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Is the Emerging Source Citation Index an aid to assess the citation impact in social science and humanities?

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  • De Filippo, Daniela
  • Gorraiz, Juan

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the implications of the Emerging Source Citation Index (ESCI), from Clarivate Analytics, as an assessment tool. Based on the evidence that the ESCI has expanded publication coverage, primarily in the social science and humanities, this study poses the following questions. How much has coverage been expanded by field and subject category? What effect has inclusion had on impact factors? Have they risen significantly in any discipline? Is subscribing to this product worthwhile? Should it be taken into consideration for assessment purposes? The results obtained show that sub-fields such as Ethics, Poetry, Cultural Studies or Asian Studies improve their visibility with the inclusion of journals in ESCI. Although at the scientific level, CSEC does not seem to improve the evaluation of impact measurement, this new citation index can provide relevant information for evaluation at the micro and meso level. Since it includes widely cited documents (in both the top 1% and top 10%), in many disciplines not indexed in the core collection the use of this source can improve the completeness and quality of the analysis of citations from individual groups or institutions in subfields such as Poetry, Cultural studies or Asian studies. It is advisable to carry out periodic studies to analyse the evolution of the impact since, in disciplines with a reduced production and a low number of citations, the data are very sensitive to variations (especially if they are recent publications).

Suggested Citation

  • De Filippo, Daniela & Gorraiz, Juan, 2020. "Is the Emerging Source Citation Index an aid to assess the citation impact in social science and humanities?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:14:y:2020:i:4:s1751157719304067
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2020.101088
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Daniela Filippo & Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent & Elías Sanz-Casado, 2020. "Toward a classification of Spanish scholarly journals in social sciences and humanities considering their impact and visibility," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1709-1732, November.
    2. Ludo Waltman & Nees Jan van Eck, 2012. "A new methodology for constructing a publication‐level classification system of science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(12), pages 2378-2392, December.
    3. Donner, Paul, 2018. "Effect of publication month on citation impact," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 330-343.
    4. Ludo Waltman & Nees Jan Eck, 2012. "A new methodology for constructing a publication-level classification system of science," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(12), pages 2378-2392, December.
    5. Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert, 2003. "A new classification scheme of science fields and subfields designed for scientometric evaluation purposes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(3), pages 357-367, March.
    6. Ying Huang & Donghua Zhu & Qi Lv & Alan L. Porter & Douglas K. R. Robinson & Xuefeng Wang, 2017. "Early insights on the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI): an overlay map-based bibliometric study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 2041-2057, June.
    7. Jonathan Adams, 2005. "Early citation counts correlate with accumulated impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(3), pages 567-581, June.
    8. Juan Miguel Campanario, 2011. "Empirical study of journal impact factors obtained using the classical two-year citation window versus a five-year citation window," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(1), pages 189-204, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alicia Moreno-Delgado & Juan Gorraiz & Rafael Repiso, 2021. "Assessing the publication output on country level in the research field communication using Garfield’s Impact Factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 5983-6000, July.

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