The use of bibliometric indicators in the study of insecticide research

This paper reports part of a historical study of insecticide development. We analysed accumulated references to specific insecticide groups in text books, and index references to a large number of specific insecticides in theReview of Applied Entomology (Ser. A) over the period 1916–70. The paper describes our techniques for analysing the resulting research publication growth curves for these compounds. Our data did not fit the classical S-curves, and possible explanations for this are discussed. Bibliometric time series data may exhibit various inconsistencies, and we describe an approach to handling such dirty data. We concluded that; our quantitative approach produces a picture of the development of insecticides that fits the accepted view derived by qualitative historiography, is very sensitive to trends in pesticide research, and might be a useful adjunct to technology forecasting as well as to historical studies.     

A comparative study of bibliometric past performance analysis and peer judgement

A comparison is made between two types of research past performance analysis: the results of bibliometric-indicators and the results of peer judgement. This paper focuses on two case studies: the work of Dutch National Survey Committees on Chemistry and on Biology, both compared with our bibliometric results for research groups in these disciplines at the University of Leiden. The comparison reveals a serious lack of agreement between the two types of past performance analysis. This important, science-policy relevant observation is discussed in this paper.     

A review of the characteristics of 108 author-level bibliometric indicators

An increasing demand for bibliometric assessment of individuals has led to a growth of new bibliometric indicators as well as new variants or combinations of established ones. The aim of this review is to contribute with objective facts about the usefulness of bibliometric indicators of the effects of publication activity at the individual level. This paper reviews 108 indicators that can potentially be used to measure performance on individual author-level, and examines the complexity of their calculations in relation to what they are supposed to reflect and ease of end-user application. As such we provide a schematic overview of author-level indicators, where the indicators are broadly categorised into indicators of publication count, indicators that qualify output (on the level of the researcher and journal), indicators of the effect of output (effect as citations, citations normalized to field or the researcher’s body of work), indicators that rank the individual’s work and indicators of impact over time. Supported by an extensive appendix we present how the indicators are computed, the complexity of the mathematical calculation and demands to data-collection, their advantages and limitations as well as references to surrounding discussion in the bibliometric community. The Appendix supporting this study is available online as supplementary material.     

Science in america latina: A comparison of bibliometric and scientific-technical indicators

Latin-American scientific achievement is generally under-represented in databases for a number of reasons pointed out in our study. In this paper we analyze Latin-American scientific production in terms of input (resources) and output (publications). The indicators used were: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), economically active population (EAP), percentage of GNP destined to R+D, and total number of researchers dedicated to R+D. These indicators were subjected to bivariant analysis to determine the degree of correlation with the number of ISI publications.     

A validation study of bibliometric indicators: The comparative performance of cum laude doctorates in chemistry

The validity of bibliometric indicators as a monitor of the impact and usefulness of scientific research is examined by comparing the scientific performance of cum laude and non-cum laude degree holders in chemistry (N=237), from five years before their graduation to four years afterwards. Papers of cum laudes were cited more frequently than those of non-cum laudes from three years before graduation until one year after graduation. Two to three years after graduation, the short-term impact per paper was no longer significantly different for both groups. A similar pattern was found with regard to productivity. Little evidence was found in favor of the Ortega hypothesis and the Matthew effect. The results support the concurrent validity of bibliometric indicators with peer review indicators of quality of the research project.     

Opinion paper: thoughts and facts on bibliometric indicators

This paper aims at contributing to the on-going discussion about building and applying bibliometric indicators. It sheds light on their properties and requirements concerning six different aspects: deterministic versus probabilistic approach, application-related properties, the time dependence, normalization issues, size dependence and network indicators.     

A bibliometric study on a new subject field: Energy analysis

A bibliometric study on energy analysis literature is reported. The literature is characterised by heavy emphasis on English-language journal articles and reports, and, after an initial exponential growth rate, it is now growing more slowly. Examination of the titles of articles demonstrated that even after ten years there is no standard terminology in the area. This casts doubt on the value of searching by title terms for new interdisciplinary subjects. On the other hand, secondary services employing controlled-language indexing were found to index the articles under a variety of headings. In any case, coverage of the subject by secondary services is generally poor. There are no clear core journals for this subject area. Some recommendations are made on how both authors of papers in the field and secondary services can ensure better retrieval of energy analysis articles.     

