Towards a single language in science? A Spanish view

During the course of the last century, English has gained acceptance as the lingua franca in science.A transition from a ‘national’ science model to a ‘transnational’ model – in which English is used – has been described in Spain and other non-English-speaking countries. This new model is reinforced in Spain through science policy measures oriented to enhance international visibility. However, it can make survival of national journals difficult. National journals play an important role in the more local topics and they provide support and structure to the national science systems. Criteria followed in research evaluation should consider both national and international publications.Peer reviewe

Do age and professional rank influence the order of authorship in scientific publications? Some evidence from a micro-level perspective

Scientific authorship has important implications in science since it reflects the contribution to research of the different individual scientists and it is considered by evaluation committees in research assessment processes. This study analyses the order of authorship in the scientific output of 1,064 permanent scientists at the Spanish CSIC (WoS, 1994-2004). The influence of age, professional rank and bibliometric profile of scientists over the position of their names in the byline of publications is explored in three different research areas: Biology and Biomedicine, Materials Science and Natural Resources. There is a strong trend for signatures of younger researchers and those in the lower professional ranks to appear in the first position (junior signing pattern), while more veteran or highly-ranked ones, who tend to play supervisory functions in research, are proportionally more likely to sign in the last position (senior signing pattern). Professional rank and age have an effect on authorship order in the three fields analysed, but there are inter-field differences. Authorship patterns are especially marked in the most collaboration-intensive field (i.e. Biology and Biomedicine), where professional rank seems to be more significant than age in determining the role of scientists in research as seen through their authorship patterns, while age has a more significant effect in the least collaboration-intensive field (Natural Resources).Peer reviewe

Articles vs. Proceedings Papers: Do they differ in research relevance and impact? A case study in the Library and Information Science field

In 2008, the type of document “proceedings paper” (PP) was assigned in the WoS database to journal articles which were initially presented at a conference and later adapted for publication in a journal. Since the use of two different labels (“article” and “proceedings paper”) might lead to infer differences in their relevance and/or quality, this paper presents a comparative study of standard journal articles and PP in journals to explore potential differences between them. The study focuses on the Library and Information Science field in the Web of Science database and covers the 1990-2008 period. PP approximately account for 9% of the total number of articles in this field, two-thirds of which are published in monographic issues devoted to conferences, which tend to be concentrated in specific journals. Proceedings papers emerge as an heterogeneous set comprising PP in ordinary issues, similar to standard articles in structure and impact of research; and PP in monographic issues, which seem to be less comprehensive and tend to receive less citations. Faster publication of PP in monographic than in ordinary issues may conceal differences in the review process undergone by either type of paper. The main implications of these results for authors, bibliometricians, journal editors and research evaluators are pointed out.Peer reviewe

Una visión crítica del índice h: algunas consideraciones derivadas de su aplicación práctica

The possible use of h-index in the evaluation of individual researchers has raised great concern among policymakers and scientists themselves. Research is needed to determine the advantages and limitations of this new indicator. A study of publications in the Web of Science, 1994-2004, applied the h-index to researchers working in the natural resources area at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). One of the findings presented is that the h-index detected the most outstanding scientists; however, scientists who follow a selective publication strategy, publishing a relatively low number of documents that are frequently cited, could be penalized for this approach in h-index based evaluations. The authors emphasize the need to avoid the specific limitations of each indicator by combining indicators in the evaluation process.La posible aplicación del índice h en la evaluación de investigadores individuales ha despertado un gran interés entre los gestores de la investigación y entre los propios autores, haciendo necesarios estudios sobre las ventajas y limitaciones de este nuevo indicador. En este trabajo se presentan algunos resultados de su aplicación al colectivo de científicos del área de Recursos Naturales del CSIC, estudiando su producción en el Web of Science durante 1994-2004. El índice h permite detectar a los investigadores más destacados dentro del área, pero presenta limitaciones para identificar a aquellos con estrategias de publicación “selectivas”, que no destacan por su número de documentos pero sí por el alto número de citas recibidas, por lo que este tipo de comportamiento puede verse penalizado en evaluaciones basadas sólo en este indicador. Se incide en la necesidad de combinar distintos indicadores en los procesos de evaluación para evitar las limitaciones propias de cada uno de ellos.Peer reviewe

