Some aspects of bibliometrics

Elise JohanssonTurku University Library

What is bibliometrics

• Bibliometrics is the application of mathematical and statistical methods to publications (from biblos: book and metron: measurement).

• Bibliometrics is often used to assess scientific research through quantitative studies on research publications

What can we measure with bibliometric analyses in general

• Producers (authors, research institutes, countries)• Products = publications (journal articles, books,

patents, webpages or blogs)• References = works mentioned in the reference list,

citations in the reference list and links between different websites

• Terms= words or concepts that describe the content of the publication

Research on producers

• Only researchers that do publish are included• To look at only one researcher is usually not

reasonable• Often is looked at• Research groups• Research Institutions• Companies• Countries or geopolitical regions• Branch of science

Research on publications

• Can be narrowed in several ways• According to subject, in one or several countries

in the time range specified• Peer reviewed scientific articles• Articles published in a journal at a certain time• Articles published in a country at a specific time

range• Etc.

Research on publications

• With publications you can for example compare publishing between countries

• Always remember to check which language regions are represented, which not.

Research on references, citations and links

• If an author is mentioned in the reference list, he gets a citation

• Citation analysis is the best known form of bibliometric research

• A high number of citations shows a broad interest and of being well-known. This is often taken as a sign of high quality

• Citation analysis is used as a method in research evaluation

Citation analysis

• There are many reasons why a publication gets a citation. E.g more exact information, explanation of a research method, to prove one’s own opinions or to criticise other authors results

• Most cited articles are describing well a research method or are review articles

• Despite the reason of citing, the citation tells that the author knows the existence of the cited article

Citation analysis and data sources

• The information can be gathered manually (slow )

• Or searched from• Thomson Reuters Web of Science database• Elsevier Scopus Database• Google Scholar

• More: Toolbox of Research Citation analysis and Citation enhanced databases

Citation analysis and data sources

• The sources (WoS, Scopus, Google Scholar) vary in content. There is no database that would list all publications in the world

• Journals are the predominant publication type in databases

• In Scopus, citation data extends back to 1996 for all disciplines

Web of Science and Scopus

• Web of Knowledge: Web of Science (WoS) and Journal Citation Reports (JCR)

• Scopus and SCImago’s Journal and Country Rank

Google Scholar

• Google Scholar consists primarily of scholarly articles including journal papers, conference papers, technical reports or their drafts, theses, pre-prints, post-prints, abstracts and court opinions.

• Google Scholar's strength is the broad scope of content for both types of publications and disciplines.

• However, quality of data does not match the standards of Web of Science or Scopus.

Google Scholar

• Use Publish or Perish to retrieve, 'clean' and analyze academic citations from Google Scholar

• Tool: Author impact analysis • More information

About bibliometric data

• Each measure and tool has advantages and disadvantages.

• Citations take time to accumulate• The raw count of citations and analyses

depend on database content• Bibliometrics are best applicable to the fields

of medicine and natural sciences

Bibliometrics and Social Sciences & Humanities

• In social sciences and humanities monographs and edited books are still a very common type of publication.

• Publishing for non-academic audience is important in SSH -fields.

• Bibliometrics are less suited to the Social Sciences and Humanities because books are usually not indexed in citation databases and citations in general take more time to accumulate. • Journal coverage in Scopus is more comprehensive than in Web of

Science for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Bibliometrics in measuring research activity

• Number of publications (all fields)• Number of cited publications and the total

number of citations( for specific fields)• Number of times a publication has been cited

(for specific fields)• H-index (for specific fields)• Journal Impact Factors (for specific fields)

H-index, Hirsch Index

• Based on a scholars most cited publications• A scholar with an index of h has published h papers

each of which has been cited in other papers at least h times

• H-index=10 means that the scholar has 10 articles that are cited at least 10 times

• The h-index cannot be used off-hand to compare researchers of different areas

Impact factor (IF)

• Measures the amount of citations of articles published in a certain journal

• Are published annually in Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports database

• Used in research evaluation. Determines the quality of published articles . The higher the impact factor, the higher the quality of the journal

• The impact factor is used to compare different journals within a certain field of research

Publication Forum (Julkaisufoorumi / JUFO)

• The funding for Finnish universities will be partially based on publication activity based on Publication Forum criteria.

• The Publication Forum system is based on quality classification of scientific publication channels - journals, publication series and book publishers - in all research fields. The rating levels: 1 = basic; 2 = leading; 3 = top

• Publication Forum classification is not suited for interdisciplinary comparisons or the evaluation of single publication or researcher. (Instructions)

Thank you!

Elise Johanssonelise.johansson@utu.fi