The evaluation of plant biomass research: A case study of the problems inherent in bibliometric indicators

The aim of this project was to evaluate research groups working in the broad field of plant biomass in the areas outside the USA and the EC. The assessment had two key elements: the measurement of scientific productivity and the investigation of factors affecting research performance. Research groups were identified from a range of information sources. Data on funding, information access, staffing, publication policy and degree of awareness of other research groups in the field were collected during the course of interviews. Two approaches —bibliometric analysis and peer review — were examined as a means of constructing indicators for assessing research output.Following a critical review of the use of bibliometric indicators in peripheral countries, the results from a study of eight countries are presented. Neither of two indicators employed proved to be a particularly successful method of evaluating research, and this finding is discussed in relation to publication patterns, the nature of the research community and the research field under study. Finally, the use of a peripatetic expert was found to have some value as a means of assessment.Paper presented at the International Conference on Science Indicators for Developing Countries, Paris, 15–19 October, 1990.     

Prolific inventors—A bibliometric analysis

Patent information on 7392 inventors who received 9 or more U.S. Patents during 1975–84 was obtained. Analysis of the frequency distribution of patents per inventor reveals an approximately logarithmic decline from 9 to approximately 45 patents per inventor. The rate of decline decreases significantly for patent output above 45 patents per inventor. Patent citation analysis on 45 randomly selected inventors was performed. This sample included inventors who received from 9 to over 100 patents. The group received 1.79 citations per patent, 56.8% of the patents received at least 1 citation, and 2.7% of the patents received 10 or more citations. No statistically significant differences for these averages was found across the range of inventor patent output. No significant decline of patent quality with increased yearly patent output was observed.     

ResearchGate Score,full-text research items,and full-text reads: a follow-up study

Scientometrics - This contribution focuses on the scholarly social network ResearchGate (RG). We take the cue from a recent change in the information shown on each researcher’s...     

A survey of Quality Engineering–Management journals by bibliometric indicators

This paper analyses some of the most popular scientific journals in the Quality field from the point of view of three bibliometric indicators: the Hirsch (h) index for journals, the total number of citations and the h‐spectrum. In particular, h‐spectrum is a novel tool based on h, making it possible to (i) identify a reference profile of the typical authors of a journal; (ii) compare different journals; and (iii) provide a rough indication of their ‘bibliometric positioning’ in the scientific community. Results of this analysis can be helpful for guiding potential authors and members of the scientific community in the Quality Engineering/Management area. A large amount of empirical data are presented and discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the usefulness of bibliometric indicators for the humanities and the social and beha vioural sciences: A comparative study

An evaluation was made of the use of bibliometric indicators for five disciplines in the humanities (social history, general linguistics, general literature, Dutch literature, and Dutch language) and three disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences (experimental psychology, anthropology, and public administration) in the Netherlands. Articles in journals were the predominant outlet in all disciplines. Monographs and popularizing articles were more important outlets in softer fields than in harder ones. The enlightenment function of scholarship was especially evident in Dutch literature and language, and public administration. Only some of the humanities disciplines are locally oriented. Although many publications were written in English, only experimental psychology, general linguistics, anthropology, and genrral literature were internationally oriented regarding output media. The impact of departments differed greatly both within and between disciplines. For all disciplines, bibliometric indicators are potentially useful for monitoring international impact, as expert interviews confirmed. Especially in Dutch language, Dutch literature and public administration, ISI-citation data are not very useful for monitoring national impact.     

A bibliometric study of differential item functioning

Summary This study presents a bibliometric analysis of scientific output in the area of Differential Item Functioning (DIF), the aim being to offer an overview of research activity in this field and characterise its most important aspects and their evolution over the last quarter of the 20th century, thus providing data regarding the basis on which this activity is being developed at the beginning of the 21st century. The analysis makes use of the Web of Science database, the search being restricted to articles published between 1975 and 2000 and which contain the terms differential item functioning, DIF or item bias. The various analyses focus on the presentation of publication frequencies and percentages, as well as on the application of Bradfords law of scattering and Lotkas law.     

An attempt of surveying and classifying bibliometric indicators for scientometric purposes

An attempt is made for the survey and classification of bibliometric indicators applicable for assessment of publication performance of researchers active in natural sciences. Indicators can be classified as publication and citation ones which may refer to impact and quantity of publication activity of researcher(s), teams, institutes or countries. Taking into account the possible reference standards, the indicators are classified as simple, specific, balance, distribution and relative ones. In order to evaluate publication activity both qualitatively and quantitatively, relative citation indicators can be recommended, which relate citations received to the sum of impact factors of the journals, where the papers were published or give the relative measure of the average citedness of papers related to that of papers in journals in a similar subfield.     

