bibliometrics, journal impact factors and maximising the cite-ability of journal articles (web...

Publishing your research

Bibliometrics, Journal Impact Factors and maximising the cite-

ability of journal articles

James Bisset james.bisset@durham.ac.ukAcademic Liaison Librarian (Research Support)

Session outline- Intro: what can you measure?- Citations

- Monitoring and assessing

- Author metrics- Networking opportunities & performance measurement ?

- Journal metrics- Impact factors and where to publish

- Maximising cite-ability- How can you maximise the cite-ability of your research?

- Altmetrics overview- Beyond academic impact

Quick Survey (1)…• How many have already published

any research papers in journals or conference proceedings?

• How many of you are expected to during course of your studies?

• How many of you have already been advised where to publish, or where not to publish, based on what is the “ best ” journal?

IntroWhat

can you measure

?

What can you measure with bibliometrics?

• Article/Book Impact: One measure of the impact of individual journal articles, conference proceedings or books, can be measured by the number of times they are cited by other works.

• Journal impact: The perceived impact of a specific academic journal can be assessed by the number of times their articles are cited and where they are cited.

• Researcher impact: The number of outputs and citations a researcher generates can be an indicator for the impact of an individual researcher.

• Institutional impact: The prestige of a department or area of research within an institution compared to those at other institutions can be measured by the sum of individual researchers ‘impact’.

Are bibliometrics effective &

reliable measures of academic

impact?

Quick Survey (2)• Web of Science• JCR• SciVerse Scopus• PoP software• Sherpa ROMEO• Sherpa JULIET• Sherpa FACT

• JIF• Eigenfactor• SCImagoJR• SNIP• h – index / g-

index• altmetrics

Part 1 Introduction: Citations &

Citation Indices

Citations• Links between papers that have

something in common

• Building on or challenging research

• Help make a judgement about impact an article has made

• Sum of citations can be an indication of the impact of an author’s work / a journal as a collection of articles

Citation indices

1955 Eugene Garfield - the idea of creating a citation

index for science to…

Citation indices

“eliminate the uncritical citation of fraudulent, incomplete or obsolete data by making it possible for the conscientious scholar to be aware

of criticisms of earlier papers.”Garfield, E (1955) ‘Citation Indexes for Science’ Science, New Series, Vol. 122, No. 3159, pp. 108-111

Citation indices1955 Eugene Garfield - the idea of measuring the “impact” of journal articles using citations

1960s Science Citation Index developed to highlight “formal, explicit linkages between papers that have particular points in common”

1975 Journal Citation Reports – uses Web of Science data to rank journals within disciplines

Citation indices

(2008) Taylor and Francis LibSite Newsletter, issue 9. p. 5

Science subjects

Social-science subjects

Citation indices“reference lists are held under

copyright by academic publishers which makes

tracking citations impossible”

The death of the reference and the re-use factor (2013) http://

figshare.com/blog/The_Death_Of_The_Reference_and_the_reuse_factor/103

Web of Science• Provided by Thomson Reuters.

• Includes the Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities & Books Citation Indexes.

• Indexes about 11,800 journals, plus conference proceedings.

• Approximately 5,000 journals covering arts, humanities and social sciences.

SciVerse Scopus• Launched in 2004 by Elsevier

• Main commercial competition to Web of Science

• Main emphasis on science initially, but now broader in scope.

• Currently indexes c.19,000 ‘active’ journals plus conference proceedings

• Many titles covered in both WoS and Scopus

Google Scholar• Beta version launched late 2004 .

• Pulls data from a much broader range of documents (eg books, reports, academic blogs, wider range of journal publishers).

• Useful for subjects not covered by Web of Science.

• Some concern over quality and accuracy of citation data, and how regularly it is updated.

Things you can do

• Count citations to an article• Link to other related articles• Citation mapping• Set up citation alerts• Search for cited references• See citation reports for authors and

journals

DemoWeb of Science / Google Scholar

Hands-on

Via Flickr Creative Commons, by © Stuti Sakhalkar. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theblackcanvas/2945878325/

Part 2

Author metrics

Citation metrics• h-index (Hirsch, 2005)– An author’s number of articles (h ) that have

received at least h citations – a researcher with an h-index of 10 has

published 10 articles that have each been cited at least 10 times

• g-index (Egghe, 2006)– The highest number (g) of papers that together

received g2 or more citations – a researcher with a g-index of 10 has published

10 papers that together have been cited at least 100 times

H-index

Author: Smith, JHas written and published 9 articles (a-i), which have been cited as follows:

a:3, b:6, c:6, d:2, e:13, f:3, g:0, h:1, i:3

“no. of articles (n) that have received at least n citations”

h-index – what’s in a number?

• Nobel Prize Winner 2013, Peter W Higgs - H-index (Google Scholar) = - H-index (Web of Science) =

G-index

Author: Smith, JHas written and published 9 articles (a-i), which have been cited as follows:

a:3, b:6, c:6, d:2, e:13, f:3, g:0, h:1, i:3

“The highest number (g) of papers that together received g2 or more citations”

g-index – what’s in a number?

