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Abstract
An intellectual account of of the physics of superconductivity was compared with citation and co-citation data during two historical periods that coincided with the introduction of its central explanatory theory (BCS). Factor analysis is used to investigate the co-citation data. The results give preliminary support to a hypothesis that distinguishes impact phases in the effect of the theory on the cognitive organization of the specialty. It is also observed that citation and co-citation data are separate types of information which, under some historical conditions, give differing results.
. 1972 Citation analysis as a tool in journal evaluation Science 178 471 – 479 . 3. Jimenez-Contreras , E
industry”. Hoekman et al. ( 2009 , p. 723), too, observe that “the relevance of collaboration is evidenced by the fact that the number of citations that scientific articles receive increases with the number of contributing researchers”. These
Abstract
The present paper addresses some of the many possible uses of citations, including bookmark, intellectual heritage, impact tracker, and self-serving purposes. The main focus is on the applicability of citation analysis as an impact or quality measure. If a paper's bibliography is viewed as consisting of a directed (research impact or quality) component related to intellectual heritage and random components related to specific self-interest topics, then for large numbers of citations from many different citing paper, the most significant intellectual heritage (research impact or quality) citations will aggregate and the random author-specific self-serving citations will be scattered and not accumulate. However, there are at least two limitations to this model of citation analysis for stand-alone use as a measure of research impact of quality. First, the reference to intellectual heritage could be positive or negative. Second, there could be systemic biases which affect the aggregate results, and one of these, the “Pied Piper Effect”, is described in detail. Finally, the results of a short citation study comparing Russian and American papers in different technical fields are presented. The questions raised in interpreting this data highlight a few of the difficulties in attempting to interpret citation results without supplementary information. Leydesdorff (Leydesdorff, 1998) addresses the history of citations and citation analysis, and the transformation of a reference mechanism into a purportedly quantitive measure of research impact/quality. The present paper examines different facets of citations and citation analysis, and discusses the validity of citation analysis as a useful measure of research impact/quality.
Abstract
Citation analysis is a useful method for studying a wide range of topics in bibliometrics and the sociology of science. However, many challenges have been made to the validity and reliability of the underlying assumptions, the data, and the methods used in citation studies. This article addresses these issues in three parts. First is a brief review of validity and reliability issues in citation research. Next we explore measurement error in a principal source of journal-to-journal citation data, the Institute for Scientific Information'sJournal Citation Reports. Possible sources of measurement error include discrepancies between citing and cited data, changed or deleted journal titles, aberrant abbreviations, and listing algorithms. The last section is a detailed description of ways to overcome some of the measurement errors. The data and examples are drawn from a journal-to-journal citation study in the fields of Communication, Information Science, and Library Science.
Abstract
This paper studies the main characteristics of the citation indexes currently developed in Spain. The paper compares the impact factors offered by Spanish citation indexes with the impact factor of Spanish journals also collected by the JCRs of the ISI (SCI and SSCI) over a five-year period (2001–2005). Spanish journals published in English have higher impact factor scores in the JCR databases of the ISI than in Spanish citation indexes.
Abstract
Internet has made it possible to move towards researcher and article impact instead of solely focusing on journal impact. To support citation measurement, several indexes have been proposed, including the h-index. The h-index provides a point estimate. To address this, a new index is proposed that takes the citation curve of a researcher into account. This article introduces the index, illustrates its use and compares it to rankings based on the h-index as well as rankings based on publications. It is concluded that the new index provides an added value, since it balances citations and publications through the citation curve.
Abstract
The total number of citations to all previous publications (
the life work
has often been used to evaluate the research output of target units such as persons or departments. However, a study of a sample of Dutch full professors of sociology shows that simple counting of citations may lead to unreliable results. Dependent upon recency of publication period, large variations in rankings and citation scores were observed. Other pitfalls of using life work citation counts were discussed, as well as how to avoid them. For fine-tuned assessment of research output, longitudinal analysis seems to be called for.
Abstract
Some 160 data-containing studies on the citation aging of scientific literature are reviewed. The hitherto proposed time-distribution models are examined for relevant parameter values.
Abstract
This article discusses some design issues in the self-citing rate and the self-cited rate proposed by the Social Sciences Citation Index for journals. Improvements on the above measures lead to two new citation indicators—the Openness Index and the Affinity Index. These new indices could be expressed in terms of several components (self, own-field, other-field, overall). Each of these components indicates more specific citation situations of a journal. The application of these new citation indicators is illustrated in the measurement of some journal's characteristics in the field of communication.