A bibliometric study of service innovation research: based on complex network analysis

In the paper, we apply small world complex network theory to analyze scientific research in the field of service innovation, and discover its research focuses. Our study considers the key words and subject categories of the publications as actors to map keyword co-occurrence network and subject category co-occurrence network, and compare them with their corresponding random binary networks to judge whether these complex networks have the characteristics of small world network, in order to find the hot issues in the field by the small world network analysis. We discuss the knowledge structure in the field through analyzing 437 papers that were searched from Web of Science database over the period 1992–2011. We find that case study, service industry, service quality, market orientation, new product development, and knowledge management were the most popular keywords of the field, and also show the dynamic development of the research focuses in recent 10 years. The researchers who made most contribution in a certain field are also found out. It is concluded that there were more researchers who did investigation about service innovation in the category of Business and Economics, Engineering, Public Administration, Operations Research and Management Science, and Computer Science than those in other categories. The study suggests a quantitative method to analyze trends of scientific research in a certain field, and presents some directions of research mainstream to the researchers who may be interested in the service innovation.     

Bibliometrics in Press. Representations and uses of bibliometric indicators in the Italian daily newspapers

Scholars in science and technology studies and bibliometricians are increasingly revealing the performative nature of bibliometric indicators. Far from being neutral technical measures, indicators such as the Impact Factor and the h-index are deeply transforming the social and epistemic structures of contemporary science. At the same time, scholars have highlighted how bibliometric indicators are endowed with social meanings that go beyond their purely technical definitions. These social representations of bibliometric indicators are constructed and negotiated between different groups of actors within several arenas. This study aims to investigate how bibliometric indicators are used in a context, which, so far, has not yet been covered by researchers, that of daily newspapers. By a content analysis of a corpus of 583 articles that appeared in four major Italian newspapers between 1990 and 2020, we chronicle the main functions that bibliometrics and bibliometric indicators played in the Italian press. Our material shows, among other things, that the public discourse developed in newspapers creates a favorable environment for bibliometrics-centered science policies, that bibliometric indicators contribute to the social construction of scientific facts in the press, especially in science news related to medicine, and that professional bibliometric expertise struggles to be represented in newspapers and hence reach the general public.

     

Research strengths identified by esteem and bibliometric indicators: a case study at the University of Vienna

Scientometrics - The identification of one’s own research strengths is of crucial importance for research administration at universities. In this case study, two different approaches were...     

Scientometric indicators: peer-review,bibliometric methods and conflict of interests

The paper discusses the role of scientometric indicators in peer-review selection of research project proposals. An ex post facto evaluation was made of three calls for research project proposals in Slovenia: 2003 with a peer review system designed in a way that conflict of interest was not avoided effectively, 2005 with a sound international peer-review system with minimized conflict of interest influence but a limited number of reviewers, and 2008 with a combination of scientometric indicators and a sound international peer review with minimized conflict of interest influence. The hypothesis was that the three different peer review systems would have different correlations with the same set of scientometric indicators. In the last two decision-making systems (2005 and 2008) where conflict of interest was effectively avoided, we have a high percentage (65%) of projects that would have been selected in the call irrespective of the method (peer review or bibliometrics solely). In contrast, in the 2003 call there is a significantly smaller percentage (49%) of projects that would have been selected in the call irrespective of the method (peer review or bibliometrics solely). It was shown that while scientometric indicators can hardly replace the peer-review system as the ultimate decision-making and support system, they can reveal its weaknesses on one hand and on the other can verify peer-review scores and minimize conflict of interest if necessary.     

Mapping the research on aquaculture. A bibliometric analysis of aquaculture literature

Research on aquaculture is expanding along with the exceptional growth of the sector and has an important role in supporting even further the future developments of this relatively young food production industry. In this paper we examined the aquaculture literature using bibliometrics and computational semantics methods (latent semantic analysis, topic model and co-citation analysis) to identify the main themes and trends in research. We analysed bibliographic information and abstracts of 14,308 scientific articles on aquaculture recorded in Scopus. Both the latent semantic analysis and the topic model indicate that the broad themes of research on aquaculture are related to genetics and reproduction, growth and physiology, farming systems and environment, nutrition, water quality, and health. The topic model gives an estimate of the relevance of these research themes by single articles, authors, research institutions, species and time. With the co-citation analysis it was possible to identify more specific research fronts, which are attracting high number of co-citations by the scientific community. The largest research fronts are related to probiotics, benthic sediments, genomics, integrated aquaculture and water treatment. In terms of temporal evolution, some research fronts such as probiotics, genomics, sea-lice, and environmental impacts from cage aquaculture, are still expanding while others, such as mangroves and shrimp farming, benthic sediments, are gradually losing weight. While bibliometric methods do not necessarily provide a measure of output or impact of research activities, they proved useful for mapping a research area, identifying the relevance of themes in the scientific literature and understanding how research fronts evolve and interact. By using different methodological approaches the study is taking advantage of the strengths of each method in mapping the research on aquaculture and showing in the meantime possible limitations and some directions for further improvements.