A bibliometric study of human–computer interaction research activity in the Nordic-Baltic Eight countries

Human–computer interaction (HCI) has become an important area for designers and developers worldwide, and research activities set in national cultural contexts addressing local challenges are often needed in industry and academia. This study explored HCI research in the Nordic-Baltic countries using bibliometric methods. The results show that the activity varies greatly across the region with activities dominated by Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, even when adjusting for differences in population size and GDP. Research output variations were larger for the top-tier conferences compared to entry-tier conferences and journals. Locally hosted conferences were associated with local increases in research activity. HCI research longevity appears to be an indicator of research maturity and quantity. HCI researchers typically collaborated either with colleagues within the same institution or with researchers from countries outside the Nordic-Baltic region such as US and the UK. There was less collaboration between national and Nordic-Baltic partners. Collaboration appeared especially prevalent for top-tier conference papers. Top-tier conference papers were also more frequently cited than regional-tier and entry-tier conferences, yet journal articles were cited the most. One implication of this study is that the HCI research activity gaps across the Nordic-Baltic countries should be narrowed by increasing the activity in countries with low research outputs. To achieve this, first-time authors could receive guidance through collaborations with experienced authors in the same institution or other labs around the world. More conferences could also be hosted locally. Furthermore, journals may be more effective than conferences if the goal is to accumulate citations.publishedVersio

A bibliometric analysis of the first twenty years of soft computing

Soft Computing was launched in 1997. Today, the journal is becoming twenty years old. Motivated by this anniversary, this article develops a bibliometric analysis of the journal in order to identify the leading trends of the journal in terms of publications and citations. The work considers several issues including the leading authors, institutions and countries. The study also uses a software to develop a graphical analysis. The results show a significant increase of the journal during the last years that has consolidated the journal as a leading one in the field

Research quality criteria in the evaluation of books

In the Italian context of research evaluation, research output in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) presents problematic issues in classification, particularly for the Humanities. In the case of the Italian context, in fact, the SSH area features an extremely varied spectrum of disciplinary domains. The Italian national evaluation system for the Humanities applies a system in which research results are classified in correspondingly varied manner, based on the disciplinary affiliation of the researcher. This has problematic consequences in terms of increasing the numbers of items included in the classification, and still more severe ones concerning the quality criteria to be applied to each item. A particularly critical issue is that the criteria vary depending on the disciplinary domain under evaluation. Beginning from an illustration of the problems specific to the Italian context, the chapter proceeds to a comparative analysis of the research quality criteria for books in the SSH area as applied in several countries and international contexts. The analysis adopts a methodological approach that can be applied to assessment of other national and international classification systems, leading towards a shared European response to the problem of evaluation, in particular for books and book parts. The investigation articulates the dimensions of quality identified in both literature and practice, and offers a structured framework for analysis of the role of books in the evaluation process. The discourse is based on the case of the Italian SSH disciplinary domains and national evaluation exercise, which can be broadened to international and other national SSH research domains and, although the chapter deals with overall SSH, the discussion focuses on the Humanities. The Italian experience in this area is particularly strong, given the uniquely long history of the research area and its ramified development. The sources selected for analysis are the international ISO standards, national guidelines from Spain, Australia and New Zealand, and Italian academic classifications from the University of Turin and University of Bologna. The comparison is based on the classification of books and monographs as practiced under Italian national guidelines for research assessment