An item-by-item subject classification of papers published in multidisciplinary and general journals using reference analysis

W. Glänzel; A. Schubert; H. Czerwon

doi:10.1007/bf02458488

Scientometrics

Volume/Issue:: Volume 44: Issue 3

An item-by-item subject classification of papers published in multidisciplinary and general journals using reference analysis

Authors:

W. Glänzel

W. Glänzel

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A. Schubert

A. Schubert

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H. Czerwon

H. Czerwon Research Association for Science Communication and Information e. V. (RASCI) Bruno-Apitz-Str. 1 D-13125 Berlin Germany Bruno-Apitz-Str. 1 D-13125 Berlin Germany

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Pages:: 427–439

Online Publication Date:: 26 Jul 2006

Publication Date:: 01 Mar 1999

Article Category:: Research Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02458488

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Abstract

A serious shortcoming of bibliometric studies based on the(Social) Science (s) Citation Index is the lack of an universally applicable subject classification scheme as individual papers are concerned. Subject classification of papers on the basis of assigning journals to subject categories (like those found in the various supplements of ISI databases) works well in case of highly specialised journals, but fails for multidisciplinary journals such asNature, Science andPNAS—and so far as subfields are taken into consideration-also for “general” journals (e.g.JACS orAngewandte Chemie). This study presents the results of a pilot project attempting to overcome this shortcoming by delimiting the subject of papers published in multidisciplinary and general journals by an item-by-item subject classification scheme, where assignment is based on the analysis of the subject classification of reference literature. The results clearly confirmed the conclusions of earlier studies by the authors in the field of reference analysis. For the really important journals (sufficiently high number of annual publications and high impact with respect to the field), the share of classifiable papers was surprisingly high, and the assignment proved reliable as well. Since papers in the leading general and multidisciplinary journals are frequently citing general and multidisciplinary journals, an iterated application of the procedure is expected to increase the number of classifiable publications. The results of the new methodology may improve the validity of bibliometric studies for research evaluation purposes.

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Scientometrics

Print ISSN:: 0138-9130

Online ISSN:: 1588-2861

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Scientometrics
Language	English
Size	B5
Year of Foundation	1978
Volumes per Year	1
Issues per Year	12
Founder	Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher	Akadémiai Kiadó Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245. CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible Publisher	Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN	0138-9130 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2861 (Online)