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Guide to exercise 10

Bibliometric searchingon indicators for journals, papers, and institutions

Tefko Saracevic

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. PapersObjective: to compare if and how different databases differ in providing

impact data about the same papers

3. InstitutionsObjective: to obtain some data, including performance data, for academic

institutions

4. Science Watch in WoSObjective: 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. Information Processing & Management2. Information Research 3. Journal for the American Society for Information Science and

Technology4. 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?• 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

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And get a few Rutgers authors that published most in these journals

Part 4: To peruse Science Watch in WoSaccess through WoS or directly http://sciencewatch.com/

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Research front in Science Watch – one example, play further

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