Information metrics (iMetrics): a research specialty with a socio-cognitive identity?

“Bibliometrics”, “scientometrics”, “informetrics”, and “webometrics” can all be considered as manifestations of a single research area with similar objectives and methods, which we call “information metrics” or iMetrics. This study explores the cognitive and social distinctness of iMetrics with respect to the general information science (IS), focusing on a core of researchers, shared vocabulary and literature/knowledge base. Our analysis investigates the similarities and differences between four document sets. The document sets are drawn from three core journals for iMetrics research (Scientometrics, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, and Journal of Informetrics). We split JASIST into document sets containing iMetrics and general IS articles. The volume of publications in this representation of the specialty has increased rapidly during the last decade. A core of researchers that predominantly focus on iMetrics topics can thus be identified. This core group has developed a shared vocabulary as exhibited in high similarity of title words and one that shares a knowledge base. The research front of this field moves faster than the research front of information science in general, bringing it closer to Price’s dream.     

Marine shrimp fisheries research—a mismatch on spatial and thematic needs

Scientometrics - Marine shrimp fishing is an economic activity of global importance due to its high profitability, but it also presents several environmental and socioeconomic problems. In a...     

Mapping of dental science research in India: a scientometric analysis of India’s research output, 1999–2008

The study examines India’s performance based on its publication output in dental sciences during 1999–2008, based on several parameters, including the country annual average growth rate, global publication share & rank among 25 most productive countries of the world, national publication output and impact in terms of average citations per paper, international collaboration output and share and contribution of major collaborative partners, contribution and impact of select top 25 Indian institutions and select top 15 most productive authors, patterns of communication in national and international journals and characteristics of its 45 high cited papers. The study uses 10 years (1999–2008) publications data in dental sciences of India and other countries drawn from Scopus international multidisciplinary bibliographical database.     

Nitrogen research at watershed scale: a bibliometric analysis during 1959–2011

Because of enhanced anthropogenic nitrogen input, eutrophication, hypoxia, and acidification threaten the health of aquatic ecosystems. To better understand the current state of research and emerging trends in this area, a bibliometric approach was applied to quantitatively evaluate global nitrogen research at the watershed scale. Using 9,748 articles selected from among 10,163 returned by a search in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) database from 1900 to 2011, spatial and temporal characteristics of the articles, authors, institutions, countries, and keywords are presented, and focal research areas are derived. Compared with the annual increase in all articles in the SCI-Expanded (4.5 %), the studies on nitrogen in watersheds increased more quickly (11.2 %), indicating an increasing interest in this area. The relationship between authors and their output was evaluated by a two-step function, in which 6,074 authors (26.8 %) publishing on this topic were key scientists who contributed 56.4 % of the total articles. Based on the number of authors, first authors, international collaborators, and citations, four types of authors were analyzed using cluster methods. The influence of the authors, institutions and countries was also analyzed in terms of publication and citation, and a co-occurrence analysis was used to assess cooperation among countries and research hotpots. The keywords were compared among countries to assist our understanding of interests of research and modes. From the analysis of the primary subjects and the co-occurrence of keywords, studies involving nitrogen’s environmental effects, the nitrogen process and models are increasing, which indicates that they are likely to become a primary research focus in the near future.     

Global remote sensing research trends during 1991–2010: a bibliometric analysis

According to the articles related to remote sensing of SCI and SSCI databases during 1991–2010, this study evaluated the geographical influence of authors by the new index (geographical impact factor), and revealed the auctorial, institutional, national, and spatiotemporal patterns in remote sensing research. Remote sensing research went up significantly in the past two decades. Imaging science & photographic technology was the important subject category. International Journal of Remote Sensing was the top active journal. All authors were mainly concentrated in North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. Jackson TJ from USDA ARS was the most productive author, Coops NC from University of British Columbia had more high-quality articles, and Running SW from University of Montana carried the greatest geographical influence. The USA was the largest contributor in global remote sensing research with the most single-country and internationally collaborative articles, and the NASA was the most powerful research institute. The international cooperation of remote sensing research increased distinctly. Co-word analysis found the common remote sensing platform and sensors, revealed the widespread adoption of major technologies, and demonstrated keen interest in land cover/land use, vegetation, and climate change. Moreover, the remote sensing research was closely correlated with the satellite development.     

