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The Evaluation of Research by Scientometric Indicators

Peter Vinkler, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary

 - written by a highly knowledgeable and well-respected scientist in the field
 - provides practical and realistic quantitative methods for evaluating scientific publication activities of individuals, teams, countries and journals
 - gives standardized descriptions and classification of the main categories of evaluative scientometrics
 - reveals the theoretical background and application possibilities of scientometric impact indicators
 - introduces several new models, ideas and indicators

Aimed at academics, academic managers and administrators, professionals in scientometrics, information scientists and science policy makers at all levels. Reviews the principles, methods and indicators of scientometric evaluation of information processes in science and assessment of the publication activity of individuals, teams, institutes and countries. The book provides scientists, science officers, librarians and students with basic and advanced knowledge on evaluative scientometrics. Especially great stress is laid on the methods applicable in practice and on the clarification of quantitative aspects of impact of scientific publications measured by citation indicators.

ISBN 1 84334 572 2
ISBN-13: 978 1 84334 572 5
January 2010
336 pages  234 x 156mm  paperback  
£49.50 / US$85.00 / €60.00

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About the author

Dr. Vinkler is Scientific Secretary of the Chemical Research Center, Budapest and Director of the Scientific Publication Data Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He worked as Head of the Biocomplex Research Department of the Chemical Research Center for several years. He has published extensively on scientometrics and information science, primarily on the indicators used for the evaluation of publication activities of individuals and teams. He serves as Associate Editor of Scientometrics and regularly reviews publications also for the Journal of Informetrics and Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. In 2009 he was awarded the Derek de Solla Price Medal for his outstanding contributions to the field of quantitative studies of science.

Titles which may also be of interest:
The Critical Assessment of Research
Measuring Academic Research

Contents

Introduction

Basic categories of scientometrics
 - Concluding remarks

Classification of the indicators of evaluative scientometrics
 - Introduction
 - Classification scheme of evaluative indicators
 - Concluding remarks

Publication growth in science
 - Introduction
 - Relative publication growth index
 - Concluding remarks

Scientific eminence of journals: the Garfield Factor and the Current Contribution Index
 - Introduction
 - Standardised description of the Garfield Factor
 - Chances for citation and chances for citedness
 - The Garfield Factor and relative publication growth
 - Some empirical findings
 - An empirical model
 - Towards understanding the Garfield Factor
 - The GF and the SIC index
 - Relationship between quantity and quality: growth and specific indices
 - The Current Contribution Index (CCI)
 - The πv-index
 - Concluding remarks

The ageing of scientific information
 - Introduction
 - Annual citedness and annual citedness rates
 - Conversion of Journal Paper Citedness indices or Garfield
 - Factors calculated for different time periods
 - Calculating the Estimated Number of Citations (ENC) by the Subsequent Impact Method (SIM)
 - Concluding remarks

Scientometric indicators for the assessment of publications
 - Introduction
 - Definition and function of comparative indicators of evaluative scientometrics
 - Relationships between three relative impact indicators (RW, RCR, RPS)
 - The Invitation Paradox
 - Model for the selection of relative publication impact indicators
 - Composite scientometric indicators
 - The h-index and the π-index
 - Concluding remarks

Reference strategy: model of manifested communication through publications
 - Introduction
 - Reference strategy
 - Laws of reference strategy
 - The model of manifested communication through publications
 - Concluding remarks

Frequency of and strength of motives in referencing: the Reference Threshold Model
 - Introduction
 - The frequency and strength of motives in referencing
 - Concluding remarks

Research contribution and share of credit of individual authors
 - Introduction
 - Distributing credit of publications among co-authors
 - Concluding remarks

Standards in scientometric assessments
 - Introduction
 - Bibliometric factors
 - Selecting sets of papers and journals as reference standards
 - Standardisation of citedness indicators using standardised publication and citation time windows
 - Dependence of JPC on the type of publication
 - Methods for obtaining absolute reference standards for relative impact indicators
 - Delineating journals by subject field
 - Methods for standardising GFs
 - Methods for determining ordinal rank scores in sets of different size
 - Standardising part-indicators
 - Concluding remarks

Scientometric assessments: application of scientometrics for the purposes of science policy
 - Introduction
 - Scientometric methods for the evaluation of research organisations
 - Evaluating publications of research institutes by a composite scientometric indicator
 - Structure and eminence of the scientific activity on a national scale
 - Scientometric indicators and GDP
 - Concluding remarks

Institutionalisation of Scientific Information: a scientometric model (ISI-S model)
 - Introduction
 - The ISI-S model
 - Concluding remarks

Conclusions