The use of bibliometric techniques for institutional research evaluation: A study of avian virology research

A bibliometric analysis was made of an area of veterinary research, avian virology, in the context of seeking quantitative indicators to assist research evaluation for the UK Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC). In one approach, a list was made of world publications in avian virology using the CAB database which is the most appropriate literature source in terms of subject specificity and breadth of coverage. Means were sought to minimise the labour input required for citation studies of this kind; results based on peak-year citations only were similar to those from the more widely used four-year count, in terms of country-ranking and time trends. In the second method, the publication outputs of several avian virology research groups were assessed in terms of expected citations i.e. the average number of citations per paper received by the journals in which the groups published, as compared to the actual citations received. The rankings of the groups were the same in both methods. This second approach, while giving only approximate citation rates, has the advantage of requiring only in-house data. It seems more appropriate for the ex-post evaluation of the output of research groups in the context of agricultural and food research, and it is suggested that further studies on journal-based indicators are warranted.