Renewable energy research 1995–2009: a case study of wind power research in EU, Spain, Germany and Denmark

The paper reports the developments and citation patterns over three time periods of research on Renewable Energy generation and Wind Power 1995–2011 in EU, Spain, Germany and Denmark. Analyses are based on Web of Science and incorporate journal articles as well as conference proceeding papers. Scientometric indicators include publication collaboration ratios, top-player distribution as well as citedness and correspondence analyses of citing publications, relative citation impact, distributions of top-cited as well as top-citing institutions and publication sources and cluster analysis of citing title terms to map knowledge export areas. Findings show an increase in citation impact for Renewable Energy and Wind Power research albeit hampered by scarcely cited conference papers. Although EU maintains its global top position in producing Renewable Energy and Wind Power research the developments of EU and German world shares as well as citation impact are negative during the most recent 7 year period. During the same time the citation impact of Spain and Denmark increase and place both nations among the top-ranking countries in Wind Power research. Spain is the only EU country that increases its world production share from 2000. China is currently ranked three after EU and USA in research output, however with a very low citation impact. Spain, Denmark and Germany each demonstrates distinct collaboration patterns and publication source and citation distribution profiles. More than half the citations to EU Wind Power research are EU-self citations. An expected intensified EU collaboration in the Wind Energy field does not come about. The most productive research institutions in Denmark and Spain are also the most cited ones.     

Silicone adhesive,a better matrix for tolterodine patches—a research based on in vitro/in vivo studies

Objective: To design and optimize a drug-in-adhesive (DIA) type transdermal patch for tolterodine (TOL) based on acrylic and silicone matrixes.

Methods: Initial in vitro studies were conducted to optimize the formulations. Two types of adhesive matrixes, drug loading, and enhancers were evaluated on the TOL transport across rabbit skin. For in vivo studies, patches were administered to rabbit abdominal skin. Pharmacokinetic assessments were performed based on plasma level of TOL up to 28?h for acrylic patch and 52?h for silicone patch after topical application.

Results: The final formulation of acrylic adhesive type patch consisted of 10% TOL (w/w) and 5.8?×?10^?4 mol isopropyl myristate (IPM) and 2.9?×?10^?4 mol Span 80 in per unit gram (mol/g) of adhesive, while 2.5% TOL (w/w) and 2.9?×?10^?4 mol/g IPM for silicone adhesive type patch. Comparison of the pharmacokinetic parameters between two types of patches showed that the steady-state concentration of silicone type patch was 2-fold higher than that of acrylic type patch being 0.97?mg/L versus 0.49?mg/L, and the absolute bioavailability was 27.5% for silicone type patch and 6.3% for acrylic type patch, respectively. In addition, the prediction of in vivo drug level from the in vitro permeation data of silicone adhesive formulation was in good agreement with actual observed concentration data in rabbits.

Conclusion: These results indicate that the silicone type of TOL patch is an appropriate delivery system for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB).     

Why is graphene an extraordinary material? A review based on a decade of research

During this decade, graphene which is a thin layer of carbon material along at ease with synthesis and functionalization has become a hot topic of research owing to excellent mechanical strength, very good current density, high thermal conductivity, superior electrical conductivity, large surface area, and good electron mobility. The research on graphene has exponentially accelerated specially when Geim and Novoselov developed and analyzed graphene. On this basis, for industrial application, researchers are exploring different techniques to produce high-quality graphene. Therefore, reviewed in this article is a brief introduction to graphene and its derivatives along with some of the methods developed to synthesize graphene and its prospective applications in both research and industry. In this work, recent advances on applications of graphene in various fields such as sensors, energy storage, energy harvesting, high-speed optoelectronics, supercapacitors, touch-based flexible screens, and organic light emitting diode displays have been summarized.     

