Microsoft Academic is one year old: the Phoenix is ready to leave the nest

We investigate the coverage of Microsoft Academic (MA) just over a year after its re-launch. First, we provide a detailed comparison for the first author’s record across the four major data sources: Google Scholar (GS), MA, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) and show that for the most important academic publications, journal articles and books, GS and MA display very similar publication and citation coverage, leaving both Scopus and WoS far behind, especially in terms of citation counts. A second, large scale, comparison for 145 academics across the five main disciplinary areas confirms that citation coverage for GS and MA is quite similar for four of the five disciplines. MA citation coverage in the Humanities is still substantially lower than GS coverage, reflecting MA’s lower coverage of non-journal publications. However, we shouldn’t forget that MA coverage for the Humanities still dwarfs coverage for this discipline in Scopus and WoS. It would be desirable for other researchers to verify our findings with different samples before drawing a definitive conclusion about MA coverage. However, based on our current findings we suggest that, only one year after its re-launch, MA is rapidly become the data source of choice; it appears to be combining the comprehensive coverage across disciplines, displayed by GS, with the more structured approach to data presentation, typical of Scopus and WoS. The phoenix seems to be ready to leave the nest, all set to start its life into an adulthood of research evaluation

Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science: a longitudinal and cross-disciplinary comparison

This article aims to provide a systematic and comprehensive comparison of the coverage of the three major bibliometric databases: Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science. Based on a sample of 146 senior academics in five broad disciplinary areas, we therefore provide both a longitudinal and a cross-disciplinary comparison of the three databases. Our longitudinal comparison of eight data points between 2013 and 2015 shows a consistent and reasonably stable quarterly growth for both publications and citations across the three databases. This suggests that all three databases provide sufficient stability of coverage to be used for more detailed cross-disciplinary comparisons. Our cross-disciplinary comparison of the three databases includes four key research metrics (publications, citations, h-index, and hI,annual, an annualised individual h-index) and five major disciplines (Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, Sciences and Life Sciences). We show that both the data source and the specific metrics used change the conclusions that can be drawn from cross-disciplinary comparisons

hIa: an individual annual h-index to accommodate disciplinary and career length differences

Hirsch’s h-index cannot be used to compare academics that work in different disciplines or are at different career stages. Therefore, a metric that corrects for these differences would provide information that the h-index and its many current refinements cannot deliver. This article introduces such a metric, namely the hI,annual (or hIa for short). The hIa-index represents the average annual increase in the individual h-index. Using a sample of 146 academics working in five major disciplines and representing a wide variety of career lengths, we demonstrate that this metric attenuates h-index differences attributable to disciplinary background and career length. It is also easy to calculate with readily available data from all major bibliometric databases, such as Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge, Scopus and Google Scholar. Finally, as the metric represents the average number of single-author-equivalent “impactful” articles that an academic has published per year, it also allows an intuitive interpretation. Although just like any other metric, the hIa-index should never be used as the sole criterion to evaluate academics, we argue that it provides a more reliable comparison between academics than currently available metrics

Bacterial diversity in typical abandoned multi-contaminated nonferrous metal(loid) tailings during natural attenuation

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordAbandoned nonferrous metal(loid) tailings sites are anthropogenic, and represent unique and extreme ecological niches for microbial communities. Tailings contain elevated and toxic content of metal(loid)s that had negative effects on local human health and regional ecosystems. Microbial communities in these typical tailings undergoing natural attenuation are often very poorly examined. The diversity and inferred functions of bacterial communities were examined at seven nonferrous metal(loid) tailings sites in Guangxi (China), which were abandoned between 3 and 31 years ago. The acidity of the tailings sites rose over 31 years of site inactivity. Desulfurivibrio, which were always coupled with sulfur/sulfide oxidation to dissimilate the reduction of nitrate/nitrite, were specific in tailings with 3 years abandonment. However, genus beneficial to plant growth (Rhizobium), and iron/sulfur- oxidizing bacteria and metal(loid)-related genera (Acidiferrobacter and Acidithiobacillus) were specific within tailings abandoned for 23 years or more. The increased abundance of acid-generating iron/sulfur-oxidizing and metal(loid)-related bacteria and specific bacterial communities during the natural attenuation could provide new insights for understanding microbial ecosystem functioning in mine tailings. OTUs related to Sulfuriferula, Bacillus, Sulfurifustis, Gaiella, and Thiobacillus genera were the main contributors differentiating the bacterial communities between the different tailing sites. Multiple correlation analyses between bacterial communities and geochemical parameters indicated that pH, TOC, TN, As, Pb, and Cu were the main drivers influencing the bacterial community structures. PICRUSt functional exploration revealed that the main functions were related to DNA repair and recombination, important functions for bacterial adaptation to cope with the multi- contamination of tailings. Such information provides new insights to guide future metagenomic studies for the identification of key functions beyond metal- transformation/resistance. As well, our results offers novel outlooks for the management of bacterial communities during natural attenuation of multi-contaminated nonferrous metal(loid) tailings sites.International Key Project from National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProjects of Natural Science Foundation of ChinaPublic welfare project of Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protectionnternational key project of Ministry of Science and Technology of ChinaS2016G2135Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueRoyal Society Newton Mobility GrantNational Natural Science Foundation International Joint collaboration China-Swede

Microbial metagenomes from three aquifers in the Fennoscandian shield terrestrial deep biosphere reveal metabolic partitioning among populations

Microorganisms in the terrestrial deep biosphere host up to 20% of the earth's biomass and are suggested to be sustained by the gases hydrogen and carbon dioxide. A metagenome analysis of three deep subsurface water types of contrasting age (from &lt;20 to several thousand years) and depth (171 to 448 m) revealed phylogenetically distinct microbial community subsets that either passed or were retained by a 0.22 mu m filter. Such cells of &lt;0.22 mu m would have been overlooked in previous studies relying on membrane capture. Metagenomes from the three water types were used for reconstruction of 69 distinct microbial genomes, each with &gt;86% coverage. The populations were dominated by Proteobacteria, Candidate divisions, unclassified archaea and unclassified bacteria. The estimated genome sizes of the &lt;0.22 mu m populations were generally smaller than their phylogenetically closest relatives, suggesting that small dimensions along with a reduced genome size may be adaptations to oligotrophy. Shallow 'modern marine' water showed community members with a predominantly heterotrophic lifestyle. In contrast, the deeper, 'old saline' water adhered more closely to the current paradigm of a hydrogen-driven deep biosphere. The data were finally used to create a combined metabolic model of the deep terrestrial biosphere microbial community.Supplementary information available for this article at http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/v10/n5/suppinfo/ismej2015185s1.html</p