The effect of gender on research staff success in life sciences in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Inter-gender differences in research performance of CSIC scientists in the area of Biology and Biomedicine are analysed by means of bibliometric indicators (SCI, 1996-2000). Productivity of both men and women increases with scientific category, and inter-gender differences are not found within each category. Women with intermediate levels of seniority (11-20 and 21-30 years of working life) show lower productivity than their male counterparts, factor which might contribute to the lower promotion observed for female scientists. However, women that entered CSIC in the last 10 years overpass men in productivity, so a more balanced distribution of women by scientific ranks would be expected in the future. The need to improve the normalisation of author names in publications and bibliographic databases and even to develop a “digital author identifier” to make these studies easier is pointed out.Peer reviewe

Application of Robust Model Predictive Control to a Renewable Hydrogen-based Microgrid

In order to cope with uncertainties present in the renewable energy generation, as well as in the demand consumer, we propose in this paper the formulation and comparison of three robust model predictive control techniques, i. i. e., multi-scenario, tree-based, and chance-constrained model predictive control, which are applied to a nonlinear plant-replacement model that corresponds to a real laboratory-scale plant located in the facilities of the University of Seville. Results show the effectiveness of these three techniques considering the stochastic nature, proper of these systems

La Actividad Científica del CSIC a través del Web of Science. Estudio Bibliométrico del período 2001-2005

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo el estudio de la producción científica del CSIC durante el período 2001-2005. Antecedentes de este informe son los estudios de actividad científica del CSIC publicados en años anteriores. El presente informe introduce como novedad el uso de la base de datos Web of Science como fuente de información, mientras que los estudios previos se basaban en las bases de datos Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) y Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) en su versión en CD-ROM. La base de datos internacional Web of Science (WoS), elaborada por Thomson Scientific (antes Thomson ISI) de EEUU, tiene una cobertura más amplia que el mencionado CD-ROM. Recoge una selección de las principales revistas científicas en el ámbito internacional, y aunque presentan un claro sesgo a favor de revistas en lengua inglesa y de los países del "centro" científico, su uso permite obtener una visión de la producción científica de un país en su vertiente más internacional. Por otro lado, el uso de la base de datos WoS ha permitido introducir por primera vez indicadores de impacto basados en las citas recibidas por los documentos.Peer reviewe

Heterogeneity of collaboration and its relationship with research impact in a biomedical field

This paper analyses existing trends in the collaborative structure of the Pharmacology and Pharmacy field in Spain and explores its relationship with research impact. The evolution in terms of size of the research community, the typology of collaborative links (national, international) and the scope of the collaboration (size of links, type of partners) are studied by means of different measures based on co-authorship. Growing heterogeneity of collaboration and impact of research are observed over the years. Average journal impact (MNJS) and citation score (MNCS) normalised to world average tend to grow with the number of authors, the number of institutions and collaboration type. Both national and international collaboration show MNJS values above the country’s average, but only internationally co-authored publications attain citation rates above the world’s average. This holds at country and institutional sector levels, although not all institutional sectors obtain the same benefit from collaboration. Multilateral collaboration with high-level R&D countries yields the highest values of research impact, although the impact of collaboration with low-level R&D countries has been optimised over the years. Although scientific collaboration is frequently based on individual initiative, policy actions are required to promote the more heterogeneous types of collaboration.Peer reviewe

Binary Search Algorithm for Mixed Integer Optimization: Application to energy management in a microgrid

This paper presents a binary search algorithm to deal with binary variables in mixed integer optimization problems. One example of this kind of problem is the optimal operation of hydrogen storage and energy sale and purchase into a microgrids context. In this work was studied a system composed by a microgrid that has a connection with the external electrical network and a charging station for electric cars. The system modeling was carried out by the Energy Hubs methodology. The proposed algorithm transforms the MIQP (Mixed Integer Quadratic Program) problem into a QP (Quadratic Program) that is easier to solve. In this way the overall control task is carried out the electricity purchase and sale to the power grid, maximizes the use of renewable energy sources, manages the use of energy storages and supplies the charge of the parked vehicles.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2013-46912-C2-1-RUniversidad de Sevilla CNPq401126/2014-5Universidad de Sevilla CNPq303702/2011-