• Nobel Prize Winner 2013, Peter W Higgs - g-index (Web of Science) = - g-index (Google Scholar) =

DemoWeb of Science

Hands-on

Via Flickr Creative Commons, by © Stuti Sakhalkar. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theblackcanvas/2945878325/

Google Scholar• Track citations to your publications – Check who is citing your publications. Graph

your citations over time. Compute citation metrics.

• View publications by colleagues – Keep up with their work. See their citation

metrics.

• Appear in Google Scholar search results – Create a public profile that can appear in

Google Scholar when someone searches for your name.

DemoGoogle Scholar- My citations

Issues• Author identification• eg Professor Gordon Love

A name is not unique...

- Prof. Gordon Love, University of California Riverside (Earth Science) - Dr Gordon L Love, Sacramento (Medicine and Health) - Prof. Gordon Love, Durham University (Physics)

Issues• Author identification• eg Professor Gordon Love

...so you need an alternative identifier (or 3)

- ORCID profile (0000-0001-5137-9434) - Researcher ID profile (A-3071-2011) - Google Scholar profile (3xJXtlwAAAAJ)

DemoResearcher ID

ORCID

Hands-on

Via Flickr Creative Commons, by © Stuti Sakhalkar. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theblackcanvas/2945878325/

Publish or Perish Software

• Anne-Wil Harzing (2006), current version 4.6.4 (6th June 2014)

• Aimed at individual researchers• Analyse own performance using a

range of metrics• FREE TO DOWNLOAD (Windows,

Apple OS X, GNU/Linux) and FREE TRAINING MATERIAL

• http://www.harzing.com/pop_win.htm

Part 3

Journal metrics

Journal Citation Reports

• JCRs – annual publication of journals and their impact factors.

• Over 10,800 titles, across 232 disciplines have JIFs in 2013 editions

• A journal that is cited once, on average, for each article published has an JIF of 1.

• 2014 edition… is JCR year 2013, covering Web of Science data from 2012...

Citations in 2013 (in journals indexed in Web of Science) to

all articles published by Journal X in 2011 & 2012

Number of articles (deemed to be citable by

Web of Science) that were published in Journal

X in 2011 & 2012

Journal X’s 2013 impac

t factor

=

Journal Impact Factor

Journal Ranking

(2008) Taylor and Francis LibSite Newsletter, issue 9. p. 2

Journal Ranking

(2008) Taylor and Francis LibSite Newsletter, issue 9. p. 3

DemoJCRs

Journal Impact Factors

Other journal impact metrics

• Eigenfactor - http://www.eigenfactor.org/ –Web of Science data

• SCImagoJR - http://www.scimagojr.com/ – Scopus data– Includes country ranking

Hands-on

Via Flickr Creative Commons, by © Stuti Sakhalkar. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theblackcanvas/2945878325/

Issues• Author identification• Register on ResearcherID - eg Dr

Dan Smith or ORCID

• Citation cultures vary across disciplines

• Publication cultures vary too• Research careers have different

stages• Citation counts do not always =

excellence• Scholarly communication evolving

Part 4

Maximising Cite-ability

• Title & Abstract (1) Discoverability; (2) Readability; (3) Length

• Reference list

• Journal/means of publication (1) Impact Factors; (2) Open Access

Optimising your cite-ability

Title & Abstract

(1) Discoverability…

Title & Abstract• Construct a clear, descriptive title

- describe what the research is about - think about what potential users might be searching for.

• Re-iterate key phrases in the abstract - improve ranking in search engines - aid human decision-making

• Easier to find = more likely to be read = may translate to more likely to be cited (but still dependent upon quality / interest of research)

Wiley-Blackwell guidelineshttp://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/seo.asp

Australia’s Forgotten Victims“Ever since the British colonists in Australia became aware of the disappearance of the indigenous peoples in the 1830s, they have contrived to excuse themselves by pointing to the effects of disease and displacement. Many colonists called for the extermination of Aborigines when they impeded settlement by offering resistance, yet there was no widespread public acknowledgement of this as a policy until the later 1960s, when a critical school of historians began serious investigations of frontier violence. Their efforts received official endorsement in the 1990s, but profound cultural barriers prevent the development of a general awareness of this. Conservative and right-wing figures continue to play down the gravity of what transpired. These two aspects of Australian public memory are central to the political humanisation of the country.”

Genocide and Holocaust

Consciousness in Australia“Ever since the British colonists in Australia became aware of the disappearance

of the indigenous peoples in the 1830s, they have contrived to excuse themselves by pointing to the effects of disease and displacement. Yet although genocide was not a term used in the nineteenth century, extermination was, and many colonists called for the extermination of Aborigines when they impeded settlement by offering resistance. Consciousness of genocide was suppressed during the twentieth century until the later 1960s, when a critical school of historians began serious investigations of frontier violence. Their efforts received official endorsement in the 1990s, but profound cultural barriers prevent the development of a general genocide consciousness. One of these is Holocaust consciousness, which is used by conservative and right-wing figures to play down the gravity of what transpired in Australia. These two aspects of Australian public memory are central to the political humanisation of the country. ”

Title & Abstract

(2) Readability

Abstract Readability• Didegah, F. and Thelwall, M. (2013)

- Looked at 16,058 Biology/Biochemistry articles, 16,378 Chemistry articles and 15,392 Social Sciences articles all covered by Web of Science.

