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Comprehensiveness of national bibliographic databases for social sciences and humanities: Findings from a European survey

Author

Listed:
  • Linda Sīle
  • Janne Pölönen
  • Gunnar Sivertsen
  • Raf Guns
  • Tim C E Engels
  • Pavel Arefiev
  • Marta Dušková
  • Lotte Faurbæk
  • András Holl
  • Emanuel Kulczycki
  • Bojan Macan
  • Gustaf Nelhans
  • Michal Petr
  • Marjeta Pisk
  • Sándor Soós
  • Jadranka Stojanovski
  • Ari Stone
  • Jaroslav Šušol
  • Ruth Teitelbaum

Abstract

This article provides an overview of national bibliographic databases that include data on research output within social sciences and humanities (SSH) in Europe. We focus on the comprehensiveness of the database content. Compared to the data from commercial databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, data from national bibliographic databases (e.g. Flemish Academic Bibliographic Database for the SSH (VABB-SHW) in Belgium, Current Research Information System in Norway (CRISTIN)) are more comprehensive and may, therefore, be better fit for bibliometric analyses. Acknowledging this, several countries within Europe maintain national bibliographic databases; detailed and comparative information about their content, however, has been limited. In autumn 2016, we launched a survey to acquire an overview of national bibliographic databases for SSH in Europe and Israel. Surveying 41 countries (responses received from 39 countries), we identified 21 national bibliographic databases for SSH. Further, we acquired a more detailed description of 13 databases, with a focus on their comprehensiveness. Findings indicate that even though the content of national bibliographic databases is diverse, it is possible to delineate a subset that is similar across databases. At the same time, it is apparent that differences in national bibliographic databases are often bound to differences in country-specific arrangements. Considering this, we highlight implications to bibliometric analyses based on data from national bibliographic databases and outline several aspects that may be taken into account in the development of existing national bibliographic databases for SSH or the design of new ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Linda Sīle & Janne Pölönen & Gunnar Sivertsen & Raf Guns & Tim C E Engels & Pavel Arefiev & Marta Dušková & Lotte Faurbæk & András Holl & Emanuel Kulczycki & Bojan Macan & Gustaf Nelhans & Michal Petr, 2018. "Comprehensiveness of national bibliographic databases for social sciences and humanities: Findings from a European survey," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 27(4), pages 310-322.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:rseval:v:27:y:2018:i:4:p:310-322.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Joshua Eykens & Raf Guns & A I M Jakaria Rahman & Tim C E Engels, 2019. "Identifying publications in questionable journals in the context of performance-based research funding," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Emanuel Kulczycki & Raf Guns & Janne Pölönen & Tim C. E. Engels & Ewa A. Rozkosz & Alesia A. Zuccala & Kasper Bruun & Olli Eskola & Andreja Istenič Starčič & Michal Petr & Gunnar Sivertsen, 2020. "Multilingual publishing in the social sciences and humanities: A seven‐country European study," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(11), pages 1371-1385, November.
    3. Korytkowski, Przemyslaw & Kulczycki, Emanuel, 2019. "Publication counting methods for a national research evaluation exercise," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 804-816.
    4. Emanuel Kulczycki & Przemysław Korytkowski, 2020. "Researchers publishing monographs are more productive and more local-oriented," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1371-1387, November.
    5. Emanuel Kulczycki & Marek Hołowiecki & Zehra Taşkın & Franciszek Krawczyk, 2021. "Citation patterns between impact-factor and questionable journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(10), pages 8541-8560, October.
    6. Danielle Lee, 2023. "Bibliometric analysis of Asian ‘language and linguistics’ research: A case of 13 countries," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Arlette Jappe, 2020. "Professional standards in bibliometric research evaluation? A meta-evaluation of European assessment practice 2005–2019," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-23, April.

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