Exploring the Veterinary Literature: A Bibliometric Methodology for Identifying Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Publications

Veterinary medical research traditionally focuses on animal health and wellness; however, research activities at veterinary colleges extend beyond these traditional areas. In this study, we analyzed eleven years of Web of Knowledge-indexed peer-reviewed articles from researchers at the twenty-eight United States American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) accredited veterinary colleges. We had three goals in assessing the published literature of veterinary college researchers. First, we identified a list of journals and research areas outside veterinary medicine in which veterinary researchers publish. This list of journals can be customized to identify those most essential at each institution. Second, we identified collaborative work by veterinary researchers across disciplines and institutions. Using textual analysis tools and visualizations helped us illustrate and clarify these data. Last, we developed a methodology for defining an interdisciplinary serials list outside a subject core that can be customized for specific institutions and subject areas

A bibliometric methodology for identifying interdisciplinary and collaborative publications

Proceedings paper for a presentation at the 14th European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) Conference, 2014, Rome Italy. Also available at http://www.iss.it/binary/eahi/cont/116_Heather_K._Moberly_Full_text.pdf.Abstract Introduction This presentation describes a bibliometric methodology to define an ancillary journal list as a complement to a core journal list. Although it can be applied to any discipline with a core journal literature, this case study data set is research published by faculty at the 28 American Veterinary Medical Association accredited veterinary schools in the United States. This ancillary list identifies interdisciplinary and collaborative publications by analyzing the non-core subject literature. Methods Eleven years of citation data were collected from Web of Knowledge and exported to Excel. Data in several fields were normalized, pivot tables were created, and data were uploaded into Many Eyes visualization tool. The result sets were compared to the current core veterinary serials list. The images from both the pivot tables and Many Eyes showed clear trends in the data for each school and across schools. Results and Conclusions Overall, 56 percent of articles were published in the core veterinary journals. Bradford’s Law and a Bradford-Zipf plot show an enormous breadth of veterinary publications

A bibliometric methodology for identifying interdisciplinary and collaborative publications

Proceedings paper for a presentation at the 14th European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) Conference, 2014, Rome Italy. Also available at http://www.iss.it/binary/eahi/cont/116_Heather_K._Moberly_Full_text.pdf.Abstract Introduction This presentation describes a bibliometric methodology to define an ancillary journal list as a complement to a core journal list. Although it can be applied to any discipline with a core journal literature, this case study data set is research published by faculty at the 28 American Veterinary Medical Association accredited veterinary schools in the United States. This ancillary list identifies interdisciplinary and collaborative publications by analyzing the non-core subject literature. Methods Eleven years of citation data were collected from Web of Knowledge and exported to Excel. Data in several fields were normalized, pivot tables were created, and data were uploaded into Many Eyes visualization tool. The result sets were compared to the current core veterinary serials list. The images from both the pivot tables and Many Eyes showed clear trends in the data for each school and across schools. Results and Conclusions Overall, 56 percent of articles were published in the core veterinary journals. Bradford’s Law and a Bradford-Zipf plot show an enormous breadth of veterinary publications

eScience in Moldova

Operative access to the scientific information and, most of all, to new publications, is a necessary practicality for all scientists and experts irrespective of the fields in which they work. Scientific institutes have access to the electronic information and use it, as demonstrated by how positively it is reflected in the quality and results scientific research process and its financial support. The situation with open access to the scientific information in Moldova is describe

Identifying Institutional Trends in Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research Using Bibliometrics

The Association of Interdisciplinary Studies conference at Miami University, OHResearch output, in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles, is analyzed to assess the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of work performed at Indiana State University. Using Thompson-Reuters Web of Knowledge, articles authored by ISU faculty over the past 13 years (2000-2012) were analyzed to identify co-authorships, inter-institutional affiliations and cross-disciplinary collaborations. The resulting data can be used to identify trends in publication, research, and funding. The data may also be used to identify potential areas of research for future endeavors. The methodology employed in this study can be easily applied to other institutions. Methodology: Web of Knowledge (WoK) is an interdisciplinary database of peer-reviewed journal literature that includes enhanced, detailed indexing of articles published in the major journals of most academic disciplines. A search strategy is formulated to identify all the authors from a given institution. For ISU, it was a simple zip code search in the author address field. The search results are downloaded, then imported into an Excel spreadsheet. Each article record includes subject heading, source title, institutional affiliation of the authors, country, and other citation information. The records are then compiled and standardized for uniformity in Excel. Textual analysis tools and visualization tools--including word clouds, maps, and bubble charts-- are employed to clarify the data through illustration. • Tools: ISI Web of Knowledge / Microsoft Excel / Data visualization software • Process: Download and compile an institution’s combined peer-reviewed journal article output for a period of time • Analyze: Co-author data for internal and external collaborations • Identify: Areas of strength as indicated by total publication records • Identify: Subject areas of interdisciplinary research based on author home departments Results: Data analysis identifies trends and varying degrees of interdisciplinary work across most schools and departments at the University. Visualizations are used to compare the disciplines and identify trends over time. The publishing output highlights the differing degrees of collaboration within the disciplines, identifies institutional partnerships, and the subject areas of research output. Conclusions: WoK identifies three broad areas of research: 1) Science/Technology/Medicine (STM); 2) the Social Sciences; and 3) the Arts/Humanities. As might be expected, most inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary collaboration occurs within STM. This is no exception at ISU. Likewise, the Social Sciences mostly collaborate among their related disciplines. The Arts and Humanities have the least amount of interdisciplinary collaboration and co-authorship, but that’s not to say it doesn’t exist. This study found a significant number of papers that were cross identified in at least two broad areas, and a few papers were included in all three.Gregory K. Younge