution of core) journals conform to the Bradford’s Law of Scattering? (b) Is there a relationship between usage of journals and impact factors, journals with high impact factors being used more often than the rest? (c) Is there a relationship between usage of journals and total citation counts, journals with high total citation counts being used more often than the rest?(d) What is the median age of use (half-life) of requested articles in general? (e) Do requested articles that appear in core journals get obsolete more slowly? (f) Is there a relationship between obsolescence and journal impact factors, journals with high impact factors being obsolete more slowly? (g) Is there a relationship between obsolescence and total citation counts, journals with high total citation counts being obsolete more slowly? Based on the analysis of findings, we found that the distribution of highly and moderately used journal titles conform to Bradford’s Law.The median age of use was 8 years for all requested articles. Ninety percent of the articles requested were 21 years of age or younger.Articles that appeared in 168 core journal titles seem to get obsolete slightly more slowly than those of all titles.W e observed no statistically significant correlations between the frequency of journal use and ISI journal impact factors, and between the frequency of journal use and ISI-Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, PA) cited half-lives for the most heavily used 168 core journal titles.There was a weak correlation between usage of journals and ISI-reported total citation counts.No statistically significant relationship was found between median age of use and journal impact factors and between median age of use and total citation counts.There was a weak negative correlation between ISI journal impact factors and cited half-lives of 168 core journals, and a weak correlation between ISI citation halflives and use half-lives of core journals.No correlation was found between cited half-lives of 168 core journals and their corresponding total citation counts as reported by ISI.Findings of the current study are discussed along with those of other studies

How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research. A comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management

This study provides quantitative evidence on how the use of journal rankings can disadvantage interdisciplinary research in research evaluations. Using publication and citation data, it compares the degree of interdisciplinarity and the research performance of a number of Innovation Studies units with that of leading Business & Management schools in the UK. On the basis of various mappings and metrics, this study shows that: (i) Innovation Studies units are consistently more interdisciplinary in their research than Business & Management schools; (ii) the top journals in the Association of Business Schools' rankings span a less diverse set of disciplines than lower-ranked journals; (iii) this results in a more favourable assessment of the performance of Business & Management schools, which are more disciplinary-focused. This citation-based analysis challenges the journal ranking-based assessment. In short, the investigation illustrates how ostensibly 'excellence-based' journal rankings exhibit a systematic bias in favour of mono-disciplinary research. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications of these phenomena, in particular how the bias is likely to affect negatively the evaluation and associated financial resourcing of interdisciplinary research organisations, and may result in researchers becoming more compliant with disciplinary authority over time.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figure

Citation analysis of Canadian psycho-oncology and supportive care researchers

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a historical review of psycho-oncology and supportive care research in Canada using citation analysis and to review the clinical impact of the research conducted by the most highly cited researchers. Methods: The lifetime journal publication records of 109 psycho-oncology and supportive care researchers in Canada were subject to citation analysis using the Scopus database, based on citations since 1996 of articles deemed relevant to psychosocial oncology and supportive care, excluding selfcitations. Three primary types of analysis were performed for each individual: the number of citations for each journal publication, a summative citation count of all published articles, and the Scopus h-index. Results: The top 20 psycho-oncology/supportive care researchers for each of five citation categories are presented: the number of citations for all publications; the number of citations for first-authored publications; the most highly cited first-authored publications; the Scopus h-index for all publications; and the Scopus h-index for first-authored publications. The three most highly cited Canadian psychooncology researchers are Dr. Kerry Courneya (University of Alberta), Dr. Lesley Degner, (University of Manitoba), and Dr. Harvey Chochinov (University of Manitoba). Conclusions: Citation analysis is useful for examining the research performance of psycho-oncology and supportive care researchers and identifying leaders among the

Edited Volumes, Monographs, and Book Chapters in the Book Citation Index (BKCI) and Science Citation Index (SCI, SoSCI, A&HCI)

In 2011, Thomson-Reuters introduced the Book Citation Index (BKCI) as part of the Science Citation Index (SCI). The interface of the Web of Science version 5 enables users to search for both "Books" and "Book Chapters" as new categories. Books and book chapters, however, were always among the cited references, and book chapters have been included in the database since 2005. We explore the two categories with both BKCI and SCI, and in the sister social sciences (SoSCI) and the arts & humanities (A&HCI) databases. Book chapters in edited volumes can be highly cited. Books contain many citing references but are relatively less cited. This may find its origin in the slower circulation of books than of journal articles. It is possible to distinguish between monographs and edited volumes among the "Books" scientometrically. Monographs may be underrated in terms of citation impact or overrated using publication performance indicators because individual chapters are counted as contributions separately in terms of articles, reviews, and/or book chapters.Comment: Journal of Scientometric Research, 2012, in pres

The Relation between Self-Citation and Impact Factor in Medical Science Open Access Journals in ISI & DOAJ Databases

Citation is one of the important elements in scientific literature which has a significant role in information production and generation. Self-citation is a part of citation behavior. Relying on their articles, journals can change the number of citations and consequently the level of journal impact factor. This research aims at investigating the relation between self-citation and impact factor in the open access journals indexed in ISI and DOAJ in medical science in 2007-08. In this research, indexes such as the relation between self-citation of journal and impact factor and the effect of self-citation rate of the journal in open access performance are investigated. Research method is an analytical method conducted by using citation analysis technique. SPSS statistical software was used to examine and analyze the data and its inferential analysis methods such as Pierson Factor were used as well. Statistical society includes 168 journals. The results showed a self-citation rate of 28% for the journal. The findings indicate that there is a significant relation between self-citation and impact factor. After omitting self-citation, the level of self-citation in the performance of journals showed that 60% of the titles in the medical science experienced ranking increase, 27% experienced ranking decrease and 13% remained unchanged. Torabian R, Heidari A, Shahrifar M, Khodadi E, Esmaeile Vardanjani SA. The Relation between Self-Citation and Impact Factor in Medical Science Open Access Journals in ISI & DOAJ Databases. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):2206-2209] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 32

The merits of using citation‐based journal weighting schemes to measure research performance in economics: The case of New Zealand

In this study we test various citation‐based journal weighting schemes, especially those based on the Liebowitz and Palmer methodology, as to their suitability for use in a nationwide research funding model. Using data generated by New Zealand’s academic economists, we compare the performance of departments, and individuals, under each of our selected schemes; and we then proceed to contrast these results with those generated by direct citation counts. Our findings suggest that if all citations are deemed to be of equal value, then schemes based on the Liebowitz and Palmer methodology yield problematic outcomes. We also demonstrate that even between weighting schemes based on a common methodology, major differences are found to exist in departmental and individual outcomes