Guide to exercise 10
Bibliometric searching
on indicators for journals, papers, and institutions
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Exercise in four parts
1. Journals
Objective: to compare journal indicators from different databases for a
set of scholarly journals as to their publications, performance, and
impact
2. Papers
Objective: to compare if and how different databases differ in providing
impact data about the same papers
3. Institutions
Objective: to obtain some data, including performance data, for academic
institutions
4. Science Watch in WoS
Objective: to get acquainted with some of the capabilities – mostly
limited to natural sciences – no deliverables
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Part 1. Journals: Questions for you
• What are some of the major comparative indicators of
performance by scholarly journals?
• What indicators are available from different databases?
• How do different databases handle reporting about journals?
• Databases: Scopus, WoS, SCImago
• Journals to compare:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Tefko Saracevic
Information Processing & Management
Information Research
Journal for the American Society for Information Science and
Technology
Library Trends
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Journal indicators
• In Scopus: go to Analytics, Journal Analyzer and then selecting
various journals – including them in Journal Analyzer and then
tabs for different results e.g. % not cited
– selection of which set of journals is a bit tricky – you will have to first
find them and then select them – follow instructions on screen
• In WoS: go to Additional Resources tab and then Analytical
Tools – Journal Citation Reports (again selection of journals a bit tricky)
• In SCImago: go to Compare – Journals and then type names
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In Scopus: Selection of journals – you can select up to four for
comparative analysis
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In Scopus: Analysis choices – but in the exercise you will look at
four journals for similar analysis
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In WoS: go to Journal Citation Reports
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In SCImago
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Part 2. articles: Question for you:
• For the given source article:
Wolfram, D., Spink, A., Jansen, B.J., Saracevic, T. (2001). Vox populi: The
public searching of the Web. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, 52(12), 1073-1074.
• How many citations are there in Scopus, WoS, and Google
Scholar for the source article?
• How do different databases indicate citations to the source
article?
– among others, examine Citation Mapping in WoS
• Are there differences among databases as to which articles
are listed as citing that source document? In other words,
what is the overlap?
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In Scopus – example with a different article
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In WoS examine Citation mapping
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In Google Scholar
• What do you get to follow on how many times is the article
cited and what articles are citing it?
• Google Scholar itself provides only limited capabilities
• However, to analyze authors or papers free software can be
downloaded:
– Publish or Perish from Harzing.com: http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm
– “a software program that retrieves and analyzes academic citations. It uses
Google Scholar to obtain the raw citations, then analyzes these and calculates
a series of citation metrics.”
– by Anne-Wil Harzing Professor in International Management at the University
of Melbourne, Australia
• Caveat: Google Scholar has undefined coverage and according to my experiences has
very inflated results, to be taken in general with great caution, even though they still provide
interesting comparisons. For instance, for me Google Scholar shows that I have authored or
co-authored 312 papers – I have not, although I wish I had that many papers
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Part 3. Institutions – Questions for you
• In Scopus (such information could not be found in other
databases):
– What information can be found about Rutgers, the State University in
New Jersey?
•
•
•
•
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In what areas are most articles published?
In what journals most?
In collaboration with what universities most?
If we limit the output to social sciences, what would be some of the top
journals? Any in library and information science? Who published the
most in those journals in the last three years?
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Start with an Affiliation search – then explore
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Limit to social sciences, years 2006 – present and then
a few library and information science journals
And get a few Rutgers authors that published most in these journals
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Part 4: To peruse Science Watch in WoS
access through WoS or directly http://sciencewatch.com/
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Research front in Science Watch – one example, play further
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