Some aspects of bibliometrics
Elise Johansson
Turku University Library
What is bibliometrics
• Bibliometrics is the application of
mathematical and statistical methods to
publications (from biblos: book and metron:
measurement).
• Bibliometrics is often used to assess scientific
research through quantitative studies on
research publications
What can we measure with bibliometric
analyses in general
• Producers (authors, research institutes, countries)
• Products = publications (journal articles, books,
patents, webpages or blogs)
• References = works mentioned in the reference list,
citations in the reference list and links between
different websites
• Terms= words or concepts that describe the
content of the publication
Research on producers
• Only researchers that do publish are included
• To look at only one researcher is usually not
reasonable
• Often is looked at
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Research groups
Research Institutions
Companies
Countries or geopolitical regions
Branch of science
Research on publications
• Can be narrowed in several ways
• According to subject, in one or several countries
in the time range specified
• Peer reviewed scientific articles
• Articles published in a journal at a certain time
• Articles published in a country at a specific time
range
• Etc.
Research on publications
• With publications you can for example
compare publishing between countries
• Always remember to check which language
regions are represented, which not.
Research on references, citations and links
• If an author is mentioned in the reference list, he
gets a citation
• Citation analysis is the best known form of
bibliometric research
• A high number of citations shows a broad interest
and of being well-known. This is often taken as a
sign of high quality
• Citation analysis is used as a method in research
evaluation
Citation analysis
• There are many reasons why a publication gets a
citation. E.g more exact information, explanation of
a research method, to prove one’s own opinions or
to criticise other authors results
• Most cited articles are describing well a research
method or are review articles
• Despite the reason of citing, the citation tells that
the author knows the existence of the cited article
Citation analysis and data sources
• The information can be gathered manually
(slow )
• Or searched from
• Thomson Reuters Web of Science database
• Elsevier Scopus Database
• Google Scholar
• More: Toolbox of Research Citation analysis and
Citation enhanced databases
Citation analysis and data sources
• The sources (WoS, Scopus, Google Scholar)
vary in content. There is no database that
would list all publications in the world
• Journals are the predominant publication
type in databases
• In Scopus, citation data extends back to 1996
for all disciplines
Web of Science and Scopus
• Web of Knowledge: Web of Science (WoS)
and Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
• Scopus and SCImago’s Journal and Country
Rank
Google Scholar
• Google Scholar consists primarily of scholarly articles
including journal papers, conference papers, technical
reports or their drafts, theses, pre-prints, post-prints,
abstracts and court opinions.
• Google Scholar's strength is the broad scope of content for
both types of publications and disciplines.
• However, quality of data does not match the standards of
Web of Science or Scopus.
Google Scholar
• Use Publish or Perish to retrieve, 'clean' and
analyze academic citations from Google
Scholar
• Tool: Author impact analysis
• More information
About bibliometric data
• Each measure and tool has advantages and
disadvantages.
• Citations take time to accumulate
• The raw count of citations and analyses
depend on database content
• Bibliometrics are best applicable to the fields
of medicine and natural sciences
Bibliometrics and Social Sciences &
Humanities
• In social sciences and humanities monographs and edited
books are still a very common type of publication.
• Publishing for non-academic audience is important in SSH fields.
• Bibliometrics are less suited to the Social Sciences and
Humanities because books are usually not indexed in
citation databases and citations in general take more time to
accumulate.
• Journal coverage in Scopus is more comprehensive than in Web of
Science for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Bibliometrics in measuring research activity
• Number of publications (all fields)
• Number of cited publications and the total
number of citations( for specific fields)
• Number of times a publication has been cited
(for specific fields)
• H-index (for specific fields)
• Journal Impact Factors (for specific fields)
H-index, Hirsch Index
• Based on a scholars most cited publications
• A scholar with an index of h has published h papers
each of which has been cited in other papers at
least h times
• H-index=10 means that the scholar has 10 articles
that are cited at least 10 times
• The h-index cannot be used off-hand to compare
researchers of different areas
Impact factor (IF)
• Measures the amount of citations of articles published in a
certain journal
• Are published annually in Thomson Reuters Journal Citation
Reports database
• Used in research evaluation. Determines the quality of
published articles . The higher the impact factor, the higher
the quality of the journal
• The impact factor is used to compare different journals
within a certain field of research
Publication Forum (Julkaisufoorumi /
JUFO)
• The funding for Finnish universities will be partially based on
publication activity based on Publication Forum criteria.
• The Publication Forum system is based on quality
classification of scientific publication channels - journals,
publication series and book publishers - in all research
fields. The rating levels: 1 = basic; 2 = leading; 3 = top
• Publication Forum classification is not suited for
interdisciplinary comparisons or the evaluation of single
publication or researcher. (Instructions)
Thank you!
Elise Johansson
elise.johansson@utu.fi