Becker Medical Library Scholarly Communications » Citation Analysis

Is Plagiarism Better Than the h index?

Cathy — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:44:44 +0000

Is plagiarism better than the h index? Yes, according to Dr. Marya Zilberberg.

“Little did I realize that there is an even more important impact metric than the h-index: plagiarism.”

See Retraction Watch: How does it feel to have your scientific paper plagiarized? And what can you do about it?

Read Dr. Zilberberg’s blog: Healthcare, etc.

Citation Analysis: Is it Sufficient?

Cathy — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:11:14 +0000

As stated by Eugene Garfield:

“Citation analysis is not a substitute or shortcut for critical thinking; it is, instead, a point of departure for those willing to explore the avenues to thorough evaluation . . . citations tell us nothing about a researcher’s teaching ability, administrative talent, or other non-scholarly contributions. And they do not necessarily reflect the usefulness of research for curing disease, finding new drugs, and so on.” [Source: Current Contents, (43): 3-9, October 28, 1985.]

Examples of “points of departure” for review of research impact:

Economic Impact Reporting Framework, Medical Research Council

Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative, Australian Research Council

Logic Model for Medical Research, Anthony Weiss

Mixed-Method Approach, Trochim, William M., et al.

Payback Framework, Health Economics Research Group (HERG)

Research Impact Framework, Kuruvilla, Shyama, et al.

Publication Analysis: Is it Enough?

Cathy — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:45:12 +0000

A traditional publication report captures the research output of an author ranging from peer-reviewed journal articles, invited or contributed conference abstracts, books, book chapters, etc. Further analysis of publication data can reveal co-author collaborations, publication patterns, extent of interdisciplinary research, grant acknowledgement networks and citation influence. These are all tangible examples of measures of scientific productivity that can be quantified. Is this enough? What about indicators of impact that are not easily discernible using publication data? Does publication analysis demonstrate synthesis of research output into clinical applications or meaningful health outcomes? Does it measure quality of research?

A recent commentary published in Science Translational Medicine, “Quality Versus Quantity: Assessing Individual Research Performance” by José-Alain Sahel (DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002249), reviews issues related to evaluating scientific performance.

A beginner’s guide to the different types of impact: why the traditional ‘bean-counting’ approach is no longer useful in the digital era

Cathy — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:14:11 +0000

“Whether academics like it or not, having to prove the impact of research on external audiences is becoming a permanent feature of university life. Government research bodies are pressing (and being pressed) more and more for academics to show the positive impact of the money being poured into universities, research groups, and particular projects, especially in these times of austerity.”

To read the full blog post: Impact of Social Sciences 24 May 2011

Popularity or prestige: Are you making the right impact?

Cathy — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:20:18 +0000

“. . . have you ever wondered who is actually citing you? Being cited by your colleagues and junior researchers in your department is one thing, but what if your academic hero cites your work? Imagine finding out that your paper was read and acknowledged by the leading researcher(s) in your field; would that not be a more valuable indicator that your ideas are valuable? And what if a Nobel Prize winner cited your work in his or her next paper? How many “lesser” citations would you exchange for this single endorsement?”

Elsevier and CrossRef Cited-by Linking

Cathy — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:56:33 +0000

Elsevier now participates in CrossRef’s Cited-by Linking Service. The service allows CrossRef member publishers to display links on an article page to other articles that cite that particular document. Elsevier joins over 200 publishers that deposit references from their scholarly content and display citing links from CrossRef publishers back to that content. See the full announcement.

Too Many Citations?

Cathy — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:55:53 +0000

Thought-provoking reading on citing of papers.

Citations: Too Many, or Not Enough? – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences

“Simply put, students, colleagues and coauthors must critically read each paper cited in its entirety. Cite only the best, strongest and most original publications. Cite review articles only if they offer unique perspectives, concepts, or synthesis.”

Communicating Knowledge

Cathy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:58:00 +0000

A new report, “Communicating Knowledge: How and Why UK Researchers Publish and Disseminate their Findings” published by the Research Information Network (RIN) and JISC is now available.

“According to the report, if funders and institutions want to encourage researchers to disseminate their work through a variety of channels as well as in high-status journals, they must give stronger and more positive messages about how those channels will be valued when it comes to assessing researchers’ performance.

Many researchers see a damaging tension between their desire to communicate via channels which enable them to reach and influence their intended audiences – often beyond academia – as rapidly as possible, and the pressures to publish in high-status journals.

The report also identified significant variations between researchers in different disciplines in the dissemination channels they use and in their patterns of collaboration. There are also differences in how they acknowledge the contributions that members of a team have made and in how they cite the work of others.”

Podcast of the Report

Resources for Author Impact

Cathy — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:37:48 +0000

Looking for ways to assess your impact as an author? Take a look at some of the following resources:

SCOPUS (subscription required)
SCOPUS provides an Author Search option that allows for a listing of articles, web sources and patents that cite a particular author’s work since 1996. The Citation Tracker feature also allows for generation of a Citation Overview chart (total number of times all works have been cited and the number of times a work has been cited each year) and calculation of the h index for an author since 1996.

Thomson ISI Web of Science (subscription required)
ISI Web of Science provides an Author Finder option that allows for a listing of articles that cite a particular author’s work. The Author Finder feature also allows for generation of a Citation report (total number of times all works have been cited and the number of times a work has been cited each year) and calculation of the h index for authors (date range depends on subscribed backfiles).

Author Finder Tutorial

Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge ISI HighlyCited.com
ISI HighlyCited.com is a freely accessible website that provides a listing the top researchers from 21 subject categories whose publications were the most highly cited for the period 1981-1999.

“ISIHighlyCited.com reveals the face of research–the people behind the accomplishments in 21 broad subject categories in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences, engineering and social sciences. These individuals are the most highly cited within each category for the period 1981-1999, and comprise less than one-half of one percent of all publishing researchers–truly an extraordinary accomplishment.”

How Does ISI HighlyCited Identify Highly Cited Researchers?

Google Scholar
Google Scholar allows for searching of a particular publication and retrieves results from a variety of sources such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, meeting abstracts, web sites, gray literature, and others. The results include the number of times the publication was cited in other resources.

PubMed FaceOff
PubMed Faceoff is a “mash-up” of PubMed, the Eigen factor of a journal and SCOPUS citations. It uses facial expressions as indicators for impact of a publication.

Resources for Journal Impact and Ranking Factors

Cathy — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:50:08 +0000

Looking for journal impact and ranking information? Take a look at some of the following resources that allow users to rank, analyze, compare and/or create graphical charts based on a variety of journal parameters:

eigenFACTOR
Journal Citation Reports
Red Jasper’s Center for Journal Ranking
scienceWATCH
SCImago
SCOPUS Journal Analyzer