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Clarivate Analytics Releases Citation Distribution Data Alongside Journal Impact Factors

Clarivate Analytics Releases Citation Distribution Data Alongside Journal Impact Factors

New interface shifts from journal metrics to journal intelligence, offering richer data and greater transparency for comprehensive assessment.

Retracted Papers Keep Being Cited as if they Weren’t Retracted. Two Researchers Suggest how Elsevier Could Help Fix that.

Retracted Papers Keep Being Cited as if they Weren’t Retracted. Two Researchers Suggest how Elsevier Could Help Fix that.

Even after a paper’s retracted, it will continue to be cited - often by researchers who don’t realize the findings are problematic.

A simple proposal for the publication of journal citation distributions

A simple proposal for the publication of journal citation distributions

Although the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is widely acknowledged to be a poor indicator of the quality of individual papers, it is used routinely to evaluate research and researchers. Here, we present a simple method for generating the citation distributions that underlie JIFs. Application of this straightforward protocol reveals the full extent of the skew of these distributions and the variation in citations received by published papers that is characteristic of all scientific journals. Although there are differences among journals across the spectrum of JIFs, the citation distributions overlap extensively, demonstrating that the citation performance of individual papers cannot be inferred from the JIF. We propose that this methodology be adopted by all journals as a move to greater transparency, one that should help to refocus attention on individual pieces of work and counter the inappropriate usage of JIFs during the process of research assessment.

Does Bibliometric Research Confer Legitimacy to Research Assessment Practice? a Sociological Study of Reputational Control, 1972-2016

Does Bibliometric Research Confer Legitimacy to Research Assessment Practice? a Sociological Study of Reputational Control, 1972-2016

A growing gap exists between an academic sector with little capacity for collective action and increasing demand for routine performance assessment by research organizations and funding agencies. This gap has been filled by database providers. By selecting and distributing research metrics, these commercial providers have gained a powerful role in defining de-facto standards of research excellence without being challenged by expert authority.

Google Scholar as a Data Source for Research Assessment

Google Scholar as a Data Source for Research Assessment

Google Scholar presents a broader view of the academic world because it has brought to light a great number of sources that were not previously visible.

Open Science and Its Role in Universities: A Roadmap for Cultural Change

Open Science and Its Role in Universities: A Roadmap for Cultural Change

LERU's paper discussing the eight pillars of Open Science identified by the European Commission: the future of scholarly publishing, FAIR data, the European Open Science Cloud, education and skills, rewards and incentives, next-generation metrics, research integrity, and citizen science.

Citation Analysis Reveals the Game Changers

Citation Analysis Reveals the Game Changers

A study identifies papers that stand the test of time.  Fewer than two out of every 10,000 scientific papers remain influential in their field decades after publication, finds an analysis of five million articles published between 1980 and 1990.

Peer Review and Citation Data in Predicting University Rankings, a Large-Scale Analysis

Peer Review and Citation Data in Predicting University Rankings, a Large-Scale Analysis

When citation-based indicators are applied at the institutional or departmental level, rather than at the level of individual papers, surprisingly large correlations with peer review judgments can be observed.

Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance by Numbers Backfires

Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance by Numbers Backfires

By tying rewards to metrics, organisations risk incentivising gaming and encouraging behaviours that may be at odds with their larger purpose. The culture of short-termism engendered by metrics also impedes innovation and stifles the entrepreneurial element of human nature.

Linking Impact Factor to 'Open Access' Charges Creates More Inequality in Academic Publishing

Linking Impact Factor to 'Open Access' Charges Creates More Inequality in Academic Publishing

Simply adding an ‘open access’ option to the existing prestige-based journal system at ever increasing costs is not the fundamental change publishing needs, says Bianca Kramer and Jeroen Bosman 

The Academic Papers Researchers Regard as Significant Are Not Those That Are Highly Cited

The Academic Papers Researchers Regard as Significant Are Not Those That Are Highly Cited

Academia has relied on citation count as the main way to measure the impact or importance of research, informing metrics such as the Impact Factor and the h-index. But how well do these metrics actually align with researchers’ subjective evaluation of impact and significance?

Rationalizing the Extremes: Introducing the Citation Distribution Index

Rationalizing the Extremes: Introducing the Citation Distribution Index

This post introduces the citation distribution index, an impact indicator developed by Science-Metrix to address many of the limitations of the average measures used in bibliometrics.

An Empirical Study of the per Capita Yield of Science Nobel Prizes: Is the Us Era Coming to an End?

An Empirical Study of the per Capita Yield of Science Nobel Prizes: Is the Us Era Coming to an End?

For the USA, this study finds, the entire history of science Noble prizes is described on a per capita basis to an astonishing accuracy by a single large productivity boost decaying at a continuously accelerating rate since its peak in 1972.

Opium in Science and Society: Numbers

Opium in Science and Society: Numbers

We call for bringing sanity back into scientific judgment exercises. Despite all number crunching, many judgments - be it about scientific output, scientists, or research institutions - will neither be unambiguous, uncontroversial, or testable by external standards nor can they be otherwise validated or objectified.

Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance by Numbers Backfires

Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance by Numbers Backfires

Contrary to commonsense belief, attempts to measure productivity through performance metrics discourage initiative, innovation and risk-taking. The entrepreneurial element of human nature is stifled by metric fixation.

An Empirical Study of the per Capita Yield of Science Nobel Prizes: Is the US Era Coming to an End?

An Empirical Study of the per Capita Yield of Science Nobel Prizes: Is the US Era Coming to an End?

For the USA, the entire history of science Noble prizes is described on a per capita basis to an astonishing accuracy by a single large productivity boost decaying at a continuously accelerating rate since its peak in 1972.

Dimensions: Re-Discovering the Ecosystem of Scientific Information

Dimensions: Re-Discovering the Ecosystem of Scientific Information

Study aims to provide a detailed description of the free version of Dimensions (the new bibliographic database produced by Digital Science). An analysis of its coverage is carried out (comparing it Scopus and Google Scholar) in order to determine whether the bibliometric indicators offered by Dimensions have an order of magnitude significant enough to be used. 

The Citation Graph Is One of Humankind's Most Important Intellectual Achievements

The Citation Graph Is One of Humankind's Most Important Intellectual Achievements

When researchers write, we don't just describe new findings - we place them in context by citing the work of others. Citations trace the lineage of ideas, connecting disparate lines of scholarship into a cohesive body of knowledge, and forming the basis of how we know what we know.

Tweet Success? Scientific Communication Correlates with Increased Citations in Ecology and Conservation

Tweet Success? Scientific Communication Correlates with Increased Citations in Ecology and Conservation

In recent years, increasing media exposure (measured by Altmetrics) did not relate to the equivalent citations as in earlier years; signaling a diminishing return on investment.

The More Revisions a Paper Undergoes, the Greater Its Subsequent Recognition in Terms of Citations

The More Revisions a Paper Undergoes, the Greater Its Subsequent Recognition in Terms of Citations

Some evidence showing that the more revisions a paper undergoes, the greater its subsequent recognition in terms of citation impact.

Do Papers with an Institutional E-Mail Address Receive More Citations Than Those with a Non-Institutional One?

Do Papers with an Institutional E-Mail Address Receive More Citations Than Those with a Non-Institutional One?

On average, papers with an institutional e-mail address receive more citations than other ones.