Influence of a performance indicator on Danish research production and citation impact 2000–12

This paper analyses the patterns of Danish research productivity, citation impact and (inter)national collaboration across document types 2000–2012, prior to and after the introduction of the Norwegian publication point-based performance indicator in 2008. Document types analysed are: research articles; conference proceedings papers excluding meeting abstracts; and review articles. The Danish Research & Innovation Agency’s basic statistics combined with Web of Science (WoS) are used for data collection and analyses. Findings demonstrate that the research article productivity increases steeply (37 %) after the start of the performance indicator and the citation impact progresses linearly over the entire period, regardless the introduction of the performance indicator. Academic staff progression is only 24 % during the same time period. The collaboration ratio between purely Danish and internationally cooperated research articles remains stable during the period, the number of collaborative countries increases while the ratio declines significantly for proceedings papers. The citation impact of internationally cooperated research articles increases since 2009 but drops for proceedings papers; also their productivity declines slightly from 2009 according to Research Agency statistics. Since 2006 the WoS indexing of proceedings papers is fast declining; as a consequence the ratio between Danish proceedings papers and research articles declines in WoS. According to Research Agency statistics a decline likewise takes place, starting from 2009. The positive growth in research articles mainly derives from the Science and Technology fields published in prestigious Level 2 journals; the development of articles published in less prestigious Level 1 journals derives from all fields. Three of the eight Danish universities have significantly altered their research publication profiles since 2009. The publication performance model is regarded as the significant accelerator of these processes in recent years.     

Open access uptake in Germany 2010–2018: adoption in a diverse research landscape

This study investigates the development of open access (OA) to journal articles from authors affiliated with German universities and non-university research institutions in the period 2010–2018. Beyond determining the overall share of openly available articles, a systematic classification of distinct categories of OA publishing allowed us to identify different patterns of adoption of OA. Taking into account the particularities of the German research landscape, variations in terms of productivity, OA uptake and approaches to OA are examined at the meso-level and possible explanations are discussed. The development of the OA uptake is analysed for the different research sectors in Germany (universities, non-university research institutes of the Helmholtz Association, Fraunhofer Society, Max Planck Society, Leibniz Association, and government research agencies). Combining several data sources (incl. Web of Science, Unpaywall, an authority file of standardised German affiliation information, the ISSN-Gold-OA 3.0 list, and OpenDOAR), the study confirms the growth of the OA share mirroring the international trend reported in related studies. We found that 45% of all considered articles during the observed period were openly available at the time of analysis. Our findings show that subject-specific repositories are the most prevalent type of OA. However, the percentages for publication in fully OA journals and OA via institutional repositories show similarly steep increases. Enabling data-driven decision-making regarding the implementation of OA in Germany at the institutional level, the results of this study furthermore can serve as a baseline to assess the impact recent transformative agreements with major publishers will likely have on scholarly communication.

     

Global trends in sediment-related research in earth science during 1992–2011: a bibliometric analysis

An effective bibliometric analysis based on the Science Citation Index-Expanded database was conducted to evaluate earth science sediment-related research from different perspectives from 1992 to 2011. The geographical influences of the authors were subsequently visualized. Sediment-related research experienced notable growth in the past two decades. Multidisciplinary geosciences and environmental sciences were the two major categories, and Environmental Science and Technology was the most active journal. Damsté JSS and Schouten S were the two most prolific authors with the most high-quality articles and the greatest geographic influences. The major spatial clusters of authors overlapped quite well with regions with high economic growth in the USA, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia. The USA was the largest contributor in global sediment research with the most independent and collaborative papers, and the dominance of the USA was also confirmed in the national collaboration network. National academic output was positively associated with its economic capability. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the US Geological Survey and the Russian Academy of Sciences were the three major contributing institutions. A keywords analysis determined that “evolution”, “water”, “soil(s)”, and “model” were consistent hotspots in sediment research. Several keywords such as “organic-matter”, “Holocene”, “dynamics”, “erosion”, “sediment transport”, “climate”, and “heavy-metal” received dramatically increased attention during the study period. Through co-word analysis, significant differences were observed between environmental and multidisciplinary geosciences in terms of the most frequently used keywords, and the prevalent research topic patterns were ascertained.     

