Can applied science be ‘good science’? Exploring the relationship between patent citations and citation impact in nanoscience

There is a rich literature on how science and technology are related to each other. Patent citation analysis is amongst the most frequently used to tool to track the strengths of links. In this paper we explore the relationship between patent citations and citation impact in nanoscience. Our observations indicate that patent-cited papers perform better in terms of standard bibliometric indicators than comparable publications that are not linked to technology in this way. More specifically, we found that articles cited in patents are more likely to be cited also by other papers. The share of highly cited papers is the most striking result. Instead of the average of 4% of all papers, 13.8% of the papers cited once or twice in patents fall into this category and even 23.5% of the papers more frequently cited in patents receive citation rates far above the standard. Our analyses further demonstrate the presence and the relevance of bandwagon effects driving the development of science and technology.     

Is the United States losing ground in science? A global perspective on the world science system

Based on the Science Citation Index-Expanded web-version, the USA is still by far the strongest nation in terms of scientific performance. Its relative decline in percentage share of publications is largely due to the emergence of China and other Asian nations. In 2006, China has become the second largest nation in terms of the number of publications within this database. In terms of citations, the competitive advantage of the American “domestic market” is diminished, while the European Union (EU) is profiting more from the enlargement of the database over time than the USA. However, the USA is still outperforming all other countries in terms of highly cited papers and citation/publication ratios, and it is more successful than the EU in coordinating its research efforts in strategic priority areas like nanotechnology. In this field, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become second largest nation in both numbers of papers published and citations behind the USA.     

Ockham’s index of citation impact

Scientometrics - We demonstrate that by using a triple of simple numerical summaries: an author’s productivity, their overall impact, and a single other bibliometric index that aims to...     

Is the water rising?

When a quantity is changing slowly it is difficult to know whetherit will continue to monotonically increase. This situation mayraise questions as to when there is a problem and what shouldbe done. Is the average level of the world's oceans rising?There is some evidence to support this contention. Is this situationa matter of concern that requires action, and what should thataction be? These are vexing questions. Ionising radiation certainly     

Is the Universe homogeneous?

The standard model of cosmology is based on the existence of homogeneous surfaces as the background arena for structure formation. Homogeneity underpins both general relativistic and modified gravity models and is central to the way in which we interpret observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the galaxy distribution. However, homogeneity cannot be directly observed in the galaxy distribution or CMB, even with perfect observations, since we observe on the past light cone and not on spatial surfaces. We can directly observe and test for isotropy, but to link this to homogeneity we need to assume the Copernican principle (CP). First, we discuss the link between isotropic observations on the past light cone and isotropic space-time geometry: what observations do we need to be isotropic in order to deduce space-time isotropy? Second, we discuss what we can say with the Copernican assumption. The most powerful result is based on the CMB: the vanishing of the dipole, quadrupole and octupole of the CMB is sufficient to impose homogeneity. Real observations lead to near-isotropy on large scales--does this lead to near-homogeneity? There are important partial results, and we discuss why this remains a difficult open question. Thus, we are currently unable to prove homogeneity of the Universe on large scales, even with the CP. However, we can use observations of the cosmic microwave background, galaxies and clusters to test homogeneity itself.     

Letter to the editor: comments on the paper of Gagolewski et al.: Ockham’s index of citation impact

Scientometrics - In a recent paper in Scientometrics, Gagolewski et al. (2022) elaborated on a 3DSI model (3 dimensions of scientific impact) using a triplet of primary indicators (N, the number of...     

