University rankings: The web ranking

The publication in 2003 of the Ranking of Universities by Jiao Tong University of Shanghai has revolutionized not only academic studies on Higher Education, but has also had an important impact on the national policies and the individual strategies of the sector. The work gathers the main characteristics of this and other global university rankings, paying special attention to their potential benefits and limitations. The Web Ranking is analyzed in depth, presenting the model on which its compound indicator is based and analyzing its different variables.-------Rankings de universidades: El ranking webResumenLa publicación en 2003 del Ranking de Universidades de la Universidad Jiao Tong de Shanghai ha revolucionado no sólo los estudios académicos sobre la Educación Superior, sino que también ha tenido un importante impacto sobre las políticas nacionales y las estrategias individuales del sector. El trabajo recoge las principales características de este y otros rankings mundiales de universidades, prestando especial atención a sus potencialidades y limitaciones. Se analiza en profundidad el Ranking Web, presentando el modelo en el que se basa su indicador compuesto y analizando sus diferentes variables y principales resultados.DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v2i1.56 PDF document contains both the original in Spanish and an English translation

Measuring the Institution's Footprint in the Web

Purpose: Our purpose is to provide an alternative, although complementary, system for the evaluation of the scholarly activities of academic organizations, scholars and researchers, based on web indicators, in order to speed up the change of paradigm in scholarly communication towards a new fully electronic 21st century model. Design/methodology/approach: In order to achieve these goals, a new set of web indicators has been introduced, obtained mainly from data gathered from search engines, the new mediators of scholarly communication. We found that three large groups of indicators are feasible to obtain and relevant for evaluation purposes: activity (web publication); impact (visibility) and usage (visits and visitors). Findings: As a proof of concept, a Ranking Web of Universities has been built with Webometrics data. There are two relevant findings: ranking results are similar to those obtained by other bibliometric-based rankings; and there is a concerning digital divide between North American and European universities, which appear in lower positions when compared with their US & Canada counterparts. Research limitations / implications: Cybermetrics is still an emerging discipline so new developments should be expected when more empirical data become available. Practical implications: The proposed approach suggests the publication of truly electronic journals, rather than digital versions of printed articles. Additional materials such as raw data and multimedia files should be included along with other relevant information arising from more informal activities. These repositories should be Open Access, available as part of the public Web, indexed by the main commercial search engines. We anticipate that these actions could generate larger Web-based audiences, reduce the costs of publication and access and allow third parties to take advantage of the knowledge generated, without sacrificing peer review, which should be extended (pre- & post-) & expanded (closed & open). Originality / value: A full taxonomy of web indicators is introduced for describing and evaluating research activities, academic organizations and individual scholars and scientists. Previous attempts for building such classification were more incomplete and not taking into account feasibility and efficiency

Estudio cibermétrico sobre el impacto y posición institucional del CSIC en el web

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo el estudio de la presencia del CSIC en el Web. Los indicadores cibermétricos utilizados se basan en la estima del volumen de contenidos de los diferentes subdominios institucionales del CSIC y la cuantificación de la naturaleza hipertextual de las páginas Web de dichos subdominios. Las áreas de Biología y Biomedicina, Recursos Naturales y Ciencia y Tecnología Físicas son las áreas con mayor tamaño y visibilidad del Web. Ciencias Agrarias y Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos son las áreas de menor tamaño y visibilidad del Web. El CSIC aparece en la posición 6.857 de popularidad según el Ranking Alexa, siendo la página Web principal del CSIC y la página Web del CINDOC las de mayor contribución.Peer reviewe

Buenas prácticas para el Siglo XXI

Presentación en Powerpoint (23 hojas) ofrecida en formato pdfGeneral introduction to the problems of the scientific evaluation derived from misuse and misunderstunding of journal-level metrics, specially the journal impact factor. Other issues are discussed with the aim of improving the quality ofthe scientific journals, the reliability of certain bibliometric indicators and the impact of using not fully tested sourcesRevista El Profesional de la InformaciónPeer reviewe