Mapping of nanoscience and nanotechnology research in India: a scientometric analysis, 1990–2009

This paper analyses the growth pattern of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology literature in India during 1990–2009 (20 years). The Scopus international multidisciplinary bibliographical database has been used to identify the Indian contributions on the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The study measures the performance based on several parameters, country annual growth rate, authorship pattern, collaborative index, collaborative coefficient, modified collaborative coefficient, subject profile, etc. Further the study examines national publication output and impact in terms of average citations per paper, international collaboration output and share, contribution and impact of Indian Institutions and impact of Indian journals.     

Marketing and operations research – a literature survey Marketing und Operations Research – Eine Literaturübersicht

Over the last decades the quantitative research based on Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS) approaches has become one of the leading research paradigms in marketing. The aim of this article is, to give the reader of this special issue an overview of recent publications in OR/MS based marketing research. Its basis is a literature review of quantitative marketing publications with OR/MS orientation in the leading journals of marketing and management. The review reveals general differences in the quantity of the publications and the domain of research between those journals published in English and those in German. The review also provides an overview of research publications during the recent years and shows possible future trends in quantitative marketing research.     

Are the strategic research agendas of researchers in the social sciences determinants of research productivity?

Scientometrics - This study analyzes the association between the strategic research agendas of researchers in the social sciences and their research performance. Based on a worldwide sample of 604...     

Fish science research in China: How does it compare with fish research in India?

Fish and aquaculture research in the People's Republic of China over the six years 1994-1999 has been mapped using data from six databases– three abstracting services and three citation indexes. The results are compared with fish science research in India. During the six years China has published 2035 papers (roughly 4.5 –5% of the world output) and India 2454. More than 95% of China's papers are journal articles, compared to 82.8% of Indian papers. About 78% of China's journal paper output has appeared in 143 domestic journals compared to 70% from India in 113 Indian journals. Less than one-eighth of the journal articles published by Chinese researchers are published in journals indexed in SCI, compared to 30% of journal articles by Indian researchers. Less than a dozen papers from each of these countries have appeared in journals of impact factor greater than 3.0. Fish research institutes and fishery colleges are the major contributors of the Chinese research output in this area. In India academic institutions are the leading contributors (61%), followed by central government institutions (>25%). Qingdao, Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai are the cities and Shandong, Hubei and Fujian are the provinces contributing a large number of papers. As we do not have addresses of all authors in most of the papers, we are unable to estimate the extent of international collaboration. Although China's research output and its citation impact are less than those of India, China's fish production and export earnings are far higher than those of India. Probably China is better at bridging the gap between knowhow (research) and do-how (technology and creation of employment and wealth). China is pretty strong in extension. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Investigating different types of research collaboration and citation impact: a case study of Harvard University’s publications

This study aims to investigate the influence of different patterns of collaboration on the citation impact of Harvard University’s publications. Those documents published by researchers affiliated with Harvard University in WoS from 2000–2009, constituted the population of the research which was counted for 124,937 records. Based on the results, only 12% of Harvard publications were single author publications. Different patterns of collaboration were investigated in different subject fields. In all 22 examined fields, the number of co-authored publications is much higher than single author publications. In fact, more than 60% of all publications in each field are multi-author publications. Also, the normalized citation per paper for co-authored publications is higher than that of single author publications in all fields. In addition, the largest number of publications in all 22 fields were also published through inter-institutional collaboration and were as a result of collaboration among domestic researchers and not international ones. In general, the results of the study showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the number of authors and the number of citations in Harvard publications. In addition, publications with more number of institutions have received more number of citations, whereas publications with more number of foreign collaborators were not much highly cited.