Is there a gender-based fragmentation of communication science? An investigation of the reasons for the apparent gender homophily in citations

Multiple studies report that male scholars cite publications of male authors more often than their female colleagues do—and vice versa. This gender homophily in citations points to a fragmentation of science along gender boundaries. However, it is not yet clear whether it is actually (perceived) gender characteristics or structural conditions related to gender that are causing the heightened citation frequency of same-sex authors. A bibliometric study on the two leading German communication science journals Publizistik and Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft was employed to further analyze the causes of the phenomenon. As scholars tend to primarily cite sources from their own area of research, differences among male and female scholars regarding their engagement in certain research fields become relevant. It was thus hypothesized that the research subject might mediate the relationship between the citing and cited authors’ genders. A first analysis based on n = 917 papers published in the period from 1970 to 2009 confirmed the expected gender-differences regarding research-activity in certain fields. Subsequently, structural equation modeling was employed to test the suggested mediation model. Results show the expected mediation to be a complementary one indicating that gender homophily in citations is partly due to topical boundaries. While there are alternative explanations for the remaining direct effect, it may suggest that a fragmentation of science along gender boundaries is indeed an issue that communication science must face.     

Bibliometric studies outside the information science and library science field: uncontainable or uncontrollable?

Scientometrics - Bibliometrics, and more generally all metric indicators, are increasingly used as research tools as well as for managing and evaluating research activities. This study analyzes the...     

How the high-impact papers formed? A study using data from social media and citation

Scientometrics - This article aims to map scientific production and cooperation networks on the theme of certified coffee in the Scopus and Web of Science databases for the period from 2009 to...     

Is science becoming more interdisciplinary? Measuring and mapping six research fields over time

In the last two decades there have been studies claiming that science is becoming ever more interdisciplinary. However, the evidence has been anecdotal or partial. Here we investigate how the degree of interdisciplinarity has changed between 1975 and 2005 over six research domains. To do so, we compute well-established bibliometric indicators alongside a new index of interdisciplinarity (Integration score, aka Rao-Stirling diversity) and a science mapping visualization method. The results attest to notable changes in research practices over this 30 year period, namely major increases in number of cited disciplines and references per article (both show about 50% growth), and co-authors per article (about 75% growth). However, the new index of interdisciplinarity only shows a modest increase (mostly around 5% growth). Science maps hint that this is because the distribution of citations of an article remains mainly within neighboring disciplinary areas. These findings suggest that science is indeed becoming more interdisciplinary, but in small steps — drawing mainly from neighboring fields and only modestly increasing the connections to distant cognitive areas. The combination of metrics and overlay science maps provides general benchmarks for future studies of interdisciplinary research characteristics.     

Is the diatom sex clock a clock?

The unique life cycle of diatoms with continuous decreasing and restoration of the cell size leads to periodic fluctuations in cell size distribution and has been regarded as a multi-annual clock. To understand the long-term behaviour of a population analytically, generic mathematical models are investigated algebraically and numerically for their capability to describe periodic oscillations. Whereas the generally accepted simple concepts for the proliferation dynamics do not sustain oscillating behaviour owing to broadening of the size distribution, simulations show that a proposed limited lifetime of a newly synthesized cell wall slows down the relaxation towards a time-invariant equilibrium state to the order of a hundred thousand generations. In combination with seasonal perturbation events, the proliferation scheme with limited lifetime is able to explain long-lasting rhythms that are characteristic for diatom population dynamics. The life cycle thus resembles a pendulum clock that has to be wound up from time to time by seasonal perturbations rather than an oscillator represented by a limit cycle.     

Is the Kanizsa illusion triggered by the simultaneous contrast mechanism?

Current illusory contour models do not predict the disappearance of the Kanizsa illusion due to specific spatial luminance distributions within the inducers. We suggest that these stimulus conditions are characterized by an insufficient amount of induced brightness. Our model's core assumption is that contour edge detection of the Kanizsa illusion and the simultaneous contrast (brightness induction) effect are triggered by the same mechanism. The simultaneous contrast can immunize the occlusion detection mechanism against spatial and temporal noise. Our model contains physiologically inspired building blocks that detect the oriented contour edges, complete the illusory contours, and enhance them. The model succeeds in predicting the appearance and the disappearance of many different Kanizsa illusion variants.     

Is the time-dependent behaviour of the aortic valve intrinsically quasi-linear?