• Readability not a significant determinant of citations in either Chemistry or Social Sciences, and statistically but not practically associated with citation counts in Biology/Biochemistry.

Didegah, F. and Thelwall, M. (2013) “Which factors help authors produce the highest impact research? Collaboration, journal and document properties” Journal of Informetrics 7: 861-873.

Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2013.08.006

Title & Abstract

(3) Length

Abstract Length• Didegah, F. and Thelwall, M. (2013)

“abstract length significantly associates with increased citation impact in all fields”

“the number of keywords and the title length statistically associate with decreased citations”

Didegah, F. and Thelwall, M. (2013) “Which factors help authors produce the highest impact research? Collaboration, journal and document properties” Journal of Informetrics 7: 861-873.

Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2013.08.006

Reference list“The impact [factor] and the number of cited references are … significant determinants of increased citation impact”

Didegah, F. and Thelwall, M. (2013) “Which factors help authors produce the highest impact research? Collaboration, journal and document properties” Journal of Informetrics 7: 861-873.

Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2013.08.006

Consistent with studies in fields including psychology, medicine, chemistry, physics, engineering.

Journal and means of

publication(1) JIF

Journal of publication“… the JIF is the main determinant of article citation impact …”

Didegah, F. and Thelwall, M. (2013) “Which factors help authors produce the highest impact research? Collaboration, journal and document properties” Journal of Informetrics 7: 861-873.

Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2013.08.006

• Still a perception of the quality of a journal based on the JIF, meaning wide readership and cross-citation.

Impact?

Journal and means of

publication(2) Open Access

Open Access• Boost’s potential access and visibility

of research• Removes the research from behind

paywall barriers…• Meaning you can more easily share via

social media, email etc.

Open Access• 4633 articles across ecology, applied

mathematics, sociology and economics.

• 2280 were open access, and had an average citation count of 9.04

• 2353 were subscriptions journals, and had an average citation count of 5.76.

Norris, M. (2008) “The citation advantage of open access articles” Thesis. Available at https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/4089

Open Access

Terras, M. (2011) “What happens when you tweet an Open Access Paper” Melissa Terras’ Blog. Available at http://

melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/what-happens-when-you-tweet-open-access.html

By October 2012, the OA version had seen nearly 3 times more downloads than the version sitting behind a subscription

paywall.

DemoSherpa RomeoSherpa FACT

• Think carefully about your abstract and title. - keyword usage - clear, descriptive and complete• Reference lists

- number of, and where are they from?• Where are you publishing, and

how.

Optimising your cite-ability

• Dr Michael Taylor, Dept. Earth Sciences (Bristol) - Discusses strengths and weaknesses of his already published article titles. - http://tinyurl.com/k6dhcac - http://tinyurl.com/k7o9msc

- avoid vague words / weak puns - NEGATIVE “ it’s 12 characters too long to tweet” - POSITIVE “ the title strongly implies the conclusion” - POSITIVE “ Short, appealing and (hopefully) funny.”

Other suggested tips…

Part 5

Altmetrics (in brief)

Altmetrics (in brief)

“Unlike the JIF, altmetrics reflect the impact of the article itself, not its venue. Unlike citation metrics,

altmetrics will track impact outside the academy, impact of influential but uncited work, and impact from

sources that aren’t peer-reviewed.“

http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/

Altmetrics (in brief)

Altmetrics (in brief)

Altmetrics (in brief)

• But you must still approach altmetrics as you do any metric...... with a critical head.

• Any result touching on religion AND medicine/health is likely to be picked up and shared far more than a high quality piece of research on optical binding forces and two dimensional structures...

Altmetrics (in brief)

Altmetrics (in brief)

Further ReadingPendlebury, D.A. (2009) The use and misuse of journal metrics and other citation indicators. Archivum immunologiae et therapiae experimentalis. 57(1): 1-11 (includes “ten commandments of citation analysis”)

Smeyers, P & Burbules, N.C. (2011) How to improve your impact factor: questioning the quantification of academic quality. Journal of Philosophy of Education. 45(1): 1-17

Van Noorden, R. (2010) A profusion of measures. Nature. 465: 864-866 (has a handy “field guide to metrics”)

Van Noorden, R., Maher, B and Nuzzo, R (Oct 2014) Nature. “The top 100 papers” http://www.nature.com/news/the-top-100-papers-1.16224

www.journalmetrics.com (2010) The evolution of journal assessment. (compares SCIMagoJR, AI, SNIP and JIF metrics in table at the en

(2007) Show me the data. Journal of Cell Biology. 179 (6): 1091 Available at http://jcb.rupress.org/content/179/6/1091.full

Why you should ignore altmetrics and other bibliometric nightmares (Jan 16 2014); http://www.dcscience.net/?p=6369

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