The widely popular quasi-linear viscoelasticity (QLV) theory has been employed extensively in the literature for characterising the time-dependent behaviour of many biological tissues, including the aortic valve (AV). However, in contrast to other tissues, application of QLV to AV data has been met with varying success, with studies reporting discrepancies in the values of the associated quantified parameters for data collected from different timescales in experiments. Furthermore, some studies investigating the stress-relaxation phenomenon in valvular tissues have suggested discrete relaxation spectra, as an alternative to the continuous spectrum proposed by the QLV. These indications put forward a more fundamental question: Is the time-dependent behaviour of the aortic valve intrinsically quasi-linear? In other words, can the inherent characteristics of the tissue that govern its biomechanical behaviour facilitate a quasi-linear time-dependent behaviour? This paper attempts to address these questions by presenting a mathematical analysis to derive the expressions for the stress-relaxation G(t) and creep J(t) functions for the AV tissue within the QLV theory. The principal inherent characteristic of the tissue is incorporated into the QLV formulation in the form of the well-established gradual fibre recruitment model, and the corresponding expressions for G(t) and J(t) are derived. The outcomes indicate that the resulting stress-relaxation and creep functions do not appear to voluntarily follow the observed experimental trends reported in previous studies. These results highlight that the time-dependent behaviour of the AV may not be quasi-linear, and more suitable theoretical criteria and models may be required to explain the phenomenon based on tissue’s microstructure, and for more accurate estimation of the associated material parameters. In general, these results may further be applicable to other planar soft tissues of the same class, i.e. with the same representation for fibre recruitment mechanism and discrete time-dependent spectra.     

Are citation-based quantitative techniques adequate for measuring science on the periphery?

The inadequacies of citation analysis-based quatitative techniques in the context of developing countries owe their origins to the rather small size of most peripheral country scientific enterprises, the poor coverage of Third World journals in bibliographic databases, (and in particularSCI), the cognitive limitations of citation analysis pointed out by microsociologists, and the non-normative nature of the scientific enterprise in these countries. Much of peripheral science is derivative and imitative of science done in the centre, rather than original or path-breaking, and there is hardly any indigenous scientific community. And yet, citation analysis-based quantitative measures can be applied to characterise different aspects of peripheral science. These techniques assume great importance, especially in view of the massive inadequacies of the peer review process prevailing in these countries. The application of such citation-based quantification to units of different levels of aggregation such as a journal, an institution and a country as a whole has been demonstrated taking India as the example. Our results show that levels of funding have no correlation with the quality or international citation impact of the literature output resulting from a project. Almost all Indian journals have a very low impact on world literature, and the relatively better performance ofJournal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (and Indian astronomical research in general) owes it to favourable factors, both social and cognitive.     

The mathematical review system: does reviewer status play a role in the citation process?

This paper revisits an aspect of citation theory (i.e., citer motivation) with respect to the Mathematical Review system and the reviewer’s role in mathematics. We focus on a set of journal articles (369) published in Singularity Theory (1974–2003), the mathematicians who wrote editorial reviews for these articles, and the number of citations each reviewed article received within a 5 year period. Our research hypothesis is that the cognitive authority of a high status reviewer plays a positive role in how well a new article is received and cited by others. Bibliometric evidence points to the contrary: Singularity Theorists of lower status (junior researchers) have reviewed slightly more well-cited articles (2–5 citations, excluding author self-citations) than their higher status counterparts (senior researchers). One explanation for this result is that lower status researchers may have been asked to review ‘trendy’ or more accessible parts of mathematics, which are easier to use and cite. We offer further explanations and discuss a number of implications for a theory of citation in mathematics. This research opens the door for comparisons to other editorial review systems, such as book reviews written in the social sciences or humanities.     

Does monetary support increase citation impact of scholarly papers?

Scientometrics - One of the main indicators of scientific development of a given country is the number of papers published in high impact scholarly journals. Many countries introduced...